Anyway, I blogged yesterday about my disaster of a run. When I got home, I sat down in did some online research regarding high heart rates when exercising. Unfortunately, a lot of the info out there pertains for individuals with heart problems, high blood pressure, etc, and I am healthy as a horse (knock on wood!) However, I did stumble upon two pieces of information that I found helpful:
1. Heart rates vary and the whole formula of 220-age was never actually intended for use in the regular population. I already knew that it was a guideline, and I’m willing to estimate that my max hr is at least 10 beats higher than what this formula allows for (although that does put me over 200 bpm– yikes!!)
2. A few articles I found on the Runner’s World website suggested putting in a few months of solid low-effort training. For me, this would include training in a HR zone ranging from 125-165, give or take. Apparently, when you train at lower zones, you are better preparing your heart for later workouts. Using this concept, I could later push my pace, etc., and my heart would be better equipped to handle the adjustment and would more easily stay in the lower zones.
Make sense? I thought it seemed logical, and although I am not a doctor by any means, I decided to give it a try. I’m going to make a solid effort over the next month to slow myself down on runs and try to keep my hr in the suggested zones, or at least closer to them.. . . even if it means I end up crawling through my miles!
Today’s run:
And for the record, this rounded my mileage up– it was actually only 2.76 miles. Ouch!!
This run was brutal!! It was so incredibly hard to force myself to go THAT SLOW!!!! Seriously, look at that pace. I’m pretty sure my jog was equal to all the walkers that I saw. I mean, let’s face it — when we run, we all try to go faster, not slower. It was mentally tough to continually check my hr monitor and slow myself down when I saw my hr creeping towards 180 (which it STILL did a few times).
The bright side? I think this is definitely the reason why running is so hard for me! It was amazing to see the difference when I slowed my hr down compared to how I usually feel when it’s soaring upwards of 185. Granted, I was more or less walking today, but my perceived exertion was so much better today.
Another fun fact that makes me feel a little bit better about this whole heart-exploding debacle? It’s though, on average, that runners burn 100 calories per mile they run. Granted, this is obviously an estimate and varies for each person…..for me, with my million-miles-per-hour heart, I burn calories like crazy! Check that out– 2.76 miles and 379 calories.
At least there’s a silver lining!!
Do any of you rely on HR training??
5 Comments
I want to try HR training… I’ve been shopping around for a good monitor. I’m hoping to get one for myself for Christmas so that when I start refocusing my running in the spring, I can add the HR aspect.
Interesting topic. I just went to a Spin conference last year (i’m an instructor) and heart rate was one of the classes. A guy from Polar was there and he also said the HR monitors standard setting only represent about 30% of the population. He recommended doing fitness tests and manually programming in your info. Crazy! I always go by how I feel since I’m pretty self aware…..you probably are too.
xo
Sarah
Get Up & Go
OMG I just read your last few posts. I was really busy this weekend so I’m just catching up now!! Your DOG is crazy but I will take her if you want!! I want a dog so BAD! That’s crazy about your heart rate but I don’t know if I would believe it’s 100R% accurate! Did you FEEL like you were going to die?? If not, I think you’re okay! I have never trained with one and I’ve been fine so far!
Aaggghhmmm, cough, cough…isn’t that what I was saying last weekend?? 😉
I have the 305 and I loooooove it. I did a ton of research and it was the best one by far.
Yes, the group organizes the routes and has water stops and everything for us…love it.