Using heart rate in training

HIS morning, I did a really easy training session. I started warming up with a slow run, using a heart rate monitor as guide (no higher than 130 bpm) at approximately 6 kph. Next I ran 5 K on forest trails, alternatively 5 minutes at 140 bpm and 5 minutes at 130 bpm. The end time was 38 minutes (7,89 kph, 7:36/K). That was a very easy training session.

Now, I wonder, could I turn this into a training method? I mean, running a certain distance, say 5 K, at alternating heart rates. Obviously, 130 bpm is much too low, and 150 / 160 bpm would be more challenging, but still very possible for me. I guess I would be needing around 30 minutes for those 5 K. However, what if I could do it in less time, with the same heart rates, simply by doing it lots of times (on different days, of course)? Wouldn't that mean my fitness is improved, or, at least, that I could run faster at the same heart rate?

Interesting....

Hard training sessions to be very proud of

T THIS MOMENT, I have no running coach at my field and track club. The club is searching for a new coach, but they don't grow on trees, and it, therefore, takes time to find a suitable person who is willing to coach the bunch of old geezers that makes up our running team. We like to run longer distances, up to a marathon.

Anyway, at this moment we are training ourselves with a simple training schedule for the two weekly training sessions we do together. On Tuesdays, we run a long run of approximately an hour, and on Thursdays, we do interval training. The long run is led by one of us, on a rotating schedule. So I can decide how the team is running once every so many weeks.

The Tuesday before last Tuesday, a runner who is one of the fitter runners in our team, did a trail run in a rather fast pace, I could just keep up with. Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle one time, and fell flat on my face (with dirt all over my face and in my mouth) another time during this race-like training. At the end (50 minutes into the run), three of us had to bail out, because they couldn't keep up. Luckily, I could, just.

Some would find this frustrating, but I didn't. I found this training session to be very stimulating. I didn't give up, although there were two very good reasons (twisted ankle, dirt all over me) to do so.

Last Tuesday, we did a 30 minutes vice and 30 minutes versa run on a road (bicylce lane). The goal was to run 30 minutes at a constant pace, turn, and run back along the same route, in 30 minutes. We would meet up after 60 minutes at the same point where we started.

Although I'm the most overweight (read: I'm the obese guy in our team) runner, this didn't stop me from not being the last runner. I started slowly, because I knew from experience, that the last kilometers in the return stretch were going to be just as slow (but much less comfortable). My objective was to run as much distance as I was able to put behind me in 60 minutes.

I was able to do it. I ran 11.55K in 1:00:09. This is comparable with my 10K result on July 8, 2007. Those 9 seconds too late at the finish are really nothing, compared to the 1 minute or so too soon others in my team reached the finish line. There was only one runner who was closer to the one hour mark; he had run it in 1 hour and 5 seconds.

I think these are two instances of training sessions I'm very proud of. Not that the results are so earth shattering (even for my standards), but because I didn't give up and showed some character.

Being proud of one's accomplishments is a very important part of running, which runners tend to forget about in their pursuit of faster times in races, and the frustration of not reaching their goals. Sometimes just doing what you're supposed to be doing, dealing with the setbacks you encounter--instead of complaining about it--is satisfying in its own right. You don't win any medals, or even raise eyebrows, but you know in your own mind you did it, and you did your best, and no one can take that away from you, whatever they say to you.

Some reservations about training in groups

Running in groups can be very motivating to keep training. People are group animals and generally like to be in each other's company. So training in groups is a good thing, isn't it. Yes it is...

there is a big disadvantage to training in groups. The problem is that people like to conform to the group. This means that runners whot are less fit than the average runner of the group run too fast, and runners who are fitter run too slow. Both slow and fast runners have less benefit from such training sessions. So while it seems to be a good idea to always run in groups, there is a real benefit to running alone, especially if you want to improve your fitness level (read: run faster).

So the best form of training seems to be to sometimes run in a group for motivation, and other times run on your own.

Clueless about training hard and taking it easy

WONDER what truth there is to the claim that you should rest enough after you've done some running? What is enough and how much rest should you take compared to how tired you are after exercising?

I have taken two days off after I couldn't run continuously for 10K with an average speed of 11 kph. I was just too tired from the training I had done earlier that week. I had to run for 9½ minutes and walk for 30 seconds. After four times I had to walk 10 minutes and continue at a cycle of 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking. My running speed was approximately 10.6 kph (according to my GPS watch).

Now what should have been better: train less intensive and keep training, or--like I did last week--keep training intensively and take two days off to recover.

I don't have a clue.

Clueless training session

ERE'S A TRAINING SESSION I don't now what to think of. Today it was warm, humid and I planned to run a 10K in the run/walk technique, as described on Jeff Galloway's website www.jeffgalloway.com. So I went to the track, on which I train on twice a week with my running group, with some markers (cones) for the 50 m points. The plan was to run 1950 m, walk 50 m, and repeat 5 times, so I had a total of 10,000 meters. The target time was 51 minutes, just like my last race result. However, this was not how it would go.

Once I ran my 15 seconds per marker I felt this pace was way too high for the circumstances (temperature and humidity). After 1200 meters my head was pounding, so I had to stop and walk 50 meters. I tried some 200 metres running and 50 meters walking, but that was still too tough. So after just 1900 meters I was bushed and tired. Nothing else to do than to stop and go home.

Better luck next time.

Boy, how I hate those clueless training sessions. Those are so dissatisfying.

10 K race

I'm recovering from an injury in the groin area, and I thought a slow 10 K would be perfect to keep myself motivated for running. Only training and no racing can become very boring after a few weeks, and you lose some of your endurance and pace hardness.

So this was a small local 10 K race for charity (all proceedings will go to the Dutch Roparun Foundation for cancer relief, to help cancer patients and their family deal with the disease). While that is a good cause, there was still that little thing of running 10 kilometers without much endurance in my legs. I believe 73 man and 14 women started with a spoken count-down (3, 2, 1, start) by the race director at 7 PM in the evening.

The course consisted of three equal laps, with an extra 80 metres at the start to make it a full 10,000 metres. In the first lap, I helped some women make it through the head wind at a particular part of the race course. Because they weren't as fast as I was, they had to let go, but thanked me for my hard work. I completed the first lap in 17:22.

In the second lap, I saw a grandfather with his young grandchild watching the race. I went towards them a gave the grandfather a big clap, surprising the grandchild, and giving me a boost of confidence. Again, I battled the head winds on that same piece of road as in the first lap, only now without anyone to help (helping other runners helps me forget how tired I am). At a certain point, the runners had to cross the road, and while I was doing that, I had to avoid a small truck, which the race assistants had let pass by without noticing that I was crossing the road. The course continued with a narrow road, leading into a dirt track. About halfway there was a farm with people giving water to the runners. I don't believe they were an official drinking post (it wasn't marked on the course map at the entry station), but the water was accepted and just as delicious anyway. I completed the second lap in 16:42. That was a bit faster, because I didn't have to slow down to pace myself for those women in the first lap.

In the third lap, I thanked all race assistants for their help and hoped to see them next year in the same event. Of course, that was a good moral boost. I needed that, because my injury was beginning to hurt, every time I passed a speed bump in the road. Furthermore, I hadn't run such a long distance in weeks. The only running I had done was about 30 minutes of running during interval training. So I decided not to increase my pace, but to keep running at roughly the same pace. The third lap went in 16:49, and those last 80 metres in 21 seconds.

So that was 10 K in 51:11 (5:07/K or 8:14/mi). A slow result, but nevertheless a result.

After the finish every runner was awarded with a bag of French beans, which I gave to one of the spectators. I also applauded for the women I helped in my first lap when they finished, and gave the male runner I had passed at the drinking post in the second lap (he stopped to drink and I only slowed down, but kept running) a big compliment and a thumbs up.

Then I went back to change my cloths and put on a dry shirt, and biked home for 25 minutes, while enjoying a beautiful sunny summer evening.