Hi everyone,
Thank you so much in advance, I'm just looking for a bit of training advice.
In a nutshell I just started paying more attention to my heart rate when running and I go from resting to near max very quickly. It explains why I keep injuring myself. I just wanted to check if anyone else has had this (is it just that I'm unfit).
If it helps here's a bit of background:
I'm 31, have been running on and off for 6 years. I've never been too good at training and always just seem to go through periods where I run too hard, then I injure myself and have time off. I'm not a good runner - When I trained up I was able to do a 22 minute 5k. My 10k is more like 52 minutes and half marathon is 2 hours.
I've got asthma, but it doesn't actually bother me in day to day life. I think my VO2 max might be a bit lower than usual. I have a history of injuring my calves.
Today I went for an 'easy' run (zone 2 heart rate). I found it really hard to keep it in that zone - I was pretty much walking. Is this normal? Most of my runs my heart rate just goes straight up to 175 - 185. I really have to go very slow to make sure my heart rate stays below this.
What should I do, just keep running at the pace I know I can do, or take the longer approach and go by heart rate zones? I feel with pace, I can get a harder workout, but I keep injuring myself. With the heart rate approach will sticking to it it eventually mean I will improve my pace when I'm going for it?
Thanks for the advice!