January 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

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  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    @JulieS3103
    i do wish i didn't work saturdays. it is nice race with friendly people

    hmmm it is a tempting race. it would be more tempting if i didn't need to stay overnight

  • allenwalker170
    allenwalker170 Posts: 7 Member
    I haven't been on this thread in quite a while either. I kinda dip out during the hot summer months, but I'm getting back into it now. I have a friend I have been running 5Ks with, and she has entered us and a couple of other folks into a marathon relay for March 3rd. While I am slow, I can get through a 5K without too much problem. My leg of the upcoming race is going to be 7 miles, and I have been practicing for that by running the entire 7 mile leg. I have been trying various techniques for building endurance. Speed runs, long runs, and hills. Any thoughts on what would work best?
  • abowersgirl
    abowersgirl Posts: 3,408 Member
    mbaker566 wrote: »
    this seems especially fast moving this month

    sandlot seems like fun but i would want to switch directions at some point.

    welcome newbies
    welcome returnies
    welcome newly uninjured

    i did 7.4 miles yesterday. it might not have been my best decision. took 3 out of 4 dogs (foster puppy is too young).
    it was icy but i did not bring my trax. note to self. always bring trax just in case. i didn't realize it was icy. it wasn't by my house. part of the trail i ran was completely iced over with a dusting of snow. so i hit the ground hard on my butt and wrist. butt hurts. wrist hurts. a lot of the trail has a grass edge so i ran along the edge in a lot of places. the dogs slipped a lot too.
    old girl was loving it. speed demon wanted to go faster. china dog(meat trade dog from shanghai-foster) enjoyed it as soon as he realized what we were doing. he tried to hunt the chickadees and cardinals.
    at some point, i thought i was smelling a little too much poo. i had attached a full bag to a leash. apparently, the cold made the bag brittle. poo over the leashes, my pants, my shirt, my spibelt, my vest. thankfully, i remembered ROTC and cleaning with snow. so took some packed snow and rubbed it all over. there was still a smell in the car but it wasn't visible any more.


    prerun. asked speed demon if she wanted to go for a run.
    zv5zx2eniyno.png

    onward
    br7soa9he1kt.png

    ice hiding underneath
    1x8rape7fae4.png

    slow and steady. only one fall
    n6q1bx8y92xm.png

    foster dog and speed demon in the back.
    zqqt7f2ugw6k.png

    old girl loves getting out.
    s3euftz0wbbl.png


    i think i'll make a plan and work toward the fall 50 in door county. i think if i do a marathon i will do the dolittle which is the trail(rails to trail) that i used yesterday. it's super flat.

    i am going to give my trax a trial on a nearby trail (rails to trail) this weekend. i haven't actually used them

    You poor thing...my gosh!!

    On the bright side you are an amazing example to the rest of us lol
  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,498 Member
    edited January 2019
    shanaber wrote: »
    On HRs - below is a site where you can calculate your max HR and it does by a few various methods. It isn't scientific nor does it take into account your level of fitness (or not). So a max HR for someone who has been running and working out for years would calculate the same as someone who has never worked out and just sits all day. It does however give you a general method to actually measure your own max HR again, it isn't perfect but can give you a starting point. I happen to know (from my cardiologist) that my max HR is around 150. The calculation says 166... I also have a very low resting HR so my zones look very different from most peoples' and I cannot use the defaults in any of the monitors - they show me never getting out of zone 1.

    https://healthiack.com/heart-rate-calculator#calculator

    @shanaber, this is all great advice, thank you! I tried the site you linked to. My max HR based on experience is 183 but this site calculates 170. That's pretty far off when trying to hit a certain heart rate percentage (or heart rate reserve percentage), so your caveat is well taken. Use this as a starting point but don't be surprised if you discover it to be off from your actual max HR.

    About max heart rate, though...max heart rate varies with age, not with fitness. You're rest heart rate does down as you get more fit, and you'll be able work harder at a given heart rate as you get more fit, but you can't change your maximum heart rate, either higher or lower no matter what you do, except for getting older, which will lower it.

    ETA: Everything I've read, or at least recall, about max HR is that it's dependent on your age and you cannot change it. See this article.
    https://www.active.com/fitness/articles/understanding-your-heart-rates-and-exercise

    After posting the second paragraph above, I did a quick search and I see that may not be the case.
    https://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/06/max-heart-rate-and-fitness.html

    Joe Friel is pretty reliable with his information, so I'm retracting my paragraph above. I will say, with nothing to back me up, that I believe that a change in max HR is probably only going to be noticeable in hard-core athletes.

  • RosCw
    RosCw Posts: 23 Member
    Goal: 25miles / 40k
    Total so far: 4.65m/ 7.49km
    01.01 0 miles/km
    02.01 1.55m/ 2.49km
    03.01 3.1m/ 5km
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
    edited January 2019
    marisap2010 wrote: »
    Let me tell you, going on vacation is both wonderful and a curse because alllllll the work just piles up waiting for your return! I am so tired tonight, but I did complete two miles this evening.

    That is usually the case over a holiday with us, buuuuut, lucky me - someone will have to pick up a few things that are time sensitive :wink: enjoy the bake off! I always want treats when I watch that show.
  • msarobix
    msarobix Posts: 211 Member
    edited January 2019
    @debrakgoogins & @ greenolivetree - thank you for bringing up the topic on heart rate.



    I am glad to hear that I am not alone in the HIGH heart rate zone. I easily hit 160+ on most of my runs. Right now I am just getting back into running and I don’t run fast, 3.0-4.0 mph. Sometimes I get concerned that my heart rate is way too high, but it recovered very quickly when I take it back down to a walk. It will drop from 160+ to under 150 in a matter of a few minutes, and if I continue to walk it would even get closer to 130. I know the maximum heart rate calculation, 220-Age, but I really don’t know what % I should be working at most of the time. I have always been under the assumption that you should work at 75-85% of maximum for the most benefit, but going to 90-100% for short sprints followed by recovery. My max heart rate is 173, and 75-85% of that is only 129-147. And it is nearly impossible for me to keep my heart rate in this range. I can hold it steady between 150-155 if I run SLOW, but if it is a longer run segment or I pick up the pace at all, music moves me, then it can easily jump into the 160 and all the way up to maximum.

    When my heart rate is between 150-160 I feel fine. In the low 150’s I feel like I could easily carry on a conversation and possibly even sing, and sometimes I do sing just to make sure I am not working too hard. It really isn’t until my heart rate is over 160 for more than a few minutes that it start to get a little harder, I am still not gasping for breath by any stretch, but I definitely wouldn’t be able to sing. I could talk, but it would only be a few words at a time.

    I monitor my heart rate with my Apple Watch, and I recently did a comparison with a chest strap and they were within a couple of beats of each other.

    Any suggestions, should I be concerned about this. I was thinking of going to the doctor to have a physical and ask these questions, but I have been thinking about doing that for more than 5 years and I just keep putting it off.


    @katharmonic - LOL! Your spreadsheet sounds EXACTLY like mine. I figure the more I track the more I ways I can challenge myself. I also graph mine out as well. I pull the data from several place and compile it on one spreadsheet. Looking at it each month is very motivational, and gets me moving because I always want to try to improve each month even if it is just a little bit over the previous month.

    @Elise4270 - That is awesome. I think my OCD would kick in and I would have trouble not responding right away after reading a post, and in order to help keep the number of posted down I would want to reply to everyone in my daily post, as I am doing here. But that would be a good way to keep up. Thanks for the tip.

    @shanaber - Thanks for the info on the spreadsheet discussion. I will search for that as soon as I get caught up on this thread tonight.
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
    7lenny7 wrote: »
    msarobix wrote: »
    When my heart rate is between 150-160 I feel fine. In the low 150’s I feel like I could easily carry on a conversation and possibly even sing, and sometimes I do sing just to make sure I am not working too hard. It really isn’t until my heart rate is over 160 for more than a few minutes that it start to get a little harder, I am still not gasping for breath by any stretch, but I definitely wouldn’t be able to sing. I could talk, but it would only be a few words at a time.

    If you can sing in the low 150's then that's exactly where you should be. Don't get lost in the data. You don't need to know your HR at all if you follow the guiding concept of "conversational pace". Don't judge yourself on your pace. It takes quite a bit of time time for your body to make the adaptations to allow you to run at a faster pace for a given effort. Patience and consistency is key. Keep at it, slowly, and you will improve.

    That equation 220 - age = max HR is notoriously flawed. I wouldn't base anything on that. The good news is that you don't need to know your max HR.

    People get injured when they try to do too much, too fast, too soon.


    So far I agree with @7lenny7 on all he said about HR. Let me add a few of my own personal opinions:

    FIRST I AM NOT A DOCTOR - if you are really concerned about your heart, GO SEE A CARDIOLOGIST that knows sports medicine.

    Okay, I would say this. I no longer train by HR at all. HR is a reactive state, not a proactive one. That means it trails behind what you are actually doing. So for things like fartleks, intervals, run/walk and so on, it is just too slow of a measure to depend on. Assuming you have a healthy fully functional heart, it knows what to do, let it.

    Run by feel. Learn to run by feel. With time it will become far more accurate than anything else.

    If you want to ACCURATELY know your heart zones, you will need a lab and like $100 or $200 dollars, something like that. There are sports medicine places that will give you a full workup, including VOMax and so on. I am skeptical at the use case, but if I wanted to know accurately I would do that.

    For a rough idea, I must first state, I AM NOT A DOCTOR - if you are really concerned about your heart, GO SEE A CARDIOLOGIST that knows sports medicine.


    DO NOT READ inside the tags unless you are sure of your heart health. Check with a doctor. I personally have a heart condition and would not do this.
    To find your max heart rate, start with a day you are well rested. FInd a decent size hill. Run around for a bit warming up. Once you feel warm enough (probably like 15 mins) start doing hill repeats. That is sprint up the hill hard, then run slow down, sprint up hard, then slow down, over and over until you can not do anymore.

    THEN DO NOT SIT DOWN - run slow/walk a cooldown. If you did this right, and sit down, you are extremely likely to pass out. A slow easy cooldown is required.

    Once done, go back through your HR recordings on your watch or chest strap. Pick the max rate, and that will be really close to your real max.

    Once you have your max you can then plug that number into the zone charts and use them if you really want, but eh, I do not. :)
  • ActiveAmbrosia
    ActiveAmbrosia Posts: 8 Member
    edited January 2019
    debrakgoogins wrote: »
    As most of you know, I am a newbie to running. I am also an analyst and so I study everything I become interested in. I have discovered that my easy runs are probably not as easy as they should be. My heart rate is regularly above where it should be for those runs.

    So...with that being said, I am also researching wearables that are better suited to running. I currently have a FitBit Charge 2. I like the diagnostics it provides but don't care about the social aspect. I would like something with a GPS and notifications if I am getting above my target HR. I don't want to be looking at my wrist all the time, especially since I run in cold weather and have gloves on when I'm running. I have seen some that include music download options but the reviews for the music seem to be hit or miss.

    You've given me good advice in the past. What wearables do you/have you use(d)? What do you like/not like about them?

    I love my Garmin VivosmartHr+! I've only used Garmin and like them a lot

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