My tempo pace is slower than I thought it would be considering recent race results. I had a max heart test recently and the effort feels correct during my workouts using %'s of my maxHR but like I mentioned the pace is slow. What does this mean, eg. poor aerobic fitness?
This means you will still benefit from a few more years of training.
Tempos don't have to be fast, but will help you go faster for longer.
It probably means that what you are used to being "tempo pace" is too fast. This is one of those cases where "just because you can go faster, doesn't mean it is beneficial for you if you do". This is pretty common for people just getting a heart rate monitor, and it feels weird at first... but it's beneficial
quack wrote:
It probably means that what you are used to being "tempo pace" is too fast. This is one of those cases where "just because you can go faster, doesn't mean it is beneficial for you if you do". This is pretty common for people just getting a heart rate monitor, and it feels weird at first... but it's beneficial
I decided to start using my HR monitor for tempo/threshold workouts because when doing them based on pace from race results they always felt too hard but just kept doing them thinking it would benefit me. It has had the opposite effect though.
With the HR monitor the pace is slower than I have run these workouts and it's difficult to get in the mindset that the effort is correct.
You train too hard skip, learn from your mistakes or you will get nowhere fast.
what about easy run heart rate, 70-75% of max?
when I run 70% it is ultra slow and somewhat difficult to do
easy run up to 75% of max should be a good target. It's ok if it drifts up to 80-85% by the end of the run (holding the same pace).
There are too many factors that manipulate heart rate. Wetmore said it best when he said it is all about sensory data.
Then stop using a heart rate monotior and stop timing your runs. Learn to run by feel. HR monitors and Garmins etc are tools for fools.