Hadd
Hi Joe,
An HRM is a very valuable tool as long as you understand what it is capable of telling you.
With your aims to run both 10k and marathon, you need to bump up the weekly mileage. For your first marathon, you should be aiming to run 70-90mpw in the last 3 months leading up to the race.
For now, don't measure all your runs in miles (of course you can estimate them, for diary purposes), but think in terms of time spent running:
You might aim to reach this level in the next month or so.
WEEK A
Sun: 75 mins easy
Mon: Off
Tue: 5 x 1,000m
Wed: 45 mins easy
Thu: 60 mins
Fri: 45 mins easy
Sat: 60 mins
and here, in 3 months:
WEEK B
Sun: 1hr 45 mins easy
Mon: Off
Tue: 75 mins
Wed: 45 mins easy
Thu: 60 mins easy
Fri: 75 mins
Sat 60 mins easy
They key to your build-up is pace/effort. If you have an HRmax of 183±, then your eventual marathon race effort will be around 165-168. Obviously, at the moment, the pace at that HR would be far too slow. So you must work at the HR's BELOW 165 to improve the running pace at each of them. For example: you give the pace at 155HR as 8.50m/m. In time, I would expect you to be able to run that pace with 130-135 HR, and by then 155 HR will be at least one minute per mile faster (maybe more). But only if you do this right.
So, 155 HR is actually quite high for you. And you are not yet running for long enough time to see a good improvement. Follow the time examples I have given: try and keep the HR at lower than 150 on the flat (allow it to climb on uphills, but bring it back down once you are on flat ground again). You are trying to run somewhere around 140-145-150. At first this might seems deathly slow, but just put in the time and the results will come. In Week A, you can run at 155 HR on Thurs and Sat.
The pace only feels slow at first because your legs cannot "grab" all the oxygen your heart is sending them. These easy paces and long distances will cause your leg muscles to improve, but it will take time (like growing your hair). Look for a slight change in 3 weeks, and a significant change in 6 weeks. You cannot rush this.
Ask any questions about this for now if you are not clear about some things, but really, just get out and do the work. Remember, you are always trying to push the HR DOWN. Trying to run the same pace with a lower and lower HR. So, when 145 HR becomes a reasonable pace (and it will), drop some days down to running at 140.