Running in Life's Slow Lane

For the distances I enjoy running the bulk of my workout miles should be done at an Endurance Pace. I am a slow runner so my Endurance Pace is in the incredibly slow range of 13:10-14:10 per mile. Later this week I will start adding in a Stamina Pace workout and eventually I will do a Speed workout. Each type of workout is targeted at changing a different system in my body with the goal being to make me healthier and a better runner.

Today's goal: Endurance run of 5.0 mi at 13:30/mi pace
Achieved: 5.11 mi in 1:08:49 @ 13:28/mi burning 430 calories and having an average HR of 134 bpm.

Splits ---
1.00 mi in 13:18 125 bpm
1.00 mi in 13:19 129 bpm
1.00 mi in 13:29 143 bpm
1.00 mi in 13:39 143 bpm
1.00 mi in 13:29 133 bpm
0.11 mi in 01:34 140 bpm

Another method of estimating level of effort is through the use of heart rates as a percentage of maximum heart rate. An Endurance Pace should put enough demand on the body to raise the heart rate into the range of 65-79% of HRmax. Using the Rodbergs and Landwehr method of calculating maximum heart rate I obtain HRmax = 176.345 bpm.

Plugging that into the desired range of 65-79% I see that an Endurance Pace is one that gets my heart rate into the range of 114 - 139.313 bpm.

Comparing that to the values above seems to indicate that the average heart rate during the workout (134 bpm) does in fact lie within the target range if a bit on the high side. Hopefully we will see this change a bit over the weeks to come.

Location: Lawton, Oklahoma