Run Pace vs. HR Question
Howdy Gang,
Finished week one of the outseason today and all in all it has been a really great week. I know they are only going to get harder from here but I really enjoyed the training. I do have a run pacing question that has probably been asked before but I couldn't find the answer doing a search.
According to the 5k run test I did my Vdot is 30.5 (slow I know but I've nowhere to go but up) and my run pacing intervals are below:
| Run Zones | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone | HR | Pace | |||
| Z1/EP: | < 144 |
12:22 |
|||
| Z2/MP: | 145-153 |
10:46 |
|||
| Z3/HMP: | 154-161 |
10:29 |
|||
| Z4/TP: | 162-168 |
10:02 |
|||
| Z5/IP: | > 169 |
9:37 |
|||
I did my 4x800 Z4 sets this AM and had programmed my Garmin based on the HR zones from the chart above. (I didn't take the time to convert the pace numbers into MPH for the Garmin Connect SW). When I was doing the intervals I had a hard time keeping my HR HIGH enough to be in the Z4 HR zone. For example, my average HR for the four 800 meter sets was; 160, 156, 152, and 154. My pace for these four sets was; 8:06. 8:04, 8:13. 8:15. Since I was focused on the HR zone and not pace I was clearly much faster than the Pace zones.
So here's my questions:
- Which one should I program my workout based on? HR or pace zones?
- Did I screw up my FTP test a week ago? It was my fastest 5k race and a fairly flat course so I used that number for to establish my Vdot.
- It was pretty cold this AM here in North Carolina (35 degrees when I started running). Could that have kept my HR lower? Last week when I did teh test it was in the mid-70's.
- If the pacing zones are correct above then I foresee my Z4 workouts being much easier than what I did today. Though today really wasn't that hard for me. I did the 4x800 and then 15 more minutes of Z3 HR which equated to a 9:40 pace.
Any guidance y'all can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
dusty
Comments
There are a lot of reasons why heart rate might vary from one workout to another. They are well detailed in the EN ebooks. That's the reason why I say stick to pace, especially if you thought that your 5k was a good honest effort.
Hi Dusty and welcome! What you'll find here is that if you have a GPS unit, you'll want to use it for pace, not HR. There a lot of threads here and everywhere on what determines your HR from day to day, even hour to hour. Usually temp will play a role because your body doesn't have ship your blood to your skin as much for cooling, so it doesn't have to work as hard to fill extra capillaries at the surface of your skin to dissipate the heat. There are other factors at play also, but really, you should just focus on your pace zones if you have a GPS or a stopwatch for the track. Your race time should be fine, of course ideally you'll want to run the same course each time, but I don't know if that's possible. Also, FTP refers to the power test on the bike, but that's just semantics right now, just a heads up so people know you are talking about running not biking. RnP will tell you that if the z4 pacing seems easy, then prove it in your next test by running faster. You will have plenty of time before then, so keep doing the prescribed work and I'm sure it will be difficult enough if you are true the rest interval. You're z4 work should feel comfortably hard, meaning not easy to hold a conversation at, if at all. You shouldn't be gassed when done, but felt as though you worked. Remember, the coaches are working on you getting faster right now, the long stuff comes later. Hope that helps. Good luck!
Dan
Darn you Mike! I thought I had you beat! You type like you race, faster than me....
What???????? What happened? Are you okay?
As long as you are sure you ran your 5k in, (what is that, like 30 minutes?) then your paces are your paces. You should be using those to train with. You should not being going harder than the prescribed paces, especially since you are talking like a 1:15 difference. It really is a recipe for overtraining and possibly injury.
Yes your HR was probably effected by the different weather conditions.
Now why was it so easy for you? That is a good question. You were running quite faster than your IP. I know I was struggling today to even hold TP and cannot imagine going the same percentage faster that you were. Though on another day I may feel different. So the saying around here is that you need to "earn the right to run faster by testing faster" or something like that. If an 8 min pace was so easy go run it for 5k.
So do you think you can run faster? Do you think you screwed up your Vdot test? If so run it again. If not, run at your tested paces using pace. Maybe some people smarter than I will chime in as well.