Day 16 - Recovery

Last night's recovery run went suprisingly well. Over the weekend in talking with my running buddy Ethan, I realized that perhaps I should be training a little differently. See, I was what you would call a 'push runner'. Everytime I went out for a run, I'd push myself to the point that I was exhausted. Even my 3 mile recovery runs would be push runs.

Last spring I invested in a Polar heart rate monitor to help with my training. Honestly, at the time I really only wanted to see my speed/pace and distance ran. The heart rate features were nice to play around with, but I didn't get into them.

Long story short, Ethan told me he has been training by heart rate instead of pace or effort. I thought about this, and decided to do some research. In my quest for knowledge I picked up Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger and Daniels Running Formula by Jack Daniels. Of course 2 chapters into Advanced Marathoning had me sold, and now I'm going to start training 'by the book'. That means I took last nights run A LOT easier than the previous 2 Tuesdays.

Let's compare.

6/9 Day 2
Miles 3.0
Time 24.13
HR Ave/Max 173/189
Running Index 46

Summary: Based on Pfitzingers theories, I was running in the Lactate Threshold and VO2 Max range the entire way.... not good!

6/17 Day 9
Miles 3.2
Time 29.30
HR Ave/Max 155/165
Running Index 49

Summary: This time around, I was running primarily in the Marathon Pace range ~9:13/mile. I think this is still a little high for a recovery run ... and I also hope my MP is a little faster than 9.13 ... :(

6/25 Day 16
Miles 3.2
Time 32.38
HR Ave/Max 145/156
Running Index 56

Summary: Finally, I was in the correct Recovery HR range < 76% MaxHR. The run felt TOO easy ... and I don't know that I feel any more recovered than before. However, I think that I will have more energy for tonights 5 miler.

So there is the data for now. I will hopefully know more in 2-3 weeks. I also hope this keeps me fresher for the upcoming St. Louis Joker's Wild Half Marathon in 2 1/2 weeks.