Running Thread - Join our Strava Club!

[Willo_]

Wish I'd discovered this thread earlier.

Decided with a group of mates that I'd do 1000km in a year challenge with them. I've got a 1 year old son with another on the way and was far too heavy - decided I needed to make a change. I've managed to lose just under 20kg so far. Have another 10kg I'd like to lose but that's very much a work in progress.

Up to 823km for the year. Consistency has been mostly good although struggling a bit with the colder weather - was down to 2c this morning when I left. My stock run is roughly 15km a run.

Speed has always been my issue - my slow HR type runs are roughly 6:20-6:30 (averaging 150-155 HR), have just struggled to increase speed in a significant way.

Did have a fantastic run this morning, smashed out 15km and broke every PR milestone from 1km to 15km. Managed a 5:43 pace which is absolutely my quickest.

Just got to keep working away at it I guess. I will say, it's changed my life for the better, as frustrating as I can find it.

I absolutely love reading stuff like this, well bloody done.

I was in the same boot 4-5 years back... stick at it and more weight will come, and pace builds with consistency is all I can add

Are you following a plan? Have a coach? Just winging it?

 

[Jatz]

I absolutely love reading stuff like this, well bloody done.

I was in the same boot 4-5 years back... stick at it and more weight will come, and pace builds with consistency is all I can add

Are you following a plan? Have a coach? Just winging it?

Just winging it really. I know I've got to improve the heart rate so sticking to 4 slow runs and then a quicker 5th run.

Will get to the 1000km first and then re-evaluate a bit of a plan.

Have run 4 or 5 half marathons - I do have a mate that wants me to do a full marathon with him but I just don't have the time to do it properly. I already leave at 5am for my current runs, don't really need to go earlier in winter haha.

 

[WheelAndDeal]

I've always considered myself pretty fit. Exercise most days of the week through multiple sports and being a regular gym goer.

I started running consistently without a watch or anything about a year ago, so I never really knew what HR I was at until I bought one.

Whenever I run my heart rate spikes straight up after a couple minutes to about 170bpm and steadily increases - sometimes to 205-210. What's strange is that I feel as though I can easily maintain the pace physically and aerobically. It doesn't feel THAT hard.

So I did some research on Zone 2, and started doing some incline walking on the treadmill and some resistance bike while trying to keep my HR at around 140. I've been doing this fairly regularly maybe 3 times per week but struggle to really see much improvement.

Does anyone else have a similar experience and if so; what did you do to lower your heart rate. Could my watch be inaccurate?

Any advice would be great.

 

[burge13]

I've always considered myself pretty fit. Exercise most days of the week through multiple sports and being a regular gym goer.

I started running consistently without a watch or anything about a year ago, so I never really knew what HR I was at until I bought one.

Whenever I run my heart rate spikes straight up after a couple minutes to about 170bpm and steadily increases - sometimes to 205-210. What's strange is that I feel as though I can easily maintain the pace physically and aerobically. It doesn't feel THAT hard.

So I did some research on Zone 2, and started doing some incline walking on the treadmill and some resistance bike while trying to keep my HR at around 140. I've been doing this fairly regularly maybe 3 times per week but struggle to really see much improvement.

Does anyone else have a similar experience and if so; what did you do to lower your heart rate. Could my watch be inaccurate?

Any advice would be great.

210 has to be inaccurate doesnt it? Thought the rough max heart rate calc was 220 minus your age...

 

[faible]

I've always considered myself pretty fit. Exercise most days of the week through multiple sports and being a regular gym goer.

I started running consistently without a watch or anything about a year ago, so I never really knew what HR I was at until I bought one.

Whenever I run my heart rate spikes straight up after a couple minutes to about 170bpm and steadily increases - sometimes to 205-210. What's strange is that I feel as though I can easily maintain the pace physically and aerobically. It doesn't feel THAT hard.

So I did some research on Zone 2, and started doing some incline walking on the treadmill and some resistance bike while trying to keep my HR at around 140. I've been doing this fairly regularly maybe 3 times per week but struggle to really see much improvement.

Does anyone else have a similar experience and if so; what did you do to lower your heart rate. Could my watch be inaccurate?

Any advice would be great.

If you're using wrist-based heart-rate then they're notorious for being a bit finicky, if your watch isn't tight enough it won't get a clear read through the skin (it relies on skin contact) and too much light can filter in around the sensor, and AFAIK if you're not Caucasian it sometimes isn't as accurate either due to skin contrast. Also it can 'lock' on to your cadence instead of your heart-rate.

The latest gen Garmin / Polar / Coros / Apple optical sensors are all pretty good and not dissimilar to a HR strap in terms of accuracy for most things (they're a little slower to respond on sprints) assuming you're wearing the watch correctly and don't have darker skin etc.. etc..

If you've eliminated all the reasons the wrist based HR might be inaccurate - making sure the strap is suitably tight and no light is getting in - and still think it's inaccurate, get a HR strap and see how that compares. The old 220-age formula is just guesswork, and you might find your maximum HR is much higher (or lower) which will alter your zones.

Spoiler: running nerd stuff

FWIW I spent way too much time reading about HR zones recently, and if you're going to use Max HR to measure (there's other alternatives if you have more data e.g. resting heart rate or LT heart rates, which modern watches can calculate for you) then IMO the Norwegian 'zones' are the most useful for setting up your watch (Garmin has 5 zones for example, of which the default Zone 1 (50-60%) is entirely useless, and default Zone 2 (60-70%) on a Garmin is not equivalent to Zone 2 in 'Zone 2 training' terms). Zone 2 training would mostly correspond to Zone 1 & 2 on your watch in this scenario (mostly you'd want to be < 72% HRMax).

This way you have useful information for the 80:20 ratio;

80% of your work in 'zones' 1 & 2, most of it in 1 to ensure you're not overdoing it (marathon training would look different). The purpose of this is general time on your feet to build resilience, strength, and running economy without wearing yourself out to risking injury.

Zone 1 - Majority of your running (< 72% HRMax)
Zone 2 - End of longer runs, uphills etc.. without ever letting it drift beyond this zone. (<80%)

20% of your work in 'zones' 3 - 5. This is the stuff that'll get you injured and requires more recovery, the less experienced you are the more you'll want to stick in the Medium Intensity Threshold zone

Zone 3 - Medium Intensity Threshold (MIT) work e.g. longer reps or sustained tempo efforts. (~ 85%)
Zone 4 - High Intensity Threshold (HIT) work e.g. shorter reps. (~ 90%)
Zone 5 - Max sprint efforts e.g. hill sprints.

Depending on your specific biology, fitness level and training experience the heart-rate for you to get LT1 and LT2 will differ from other athletes, generally LT1 is around 78 - 82% and LT2 is around 87 - 91%

A lot of the stuff from the Norwegian training model isn't really applicable to the average runner, as you likely don't have the time to do the volume it requires, and there's a pretty high chance of being injured, but the HR zone stuff is reused across heaps of other training models since LT1 & LT2 are fairly well known and understood concepts.

 

[faible]

210 has to be inaccurate doesnt it? Thought the rough max heart rate calc was 220 minus your age...

Not necessarily, 220 - age is fine for population level data but heaps of individual athletes will find it doesn't work for them if you're trying to work out training zones. Mine is a few beats higher than the 220 - age would estimate.

If you've got a chest strap you can do a HR Max run test and get a result that's about 99.99% accurate to what you'd get in a lab.

 

[Willo_]

I've always considered myself pretty fit. Exercise most days of the week through multiple sports and being a regular gym goer.

I started running consistently without a watch or anything about a year ago, so I never really knew what HR I was at until I bought one.

Whenever I run my heart rate spikes straight up after a couple minutes to about 170bpm and steadily increases - sometimes to 205-210. What's strange is that I feel as though I can easily maintain the pace physically and aerobically. It doesn't feel THAT hard.

So I did some research on Zone 2, and started doing some incline walking on the treadmill and some resistance bike while trying to keep my HR at around 140. I've been doing this fairly regularly maybe 3 times per week but struggle to really see much improvement.

Does anyone else have a similar experience and if so; what did you do to lower your heart rate. Could my watch be inaccurate?

Any advice would be great.

THis has already been said... but wrist HR is notoriously inaccurate

 

[Willo_]

Just winging it really. I know I've got to improve the heart rate so sticking to 4 slow runs and then a quicker 5th run.

Will get to the 1000km first and then re-evaluate a bit of a plan.

Have run 4 or 5 half marathons - I do have a mate that wants me to do a full marathon with him but I just don't have the time to do it properly. I already leave at 5am for my current runs, don't really need to go earlier in winter haha.

The best advice I can give is don't even consider a full marathon for at least another 12 months... too many people I think try one too early, it is the hardest thing I have ever done and I thought i was well prepared with a couple of years behind me.. If you consistently can put together a couple of years you will be better for it in the long run... bom tish

 

[Jatz]

To that end, can anyone suggest a good HR monitor? Always though my watch has been pretty accurate but I'd be curious to see.

I assume I'd probably need a Garmin one to sync up with my watch.

 

[Jatz]

The best advice I can give is don't even consider a full marathon for at least another 12 months... too many people I think try one too early, it is the hardest thing I have ever done and I thought i was well prepared with a couple of years behind me.. If you consistently can put together a couple of years you will be better for it in the long run... bom tish

That's really encouraging to hear tbh.

I've been running since November and have started to feel like I've almost 'maxxed out' with my runs. Probably just need to keep banking them and re-evaluate in another 6 months.

 

[Willo_]

The best advice I can give is don't even consider a full marathon for at least another 12 months... too many people I think try one too early, it is the hardest thing I have ever done and I thought i was well prepared with a couple of years behind me.. If you consistently can put together a couple of years you will be better for it in the long run... bom tish

also related somewhat.... Had my entry confirmed the other week for Melbourne this year.
So I am going again to go for Marathon number 2.

Have a different coach this time around, and already I feel like I will be better placed for it.. have been building up week by week currently, not feeling my knee at all which is the best news.
Touch Wood, feeling good, will launch into the program from a good place, or as good a place as I could have hoped to me.

Coach reckons i am tracking to be around 3:30 for the full which is exciting and nice to hear is a goal (my first i did 3:57)

 

[Willo_]

That's really encouraging to hear tbh.

I've been running since November and have started to feel like I've almost 'maxxed out' with my runs. Probably just need to keep banking them and re-evaluate in another 6 months.

I would recommend highly finding a coach or good plan if possible, keeps you accountable, takes away the risk to an extent, also keeps it fresh and you will get more enjoyment out of it all as the runs will be mixed up, different tempos/lengths etc

 

[faible]

To that end, can anyone suggest a good HR monitor? Always though my watch has been pretty accurate but I'd be curious to see.

I assume I'd probably need a Garmin one to sync up with my watch.

Depending on the level of data you want, the Garmin HRM-Pro is probably the 'best' option atm, the HRM-Dual is also fine if you don't want all the data. Other brand straps are also compatible, they use Bluetooth.

 

[Jatz]

Depending on the level of data you want, the Garmin HRM-Pro is probably the 'best' option atm, the HRM-Dual is also fine if you don't want all the data. Other brand straps are also compatible, they use Bluetooth.

Thanks, that's fantastic.

Looks like I'll have to update my watch. Currently got a Vivoactive 4 which probably needs an update. Battery no longer last a day when I run in the morning. Looking at the Forerunner 965 or 265 I think.

 

[faible]

Thanks, that's fantastic.

Looks like I'll have to update my watch. Currently got a Vivoactive 4 which probably needs an update. Battery no longer last a day when I run in the morning. Looking at the Forerunner 965 or 265 I think.

I highly recommend having a read of this guys reviews;

Homepage

window.newShareCountsAuto="smart";

www.dcrainmaker.com

He's a complete GPS watch nerd and will cover any imaginable question you might have. Depending on whether you want a watch that does just running stuff, or a whole lot more would probably dictate which direction you go.

Even the new 165 covers most of the running basics, they're all pretty good these days.

 

[Jatz]

I highly recommend having a read of this guys reviews;

Homepage

window.newShareCountsAuto="smart";

www.dcrainmaker.com

He's a complete GPS watch nerd and will cover any imaginable question you might have. Depending on whether you want a watch that does just running stuff, or a whole lot more would probably dictate which direction you go.

Even the new 165 covers most of the running basics, they're all pretty good these days.

Running and cycling with the occasional tennis for me. I really should do more swimming but I've forever sucked at it.

I'm always sucked in to the biggest/best inevitably but I'll absolutely give it a read. Thanks for that.

 

[faible]

Running and cycling with the occasional tennis for me. I really should do more swimming but I've forever sucked at it.

I'm always sucked in to the biggest/best inevitably but I'll absolutely give it a read. Thanks for that.

He's got articles on the top of the line options too, have at it!

 

[Jatz]

Out of interest, what watch is everyone using?

 

[darrenmorgan]

Out of interest, what watch is everyone using?

I’m with FR255 (music version)
Couldn’t really justify the extra for the 265 or the jump to the 9 series. Tells me everything I need. I’m doing Berlin marathon in Sept (and then NYC 5 weeks later) - have been using the Runna App for training. 8 weeks into 20 week plan, it’s pretty good. The interval, speed and long run workouts are super varied, they sync awesome with Garmin too with the audio prompts/coaching etc.

 

[faible]

Out of interest, what watch is everyone using?

Epix Gen 2, fundamentally the same as the Fenix 7 and Forerunner 965 (AFAIK same hardware with different casing / screens).

I swim and run, plus wear it all day every day so the more durable casing on the Epix / Fenix series is worth it for the extra cost for me.

 

[Willo_]

Out of interest, what watch is everyone using?

Garmin Forerunner 945, I had the 245 which was perfectly fine for what I needed tbh but boxing day year before last they had this half price at Rebel and I'd been given a stack of vouchers so couldn't resist... The watch face was bigger as well so I love that.

The only complaint I have and I think this is a garmin thing is that the charge ports get temperamental as they get older and you have to have the bloody thing perfectly positioned to get it to charge.. But I've got a place sorted now that is is perfect so love it.
Mine has the music element as well but tbh I always have my phone on me and synching Spotify playlists up is a pain in the arse via the watch I find