On my easy days, I used to run with a heart-rate monitor. The idea behind heart rate–based workouts, is to train your aerobic system without over-stressing your muscular systems. The proper development of you aerobic system, is the key to unlocking your potential.
Sometimes in heart rate workouts you feel like you are not putting the effort in, because you went out and ran comfortably without pushing the pace to your limit. Turns out, that’s what heart-rate training is all about. AND YES, sometimes during my run my body wants to run faster but I have to control it😂. If you never run easy, then you may not be able to go as deep as you need to on your hard days. You need to find a balance, pushing your body to the extreme everyday won’t allow room for improvement. Continuous fatigue will tire the mind and the body and open the door to injury, overturning and burnout. The idea with the heart rate workouts is to allow your body to properly recover and make sure you learn to recognize and calibrate your efforts correctly with the assistance of the monitor.
There are five different zones of heart rate training, is a scale of 1 through 5. In which 1 represent the resting zone, and 5 represents you are near to your Maximum Heart Rate capability. For marathon runners, including myself, running in zone 3 should feel easy. Training in this zone will make moderate efforts seem manageable overtime and improve your running efficiency.
It is always good to track your Heart Rate (HR) when you train, since it will let you follow your progress closely. It will allow you to calculate what pace you can maintain in a race! But I must say, not all days are the same, some are better than others. For example: my marathon race pace is 6:40, its usually when my HR hits the orange zone. But it has happened to me that running at a pace of 7:10 or 7:20, already feels like a tempo run (Zone 4 – Orange). Not all days are good, depending on how you sleep, ate, or your stress level, your heart rate performance can vary.
From my point of view:
I repeat, not every day is the same … some are better than others … the weather, elevation, and other factors can change how you perform…Note: I only keep track of the (HR) information during training, in race-day things can be very different because we are nervous and that can affect us. Mile 1 we are in the red zone because we are anxious, nervous, and excited to get going!
