a sign

in my last post i introduced you to my new little running friend. his name was strategically chosen due to my ambition and marathon goal. but incase i needed another sign, i pulled into a parking spot at a restaurant on saturday night and this was the car in front of me:

it was meant to be.

i took mark for our first long run saturday morning. ive never run by HR before, but from experience i know i usually start off too fast and end up suffering at the end in a major way. for example: one of my 5k splits were as follows- 7:05, 7:45, 9:12. huuuuuuuge suckfest. (ok you can stop laughing at me now).

im not sure how to run by HR in order to get faster, but im determined to figure it out. from a little bit of reading and research (following Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger), ive figured out a few things:

my resting heart rate is 57 bpm

my maximal heart rate is 186 bpm

my heart rate reserve is 129 bpm

those numbers mean a lot in terms of different work outs ill be following during my marathon training (18 weeks beginning on may 31st). these few weeks leading up to the beginning of that training are crucial for me to figure out how to train properly and to make sure i am eating right, hydrating properly, and establishing a base for the intensity that comes with an 18 week training plan. 18 weeks is a LONG ASS TIME (um... its may. my marathon is in october. blah!)

so anyway... a 10 mile run is classified from my plan as either a "general aerobic" or "medium-long" run, for the first couple weeks. this means my hr should fall within about 70-84% of my maximal hr. that is 130-156. lets take a look at what happened on saturday:

(mile, pace, avg hr, max hr)

1. 8:39, 152, 167

2. 8:50, 155, 165

3. 9:08, 148, 167

4. 9:25, 158, 168

5. 9:16, 159, 170

6. 9:26, 155, 161

7. 9:32, 153, 171

8. 9:37, 153, 173 (please note: highest max hr, slowest mile. fail.)

9. 9:28, 149, 167

10. 9:23, 154, 168

the averages throughout each mile were all just under the maximum of where i wanted to be for these runs, but on so many occasions throughout this run i had to slow down to allow my hr to come down. im not used to running over 9 min miles but i must say i felt so good when my heart wasnt beating out of my chest and my legs were not really sore at all on sat night/sunday.

besides my sub 4 marathon goal, i also have a goal ive been chasing for over a year now.... a 22:xx 5k. im pretty close but i just cant seem to get it, and i really think its because of the massive mile 3 fail i keep having. if i can evenly pace myself to run 7:22 miles, and not go out too fast and die at the end, its definitely do-able. i think monitoring my heart rate in the upcoming months is going to be a real key to my speed work and endurance.