Jan 31, 2012 A Heartbeat Away - Boston 2012

4:23 am and the alarm was ringing.  Time to get up and start the day.  Headed to the Courts for my Tempo run.  I used today's run as sort of an experiment testing my mental v. physical strength while trying to keep a low heart rate.  Here is the story behind this.  Over the Christmas holiday Susanne my trainer came in and did a personal workout session with me.  At this session we did a workout on the path.  The workout was a 9 min warmup, 4 mile time trial and a 1 mile cool down.  We started our warmup a little fast but I think that was from all the excitement of what was lying ahead.  The four miles were run at 7:40, 7:40, 7:45 and 7:26 paces for a total time of 30:33.   The last quarter mile was a 5:52 pace kick to finish.  The purpose was to see how much I fast I could go while tolerating a pain level of 9.5 out of 10.  I needed to learn to work through the pain and tolerate it so that I could run faster.  I need to train my body to perform at a higher level.


Since then, I have utilized my heart monitor to check my effort when I am running.  It has become a valuable tool and is a great way to verify progress.  So, today, I thought I would do a self check on my pace, HR, mental and physical strength and pain tolerance.  Here is what I learned.


The workout was 8.5 miles.  The first mile and a half were my warm-up.  I ran them at my Mod. pace which is 75% - 84% HR(131-147).  My pace was 9:01.  Trying to relax as much as I could, I was able to run that pace with my HR beating at 140. The longer I can keep my HR low, the less energy I will use early on and be able to have more power and strength at the end of my run.  Knowing and understanding my zones is crucial to success in this program.


Then I stepped it up and began the Tempo run.    This pace was going to be a bit quicker,  I ran all 6 miles at an 8:05 pace.  Now, the trick was to keep my HR low and every once in a while check my pain tolerance to see how my body was feeling. Was I struggling with this pace at this level, or were things going well?

I finished my workout and my legs felt good.  They were tired but not exhausted.  Even though my HR climbed I was still able to maintain the pace and run smooth.   I know now that even if I see my HR go up, it doesn't mean that I need to slow down.  By monitoring my pace and HR I should be able to increase the distance on my tempo runs at an 8:05 pace and take another step closer to reaching my goal.