This week is the official start of training. From now on, I’ll be using my heart rate monitor on a daily basis. If you have not purchased a heart rate monitor or determined your max heart rate you really need to do so this week. I personally like garmin watches. This garmin forerunner is a great watch. It is simple to use and not very expensive. I also recommend upgrading your HR monitor strap. The soft strap found here is much nicer and more comfortable than the ones that come standard with the watches.
There are many benefits to heart rate training.
- Allows you to maximize your training time
- ensures you train hard enough on “hard days” and easy enough on “easy days”
- allows you to improve your performance and time
- ensure you are training at the proper instentisty level at the right time (avoids ineffective “junk” training”
Click here for a detailed write up on heart rate training.
There are multiple way to determine your Max heart:
- Find someone local who offers max heart rate stress testing on a treadmill. This is the best and most accurate determination of your max rate.
- Run a 5-k race. Your max heart rate during this race will be close to your actual max rate
- Do this hill workout:
- Easy 15 min warm up
- find a hill 200-300 m long. Sprint up and jog back down and repeat 5 times. Your highest heart rate will be very close to max heart rate (MHR)
- cool down 10 min
- Take (220-your age). This is just a ballpark and the least accurate of all the methods.
I did the hill workout a few weeks ago and got a max heart rate of 191 so I will use this to determine my different heart rate work zones. The workouts from here on out will be broken down into 4 heart rate zones:
- Zone 1 (Z1) is 90-95% of your max heart rate (MHR)
- Zone 2 (z2) is 86-89% of MHR
- Zone 3 (z3) is 75-85% of MHR
- Zone 4 (z4) is 65-74% of MHR
So my personal Heart rate zones break down as the following:
- Z1: 90-95% of MHR of 191 =171-182
- Z2: 86-89% of 191 = 164-170
- Z 3: 75-85% of 1919 = 143-163
- Z1: 65-74% of 191 = 124-142
Also we will start to increase our weekly long runs. These runs will be done on Saturdays. This is where the heart rate training can really help. Many people do these longer runs at a pace that is much too fast. These runs should be done at a pace that is around 45-90 seconds slower than your target race pace. As training continues, I will start to incorporate pace runs and interval runs so you will have plenty of opportunity to run at a faster pace. The Saturday runs are meant to be slow! They are meant to build the aerobic systems, prepare you body and muscle for the stress of longer runs, give you a chance to practice fueling and hydration and prepare you mentally for the stress of longer running.
Finally, some of you may be asking what you should do for cross training days. I like to incorporate cross training into my workouts because running everyday outside is too hard on my knees. If it doesn’t bother you, you always have the option to just to do these days as run days. If you are like me and want a break from the pavement here are some good options:
- cycling: This can be done indoors or outdoors. I usually end most of my cycling workouts with a 15 min run right after. This is called a brick workout.
- treadmill
- elliptical
- hill walking
- swimming
Week 5 of Marathon training: (16 weeks until race day)
Monday: 45 min of cross training (z1-z2) (I will do a 30 min ride followed by a 15 min brick run)
Tuesday: 45 min run (z2)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 45 min run (z2)
Friday: 45 min of cross training (z1-z2) (I will do same brick workout as Monday)
Sat: 60 min easy run (z1-z2)
Sun: off or easy swim
Week 6 of Marathon training: (15 weeks until race day)
Monday: 45 min of cross training (z1-z2) (I will do a 30 min ride followed by a 15 min brick run)
Tuesday: 45 min run (z2)
Wednesday: 45 min of cross training (z1-zt) ( I will cycle 45 min)
Thursday: 45 min run (z2)
Friday: 45 min of cross training (z1-z2) (I will do same brick workout as Monday)
Sat: 1:15 hr easy run (z1-z2)
Sun: off or easy swim
Week 5 of Half marathon training
Monday: 3 mile run (z1-z2)
Tuesday: 4 mile run (z1-z2)
Wednesday: off or 30 min of cross training
Thursday: 3 mile run(z1-z2)
Friday: off
Saturday: 5 mile easy run(z1-z2)
Sun: off or 30 min of cross training
Week 6 of Half marathon training
Monday: 3 mile run (z1-z2)
Tuesday: 3 mile run (z1-z2)
Wednesday: off or 30 min of cross training
Thursday: 4 mile run:
- 1mile warm up at (z1-z2)
- 3 miles at target race pace (z4) -see chart below
- 0.5 mile cooldown (run or walk) and stretch
Friday: off
Saturday: 4 mile easy run(z1-z2)
Sun: off or 30 min of cross training
*it is also important to incorporate some sort of core and strength training into your training as well as stretching.
paleoironmom 
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