Ending the Exercise Hiatus

I didn't exercise at all during my recent business trip to Orlando, which puts me behind on my training plan. There are still eight weeks to my target race, but since I'd just like to finish the event, it is still possible for me to enter. Yesterday I rode my bike with a friend from her house to Seward Park and back, a nice 23 mile round trip.

Today I decided to run. I was eager, in fact, perhaps too eager. I filled up my water flasks, put on my heart rate monitor and my Forerunner, and headed out. I decided to run from work, along a street, onto the Sammamish River Trail (a multi-use trail), and onto the Power Trail (which I recently discovered). To sum things up, I ran for 1 hour 43 minutes along 8.3 miles.

That may sound slow, and it is, but that was my goal: long slow distance. I run with a heart rate monitor and try to stay within certain heart rate zones. I have friends that run on RPE (rate of perceived exertion) and it seems to work for them, but I like to keep an eye on my heart rate. Heart rate is a great measure of how hard you are really working - it will vary with the weather, how tired and/or sick you are, whether or not you are climbing a hill or descending, and so forth. If I keep a constant heart rate, I slow down over time; conversely at a constant speed my heart rate will creep up over time. Naturally, my body isn't a machine and things will vary slightly, but I find heart rate to be really useful.

There are many complicated systems, some present five or more target zones. I prefer to keep watch on just three: aerobic, or below 70% of my max heart rate; anaerobic, or above 85% of my max heart rate; and the middle zone, above 70% and less than 85%.

Below 70%, your body burns more fat to supply you with energy. This is why walking is such an excellent exercise - it is easy on the joints, and burns fat. Above 85%, your body burns more carbs to supply your energy requirements. Carbs contains fewer calories per gram, but they are easy to metabolize and so that's what your body chemistry draws upon when it needs energy fast.

For my event, I'm mostly training aerobically, below 70%. That's the zone you build endurance in, which is what I'll need. It doesn't make sense to train hard (all the time) as during my race I'm not going to be running anywhere near my speed potential. Generally, to maximize training efficiency, I try to train aerobically or anaerobically, and stay out of the middle zone which is too fast to build endurance and too slow to build speed.

Today I kinda of blew that. My heart rate chart shows I averaged 78% the entire time. It was hot, the course had a few hill climbs and it is always difficult for me to keep my heart rate down while going uphill, without slowing down to a walk. Next time I run the same course I can compare - try to stay within my target heart zones better. Later, I'll run 8.3 miles along the flat SRT and compare heart rates and times.