August 2017 Running Challenge

MNLittleFinn wrote: »

Irontri7 wrote: »

MNLittleFinn wrote: »

Today's notes: Slept in until 0425 this morning, and that felt pretty good after my short but hard double day yesterday. Today's plan was 8 miles. I got in 8.1 in 1:17:23 for an average pace of 9:33. Average HR was 150, so that was good, as was the fact that I spent 95% of the run in z1 or z2.

Curious what your zones are and where you got them. Being in z1 & z2 95% of the time but an average of 150 just seems high to me.

Based on a 175 LTHR, my z2 tops out at 155 using Fitzgeralds system. High HR was 158

Reminds me, im planning to run a LTHR test so I need to get a new chest strap HRM, new Garmin has the option of a finding LTHR, but requires a chest strap HRM, and my old one isn't compatible.

I got my LTHR from a blood sample during a treadmill session with my trainer.

Zone: 2: HR -120-139
Zone: 3 HR - 140-169
Zone: 4 HR -170-174. LT HR: 172
Zone: 5 HR - 175+

My trainer sets up zones a bit different, and wants my easy/recovery runs to stay much lower than your top end z2. Most of my aerobic runs I like to keep under 160. He considers 160-170 the gray area. I've found when I get into that area it doesn't take too long for the HR to continue to rise into threshold, and recovery is longer.

@shrcpr My race is in Huntsville, Alabama -- the Huntsville Half Marathon.
https://runsignup.com/Race/AL/Huntsville/HuntsvilleHalfMarathon

KatieJane83 wrote: »

@kristinegift awesome, thank you so much! I'll be going down the day before, so should probably really be looking into places to stay, yikes. Any tips/info/etc you have regarding parking or any other logistics are greatly appreciated! Not sure if I'll be staying that night or not, but I definitely already took that Monday off from work, lol.

@KatieJane83 Definitely book a place to stay ASAP!! The race opens really early and the hotels close to the start/finish will sell out fast. I've got tons of Philly marathon race tips. I sent you a friend request; feel free to drop me a DM and we can nerd out about race logistics

1/8-REST
2/8-5.3
3/8-3.6
4/8-5.6

Total - 14.5/120 Miles.

August 1 – 0.0 miles XT Water Aerobics & P90X3
August 2 – 7.25 miles Long Run & P90X3 Yoga X
August 3 – 0.0 miles XT P90X3 The Challenge and a 4-mile walk
August 4 – 6.0 miles Fartlek Run & P90X3 CVX

Total: 13.25/100 miles

Upcoming Races:
August 5 – Great Brain Wash 5K Obstacle Run, St. Pete, FL
August 18 - St. Pete Beach Series, Race #3, 5K
September 16 – Samoa Challenge (Thin Mint Sprint 5K and a Tagalong Trot 1 mile), Safety Harbor, FL
October 1 – Ft. DeSoto 5K, Race #1 of the Triple Crown
October 29 – Ft. DeSoto Halloween 5K, Race #2 of the Triple Crown
November 18 – Insane Inflatable 5K Obstacle Run, Tampa, FL
November 19 – St. Pete Runfest Half Marathon

I signed up for the 30 day challenge too. I really need to get back to work. This Friday afternoon is dragging.

carrie_eliza wrote: »

Elise4270 wrote: »

I feel better about the whole "your calves are gargantuan" comment now. I snapped a pic and they're not horrible.... Sure my quads need help, which are 46 at the widest.

Thanks so much everyone for sharing your measurements. I don't feel like a goon from Popeye now.

@shanaber 80% humidity run! Yuck!!!

---

1---5.49mi/ 8.85km
3---4.23/ 6.82

Total 9.72/15.68
Goal 89 miles/144 km


Upcoming races:

Oct 1 Spirit of Survival, Lawton OK. Quarter Marathon
AIM for the Cure- 5K, virual run
Dec 2- POOP trail run, Hoping for a half! Norman OK.

Pre-op PR's
1 mile 8:27  5k 24:42. 10k 1:00.52.  HM 2:17.28
Post-op Training PR's 1 mile 10:04  5k 34.27 10k 1:20.01

Spirit of Survival was my first half marathon! Hope your race day is amazing

It was mine too!!!!! 2015. You?

Thanks for the 30 day kinesthetic challenge, it just what I needed. Did my stregnth training for the first time in weeks.
Congrats on 21 years @PastorVincent my wife and I celebrate I years on the 9th. We're just newlyweds in comparison.

@Elise4270 2008 - it was freezing cold, rainy, there were no wildlife, and I undertrained. But I signed up for another half the following spring, so I guess I enjoyed it?

@7lenny7 thank you. Be patient with yourself.

Rest day today

August goals are 90 miles and figuring out what all the info from my new watch means about my training.

Aug 3 - 10 miles
Aug 4 - 6.2 miles

So I have been running for a few years without any HR data. After hanging around here lately, I decided I needed the new fenix5 and chest strap HRM. I have only gotten in 2 runs and was really expecting to be told that I stay in zones 1-2 and that I don't ever get up to zone 4-5. Instead Garmin is putting almost all of my running (except for the warm up) in zone 4-5. That is just 2 runs so I know part of the issue is lack of data. My average HR was 150-155 on the runs. The shorter one was slower but with more elevation gain. Both were about 1-1.5 minutes per mile slower than my marathon pace and 2-2.5 minutes slower than my HM pace. I will continue to collect data and maybe do the lactate threshold test later, but I noticed several people posting runs in zone 2 that had similar HR. I don't put in the mileage of most on this site, but do you think Garmin is underestimating my max HR (48 year old female) or that I really am like many runners who go too fast on training runs? I felt like I was taking it pretty easy

@wishiwasarunner it's possible it hasn't correctly estimated your max HR. There's a very wide range for 'normal' and I don't think there's a good formula out there that's guaranteed to be accurate for everyone. I've estimated my max hr to be somewhere in the upper 190's based on seeing an actual reading of 195 in the final push at the end of a hot and SUPER humid (96%) 5k. I figure that's gotta be pretty close. I've estimated my LT HR to be around upper 170s or 180, based on a hot 10k. So for me, 150-155 would be Z2 I believe. (for reference, I'm a 34 yr old female)

wishiwasarunner wrote: »

August goals are 90 miles and figuring out what all the info from my new watch means about my training.

Aug 3 - 10 miles
Aug 4 - 6.2 miles

So I have been running for a few years without any HR data. After hanging around here lately, I decided I needed the new fenix5 and chest strap HRM. I have only gotten in 2 runs and was really expecting to be told that I stay in zones 1-2 and that I don't ever get up to zone 4-5. Instead Garmin is putting almost all of my running (except for the warm up) in zone 4-5. That is just 2 runs so I know part of the issue is lack of data. My average HR was 150-155 on the runs. The shorter one was slower but with more elevation gain. Both were about 1-1.5 minutes per mile slower than my marathon pace and 2-2.5 minutes slower than my HM pace. I will continue to collect data and maybe do the lactate threshold test later, but I noticed several people posting runs in zone 2 that had similar HR. I don't put in the mileage of most on this site, but do you think Garmin is underestimating my max HR (48 year old female) or that I really am like many runners who go too fast on training runs? I felt like I was taking it pretty easy

It's possible for both to be true. IIRC, Garmin defaults max HR to 220-age at first. I know that Garmin defaults the low end of five zones to 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% of what it thinks your max heart rate is. I lived with the Garmin zones for over 2 years and the HR data never seemed to mean anything to me.

You can go into Garmin Connect and change the zones. You can change what it thinks your max HR is. You can change the percentages the zones are based on. You can tell it your resting HR and change to the reserve method, where the zones are percentages from resting HR to max HR. And recently I found an option (that might not have been there before) letting me tell it my LT HR and set zones based on percentages of LT HR.

The problem with having all this control is, to make it useful you need to have some idea of what your max HR or LT HR is. Resting HR is easier, you just measure it before you get out of bed in the morning. But max HR and LT HR are kind of a puzzle to get to, absent some expensive and inconvenient lab tests. There are ways to estimate LT HR, but it's a nuisance to run a time trial just to get LT HR, and my race results don't all agree; my best guess is that my LT HR is between 153 and 157.

The best advice I can give you is, watch the absolute HR numbers for a month or two, and correlate the numbers with how you feel on the run. That will give you some sort of clue whether the zones are where they belong. It would be helpful if you had some intense running to compare to your easy runs, so you can see what the difference in HR is between what you currently perceive as easy and what you perceive as running for speed. You should see clear HR differences between easy, MP, and HMP running in similar weather and similar terrain. If you run a shorter race like a 5K or a 10K, that should elevate your HR more than half marathon pace. Then you take those differences, think about how you felt, and do the best you can to determine where your zones belong.

I wish you luck; I'm still not certain I've got the HR zones in Garmin where they belong for me.