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heart rate training??

big4ndybig4ndy Posts: 24
in General Chat
Having worked out that my fat burning zone is between 125 and 153 (i think) I decided to give this heart rate training stuff a bash this morning.

I'm not a great runner but my normal trainin
g runs are done at about 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 min miles.
I dropped the car off at the garage for it's service this morning and then ran home. It's only 3 miles but in order for me to keep in the Target zone I could only crawl along at 10 min miles!

How quickly will this improve? Its so tempting to just pick the pace up.

Cheers.

Comments

  • TRIumphantTRIumphant Posts: 850
    It will improve, it will seem slow to begin with, but just persevere. Other option is to up the pace a bit more and go into Z4. General advice is to avoid Z3. so Z2 or Z4 only.
  • big4ndybig4ndy Posts: 24
    Hey,

    Thanks for the reply.
    Excuse my stupidness but what did Z3 do wrong?

    Should I sneak into the 160's (bpm) when going up hills or slow to a near walk?

    Cheers again.
  • TRIumphantTRIumphant Posts: 850
    General advice is that Z3 is no-mans-land. Z2 slow and steady and building up endurance. Z4 harder and improving speed, CV system etc. As for hills, spends on what you aim is. Shorter run, then push onto Z4, longer run, then stay at Z2.
  • dhcmdhcm Posts: 67
    This is not rare at all. Mark Allen claims he dropped from 5 min miles down to 8:30s when he started Zone 2 training. For me Zone 2 felt not much more than jogging. However, sticking at it, and avoiding going above Z2, even for hills, and I feel like my Z2 pace is getting quicker - at least it feels like running now.

    My plan is nothing but zone 2 from Oct to the New Year, will report back on any improvement then!
  • JulesJules Posts: 987
    In the absence of the baldy one, I will ask a CH style question.

    Is there really any point in doing loads of slow endurance i.e. Z2 training? Isn't all you are doing just getting better at running (or cycling) slowly?

    Work out what distance you need to do in training and just run it, forget HR zones. If you can sustain a certain pace over a certain distance in training you can also do it in the race.

    <hides under desk to await replies >
  • largeadelargeade Posts: 166
    For me this explains why Z2 works, quite well I think:
    http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/2007/08/ha ... -part.html

    However as its provoked reactions in others I'll just say take it for what it is.

    I've trained for 10ks and half marathons for 5 years. During this years marathon training

    - my half marathon PB dropped 7 minutes.
    - my 10k PB dropped 3 minutes
    - my pace at 150bpm (heart rate) increased from 5:40/km to 5:00/km in 16 weeks.

    My view - LSD probably works if you are not already properly aerobically fit. I suspect this is most of us.
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