Heartrates anyone???

After playing with a heartrate monitor for one of the first times I am begining to gather some data on myself. I am begining to wonder what others are getting for their own HR values.

1) I have run 3 trail ultras of 31-41 miles in length the last few weeks and seem to average a HR of 136-138bpm with a steady moderate effort the whole race but HR fell over the 5-7 hours from 140's to 120's.

2) with easy runs of 45min-1:45 around my neighborhood I have an ave HR of 128-138bpm depending on how easy I go. For me 130bpm is around 8:45 pace per mile

3) in a hilly 10k trail race I have readings of 159bpm ave and shooting in to the 170's on the up hills 145-150's on the downhills. This was pretty much a max effort for 46minutes.

4) And in track work of 1000m and mile repeats with full recoveries I tend to average 153-161bpm for the repeat. With values in the last 100m of the repeat of 164-170. These repeats were close to 6:00 mile pace or my current VO2 max pace according to Jack Daniels calculator using my recent 3:01 marathon. (That was a total all out, well paced effort).

Sprinting up a hill I have got my HR up to 183 (I had said 192 but looking at the data graph from Uwharrie that one point had to be an error...it jumped from 178 to 191and then back into the 170's immediately) spriniting the first hill in the CRC trail 10k I hit 183. I will do a test soon to more accurately find my current max HR. I remember now my max HR being lower than predicted when I was doing lab testing in 1997 to 2002 (old values were 181-190 for my max then...and a few years have passed). I am 33 years old, but understand the 220-age formula has a 12bpm standard deviation! So is notoriously off for the majority.

So what I want to do next week is a 2 mile time trial to find out my current true VO2 max fitness and what my HR is during this run.

What kind of values do you get???
Book values below:
Vo2max- % of max HR=95-98
Lactate threshold- % of max HR 80-92
Recovery easy run -% of max Hr should be less than 75%

And why does the check spelling feature no longer work on my blog???

Foxhaven Farms Trail 10k

Saturday- 1 w up 5.7-46:31, 4miles c dn



A great day today in my favorite town (charlottesville, VA). The weather was great for the Charlottesville Running Clubs 2nd race in the Great Eastern Trail Run Series and canine races for the SPCA.



It was super fun to see 20 some dogs and owners takle a tough trail 4 miler in C-ville today and then hit the trails for my shortest race in a long time. The runs were held out on riverroad and on the private lands and trails of foxhaven farms. and WOW were they hilly!!!



Not one but TWO climbs kicked my butt today and sent my HR into the 180's. Fun stuff. I managed to average 159bpm for the entire 46 minutes of racing showing that yes...I NEED to push myself a bit harder. Stats here.

Chart of my HR and elevation changes in the race. HILLY!

It was so much fun to just let it rip and not worry about dying or bonking. Short races are great. I need to do much more of these. I even felt good on a 4 mile cool down with race winner and reigning USATF trail marathon champion Aaron Saft.

Finishing Touches

Sunday- 7 miles- 2w up, 2 x2mile- 12:03, 13:47, 1 c dn
Monday- STAIRS!!!!! 150 flights down

The last two days, with the legs feeling good, I put some of the finishing touches on my Vermont 100 prep. Needing to maintain my stride efficiency and lactate tolerance I went to the track again yesterday. And today wanting to hit the quads one more solid time with some eccentric work, I did a "Biggest BANG for the least buck" workout on the 19 floors of stairs in my apartment building.

Yesterday running at 3:45pm in the big time heat and humidity (on purpose) I went to the track to run some faster paced stuff to let my leg muscles continue to have optimized enzyme levels for glycolysis. I did a strong 2 mile wearing my HR monitor while doing 6:00 mile pace. I wanted to see where I am at currently while running this pace. 6 min miles used to be something I did and monitored frequently. I started out in the low 160's and was at 163 at the 6:01 mile split. Then it crept on up to 170bpm by the 8th lap. (2miles-12:03-164 ave HR). Then I took 5 minutes rest and started up again settling to the smoothest run I could do at a HR just below 160. This pace turned out to be a bit over 6:50 per mile. (2 miles- 13:47- 159 ave HR) Not sure what any of this means in 94 degree heat, but it will be interesting to compare to next month when I start doing workouts again after Vermont.

Today I opted to just run in the stairwell in order to minimize the effort expended while optimizing the eccentric contractions per time spent moving. I simply took the elevator to the 19th floor and then ran down the stairs two at a time letting each foot plant be a bit hard all the way into the basement. With each leg getting a little jump and landing, the 7 trips was enough to give my thighs that shaky-sore feeling...and the workout only took 20 minutes! I figured this would accomplish the same thing as the hilly road 10 miler I had planned.

Now I will rest up......but, continue my normal 3 day pattern (workout, easy, moderate, workout) with the remaining workouts being on the 12th, 15th, and 18th. Next up a 14 miler on my favorite loop back in Campbell, NY from my high school years.