Week commencing 20th May 2013

After the Horsham 10k I was fired up and keen to run. So this week I went for it. This was the first week I was going to train using heart rate, based on the info here: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/general/heart-rate-training---the-basics/176.html

20th May 2013

Distance (miles): 4.06
Time (mm:ss): 42:22
Pace (min/mile): 10:25
Avg Heart rate: 153

Having run the Horsham 10k the day before this was meant to be a gentle recovery run. Target was to keep heart rate under 60% of working rate (about 160bpm). This felt slow, really, really slow. I knew recovery runs were supposed to be slow but this was actually quite uncomfortable to do, at times to maintain heart rate I was dropping as low as 12 minutes/mile. I stuck to the plan though, something I wouldn't have done without the heart rate monitor.

22nd May 2013

Distance (miles): 8.00
Time (mm:ss): 57:18
Pace (min/mile): 07:09
Avg Heart rate: 184

Continuing with the heart rate training and with a days rest I went for a pace run, target rate 180-190 for 8 miles. My heart rate climbed slower than I was expecting but the pace was well below 7 minute/miles so I was happy to go with it. It continued to rise but only to about 185, though my pace was a little below where I wanted it to be so I put in a push. The heart rate climbed to 190 and the pace dropped to below 7. When I looked again after a few minutes l had slipped back down to where I was, only a little over 7 minutes with a heart rate between 180 and 185.

Each time this happened I would push a little more but I couldn't maintain it, it wasn't a physical limitation as the faster pace didn't feel significantly faster but any time I wasn't actively trying to run faster I would settle back to the same place. As such I finished a little over target but it definitely felt maintainably hard and I felt I could go faster.  I just needed to maintain the pushes for longer, and I'd be where I wanted to be.

23rd May 2013

Distance (miles): 4.04
Time (mm:ss): 38:52
Pace (min/mile): 09:37
Avg Heart rate: 158

This was another recovery run, with a similar target heart rate to last time. This went much better than Monday, as you can see above the pace was much lower but it didn't feel any harder. It seems like the hangover from Sunday was much worse than I thought, and this was having an effect. I knew that a supposed advantage of heart rate training is that it automatically includes your state of recovery, but to see it so dramatically with almost a minute per mile of difference certainly proves the point and reinforced the idea that this was a better way to train.

25th May 2013

Distance (miles): 9.62
Time (hh:mm:ss): 01:18:28
Pace (min/mile): 08:10
Avg Heart rate: 172

This was supposed to be a ten mile pace run, and I wanted to take the opportunity to follow the downs link north from across the fields and find out what lay up there. I had never been more than a couple of miles up here so was interested to see what was around. I also wanted to try and maintain that 180-190 heart rate and see how the pace varied.

At the start the path ran flat and straight, providing perfect running ground. The first 2 3/4 miles were done in just over 19 minutes. I then reached the second road of the day, the first being crossed without issue, and lost the path. There was a fence post on the opposite side that I thought marked it, but when I got there no path could be seen. I stopped my watch while I found it, and it turned out only to be 20 yards to the right, but was hidden by the foliage due to the path cutting back left.

Once back on the path it rose gradually for the next mile so keeping in rate produced a slightly slower pace, somewhere around 7:20, though varying with the undulating ground. Then I reached a big old mountain, it climbed in front of me and the top was lost in the woodland, twisting and turning through the trees. It climbs several hundred feet straight up, and I had no idea how far it went.

I did not run up this, I walked up as quickly as I could but it didn't seem worth the extra effort to try and run. When I got to the top there was a fork in the road, where the downs link meets the Sussex border path. It then heads straight down the other side of the hill, though at least this side was a bit more gradual. As it started to flatten out I tried to get back on track but my mind wasn't in it. I had a couple of dry wretches, and brought up some bile and just stopped for a second.

At this point I decided it was probably best just to start heading home. Once again I walked up the hill, though this time I walked down the other side to try and settle my stomach, and because I thought I'd probably fall and cripple myself. The rest of the run home went okay once I got past this hill and back over the road, and the end of the run was alright.

26th May 2013

Distance (miles): 7.01
Time (hh:mm:ss): 01:02:14
Pace (min/mile): 08:51
Avg Heart rate: 170

This was supposed to be my first proper Fartlek run. For those who haven't come across this idea essentially you vary your pace over a medium length run. The simplest way to think of it is like less rigid interval training. I ran out to the second road north on the downs link, where I'd initially been unable to find the path the day before.

I did a gentle half a mile to start, getting the heart rate to about 160 and then tried to run a mile flat out. After about 3/4s of a mile I slowed back to a gentle jog, as it was feeling a bit too hard to maintain. Just after crossing the 2 mile point I picked the pace up again to do another fast mile, dropping the pace to a little over 6 mins/mile and keeping it below 6:30 average to the road.

I was really pleased with the pace, but my leg started to hurt. This wasn't my old knee injury, but a pain on the inside of my right calf. As such I walked the next half a mile, allowing it to recover somewhat. The advantage of Fartleks, as I understand them, is that I didn't feel bad about this, because I was running without a target time or pace.

After a bit of walking and with the need to get back for Sunday dinner growing I went back into a pace run for the next two miles, as this seemed the best way to get home quickly. Fortunately the pain didn't get any worse and so I got back to the start fairly quickly without any major issues. Obviously I was worried about what would happen going forward, and so decided to limit myself to a couple of recovery runs the following week, hoping that would give me time to recover and my leg to heal.