Train, Train, and Train Some More

Two more down, I've already run as many miles in June as I did all of February or March.

Thursday morn (68F, 92%RH): 5.1mi, 128avg HR, 54:18
Friday morn (79F, 86%RH): 5.1mi, 130HR, 55:40

Cassie asked if I am following some sort of heart rate training plan. The answer is yes, I am attempting to do some aerobic base building in the month of June via low heart rate training. There is a lot of information on this approach at the following link. Keith also covered it nicely in a recent post which has a link to Hadd, one of the methods.

The Maffetone method suggests that one should run only at a heart rate no higher than 180 minus your age for several weeks and do no racing. This can be very hard to do because one may have to go a lot slower than one feels is reasonable. Indeed, I still can not get myself to run always below 130 HR as it is just too frustrating to do. So I am compromising the recommendation and attempting to keep the average of a run 130ish and keep from going over 140. I am also compromising in that I doubt I can do this for 8 to 12 weeks.

Why do this?

- My times at 5k and 10k would suggest that I should run much faster at longer distances than I can. Low heart rate training is often recommended to build aerobic endurance to improve long distance performance in relation to shorter distance.
- Mark Henderson, the outstanding ultra runner who is president of Bay Area Running Club, highly recommends low heart rate training, especially for those of us who start running later in life like me.
- My knee is still sensitive and I wish to see if a steady build of mileage at slower paces will help me reach higher mileage without injury. My orthopedic surgeon suggested that I should stick to 5 and 10k's and not run marathons. But being a runner, I am stubborn and committed enough to ignore that advice for now.
- I am attempting to get up to 25 to 35 miles a week, a level of training I have never done.

Sometime in July, I plan to transition to a more traditional mixed training program and start mixing in races. Races are just too much fun.