Getting the most out of our running

Friday, March 31, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning

Unbelievable is pretty much all I have to say about the weather coming at my friends in the Northeast!

Yesterday, I did an interval workout using heart rate as my guide instead of my typical perceived effort. Like I had done a few times over the past few months, I ran six 3-minute intervals with 3-minute recoveries. However, instead of pacing myself based on effort, I set my Garmin to keep me in my heart rate threshold zone. For those that are not familiar with heart rate zones, Zone 4 is considered threshold and is followed by anaerobic zone, which takes you right up to the max zone and maximum heart rate.

The idea is of using heart rate zones is to let your heat rate dictate how easy or hard to run for a particular workout as opposed to effort or pace. Tomorrow, for example, if I want to focus on stamina (endurance) for my long run, I would set my training in my hand Garmin to keep me in Zone 3, stamina. Each zone is based on a percentage of my calculated heart rate, which is determined using a formula based on age and resting and maximum heart rate.

I have never been a huge proponent of heart rate training, but I am all for comparing and finding value in various ways of training runners. For sure, heart rate training has benefits. As I utilize it, I am going to compare it against both time pacing and my favorite method, which is perceived effort. Ultimately, my goal as a running coach is to help runners to enjoy their running by focusing effort on “feel,” which requires a person to know what each training zone feels like instead of depending on an external device.

A well-known strategy for runners is conversational pace running, which may be considered zone 3 and below. However, conversational pace running may not always be precise enough, as it may put the runner in any one of the bottom three zones. If the desired outcome is to improve running efficiency, there are times when conversational pace needs to make you exert increased effort. This is where heart rate training can be helpful and informative. Matching our ability to sing, speak and breathe with our heart rate gives us a great measurement of our effort. Once we are able to reconcile these factors, we can then control our pacing based on the intent of our run.

Most (if not all) of this chat has no value to those who only want to lace up their shoes and enjoy moving. However, from an NFLR standpoint, we are often sought out to help runners in various ways such as: get stronger, faster, more efficient, run further, improve body shape, etc…

Understanding the physiology of effective training is paramount toward any one of those goals and is why No Finish Line Running is different than being part of a running club. We want to help our individual runners and groups become strong and efficient while at the same time have fun. Too often, other group runs are just about trying to improve by staying up with a faster runner and that is not wise on many levels. NFLR takes the time to understand “intelligent running” and uses it to benefit all or our runners.

Have a great day and stay safe this weekend!

God Bless!

Mike