Go slow to go fast.

It's nice to have evidence of the importance of a proper warm up.

Inquiring minds want to know: did you drip sweat all over the TM? I've been doing that lately.

you are looking good, keep up the great work. and it looks like your calves are holding up in in the FF? I did about 4 and a half in them on the indoor track today. But running to get over there- boy did my feet soles get cold. I don't think I am brave enough to take them outside this winter. it was about 10 degrees though.

carolyn - I don't think I even dripped once because my shirt was completely saturated...or not...I don't know, I probably drenched the equipment too.

Red- yeah, 10 degrees I haven't tested yet, I've been fine in them in the 20's and 30's. But it also takes a good mile or so to warm up the feet, so even in 30 degrees mine are cold at first until the blood gets flowing.

My calves don't get sore at all actually. They did at first but I realized it was because I was running wrong. Once I learned how to relax and lower my foot all the way, and not push off my feet so much my calves haven't had any pain at all. Even on the 13 mile runs my calves feel great. My feet tendons and muscles are still going through growing pains here and there though. I can tell I need a break when my feet are really stiff the next day. But my right pinky toe got broken 2 months ago and that has not been helping my right foot.

actually I remembered better redrooster, the real turning point for my calves not getting sore was increasing my cadence to over 180-200 steps per minute. That is what allowed my calves to relax.

I like the point about your calves. Mine still tighten up before anything else. That is are really nice pace for the repeats. Also, I think the heart rate is reasonable, what are your race pace and max HR?

That's a great question Adam, I'm not entirely sure. I'm interested in what your race pace is relative to your Max HR. I'm not sure what my race pace HR should be really. I'm sure it's different depending on the race length. I think I can hold 165 for multiple hours. 155 I could hold all day. 175 I can only hold for 30 minutes or so.

When I did a 5K in August, I did it in about 6:30 pace. My heart rate was at 175 within the first few minutes and was up to 185 by the end before I slowed up in the last 100 meters because I couldn't hold it anymore. I think my max heart rate is about 190, I've spiked it in the high 180's, but I can't remember the last time it was up to 190.

Based on that what do you think my racing HR should be for a 5K vs. a 10K vs. Half marathon, in order to go out evenly or negative splits?

Aaron,

Though I did my thesis work in a cardiology department there are a number of other people on this blog that are much more qualified to answer training and HR questions. So others please chime in.

I’ve only worn a HR monitor for my last few marathons and have been in the upper 170s. My max HR is ~200 and I have done so recently but that is usually for sub-5 min pace and only a very short amount of time on the flat or with a slight up. My 5K PR (on an aided course, downhill) was at 5:10 pace but I didn’t get a HR. My mile PR (also aided) was 4:46 with a HR of 182. Correction my mile PR was the first mile of the above 5K at 4:44 but no HR. This is the Magna 5K here in UT and it is BLAZING fast perfect downhill grade. So obviously course makes as much difference as pace for me. My last 6K was at 184 HR so my difference between 6K and marathon is not that large…

That being said I remember reading that marathon race pace should be about 75% VO2max. Where this fits on the HR scale I am not sure. So roughly if my max is 200 and I’m racing at 175-180 and your max is 190 and you are racing in the 175 I would say you are racing at a harder effort and if you are having problems in the second half could back off a little.

I’m not sure if this helps answer any of your questions but I’m sure someone will chime in. I’m also pretty sure that this has been discussed in detail on the discussion board. If you search heart rate in quotations there are a number of related discussions.

Sorry I couldn’t be more help, Adam

heart rate? I have never even measured it while running. I kind of figure if I get chest pain that is bad...VO2 max? too technical for me. I just ignore all this stuff and follow the tables in "Daniel's running formula" for paces to meet certain race goals. So if my goal is to run a 10K in 37:30, then I try to do the intervals, reps, and threshold runs at the paces his tables provide. I figure VO2max and heart rate will take care of themselves if we follow the training schedules. But I am just a hack amateur runner so my advice means little. I just can't micromanage all these quantitative numbers or it would drive me nuts. So I just let Daniel tell me what pace to run and do it. Or better, let Paul Petersen do it.

That's interesting data Adam.

I always track my heart rate generally because I think its interesting to know what it was relative to how I felt.

But I like your philosophy too redrooster. It's definitely easier that way. Although I like tracking mine because then I can use it as a guide to reinforce my decision if for example I'm out pushing it one day and my HR is extraordinarily high, I can notice that and back off the pace rather than overdoing it when my body needs a break.

The main reason I wear the HR monitor is because the Garmin came with it. I do not spend a whole lot of time looking at it other than oh look there's my heart rate. That being said when the weather conditions were bad at SLC in '08 I looked at my HR instead of my pace so that I wouldn't get discouraged. One day I would like to do something with it but haven't really taken the time. I like your example of using it to know when to back off. I've also used it to notice when I'm overtraining. i.e. easy runs at HR higher than 170...