Monday, November 3, 2008

Nocturnal Runner

New 4.5 mile route (42:00) from the office to, and around, the common. I'm liking the downtown routes more than the southie routes. Feels a little safer. I can also work in more hills which has been sorely lacking in my other routes. The common is definitely an upgrade in "scenery."

Ankle is still a little sore, but didn't really bother my until the last 1.5 miles. Unfortunately, icing is a challenge in the office and will have to wait until tonight.

I've determined I'm a nocturnal runner. Yesterdays midday 1.5 mile run seemed much more strained than today's run. I just feel more relaxed and comfortable running pre-dawn. However, it was cool to see the sunrise again at the end of the run with the time change.

Question for those with HRMs. What is your average HR during a 4 mile/moderate run? What is your resting and max HR? Based on my calc's, my max HR should be 185. If I'm to believe the workout HR bands and what I should be targeting, I need to slow down. My average seems to always be around 165 with a max of 170 - 178. Just trying not to drop dead.

4 comments:

Steve DiMattia said...

My feedback on the HRM is anecdotal as I've never recorded its readings or tracked any changes, but it sounds like you and I are not far off. (I haven't dropped dead yet.) I recall my Max HR mostly bouncing between 171 and 178, depending, and Av HR in anywhere btw the mid-to-high 150s to mid-160s. (Last night was 156, but I stopped to stretch 2x, so it affected the average.) I don't know my resting HR, but when I start up the monitor walking out the door after stretching, it ususally reads btw 90 and 110.

Your focus on the quantitiatve is smart and admirable, and sure to pay dividends.

Steve DiMattia said...

The common must also have more runners, even in the early hours? That must make the Common run more enjoyable, too. More collegial, interesting, etc.

Agricola said...

As far as HR goes, I tend to average about 152 for a regular workout. MY max is usually around 178 but that only happens on hills and climbs or hard kicks -- it's never for very long. I haven't recorded my resting HR since September but it's been somewhere in the neighborhood of 47-51 BPM for a long time. While training for VT city it was like 42-43 (I think), and with slow breathing I can drop it more. One of the good bits of guidance that I've seen is to basically strive to triple your resting HR on workouts.

To be honest, running at 164+, for a training run is a very uncomfortable run and not all that useful for training purposes, i don't think. You want to push a workout but you want to have something left in the tank. and pushing yourself super hard just wears everything out.

There are all sorts of HR calcs out there, the typical one is to subtract your age from 232, or 211, or some such number, but there are other things that factor into it and I've seen some that require you to then multiply the 211-age by some fraction to get there.

Bennu Runner said...

For most of my workout, I'm at 165. I, too, only hit 170's during hills and the last mile while pushing it home. Other than the 5K race, I've never felt like I'm killing myself out there. I can always ramp it up for the last mile...if my plan requires it. My resting was about 60 a couple of weeks ago. One thing I've noticed is that my recovery time has significantly dropped. I won't stop walking after my run until I drop below 120. It now takes half the time it did when I first started.