The Running thread

@DJMayes here you are:

Zone 1< 147
Zone 2148 - 161
Zone 3162 - 175
Zone 4176 - 187
Zone 5> 187

Source

I compared this to myself for both lab tests and a friend that also did lab test and it's pretty accurate, albeit slightly on the high end. You can adjust your watch to those paces, feel free to lower them a bit if they feel too high.

I don't know how your watch came up with those zones, but they seem completely off especially the lower ones.
In case you can see your paces in Strava (not available in free version) like below, it will be helpful to compare your paces with the heart rate zones table above for fine tuning.

pace zones.jpeg
1. Active recovery =HR Zone 1
2. Endurance =HR Zone 2
3. Tempo =HR Zone 3
4. Threshold =HR Zone 4 low
5. VO2max =HR Zone 4 high
6. Anaerobic =HR Zone 5
 
____no5 said:
@DJMayes here you are:

Zone 1< 147
Zone 2148 - 161
Zone 3162 - 175
Zone 4176 - 187
Zone 5> 187
Click to expand...
Thanks!

I've done a little bit of reading into the matter and I think I know what has happened. The heart zones on my watch are as follows:

Zone 1: 100 - 120 bpm (50-60% of max HR)
Zone 2: 120 - 140 bpm (60-70% of max HR)

and so on. However, the 50-60% should not be of the max HR: it should be of effort, which is defined as the difference between the maximum and resting heart rates. If we take a resting heart rate of 60 (not exact, but simple to calculate with) then the zones would be:

Zone 1: 130 - 144 bpm
Zone 2: 144 - 158 bpm
Zone 3: 158 - 172 bpm
Zone 4: 172 - 186 bpm
Zone 5: 186 - 200 bpm

This looks much closer to what you posted! It also explains why I have been finding heart rate training so hard; I've been trying to do it in Zone 1 the entire time...
 
I've now dug deeper into my Garmin settings and the above is indeed exactly what was happening - it uses % of Max HR as a default, but there are options to change it to % of HRR (heart rate reserve, aka the effort above) and another. I've now changed that setting and entered in the average resting HR of 64 by watch has measured and it has spit out the following zones:

Z1: 128 - 140
Z2: 140 - 153
Z3: 153 - 166
Z4: 166 - 178
Z5: 178 - 191
 
They are a bit low now. Better than before for sure, but still. Also the fact that zone 5 ends in 191 makes no sense.

Zone 5 you won’t need it for a while but you almost lost the zone 4 which is what you need to work for intervels.

Those are more useful settings:
DJMayes said:
Zone 1: 130 - 144 bpm
Zone 2: 144 - 158 bpm
Zone 3: 158 - 172 bpm
Zone 4: 172 - 186 bpm
Zone 5: 186 - 200 bpm
Click to expand...
 
Second milestone in a row:
During my long run I managed to run a half marathon distance in less than 2 hrs (5:39/km pace) and kept my heart rate at zone 2 (140bmp)!
This was my 3rd fastest half marathon so far.
:cheers:
In addition I didn't sleep all night due to jet lag and it was snowing in the park.
6 months ago my goal was to run a sub 2 hours half marathon; I did that, then started to train with a coach for a sub 4 marathon and I continue training with the coach after that.
Today's run was the pay off from this journey and clear indication of progress.
 
I've been meaning to post on here for a while now and never do, because I wanted to share pictures, but I never get around to it. I finally got a pair of ASICS GEL-CONTEND 8. When I went to the store and asked for "ASICS walking shoes," the salesman was like, "right over here." The pairs he showed me were like $200 dollars (on sale!) and I was like, uuuuuuh I don't know about that. I started thinking how they'd be an investment as I am walking a lot and they'll be good for at least 5 years. But I guess he saw my hestitation and said, "Well, those are the ELITE line, here are the mid-range models," and those were 100 dolares on sale. Much more doable on my budget and I didn't feel like I was going to go hungry for buying shoes.

Night and day from my old pair. It's like walking on clouds. My feet no longer hurt, my legs don't get as sore either, but I think that's just from getting in better shape overall. I got them just in time too, because the morning bus has been extremely unreliable as of late so I've had to walk an extra 20 minutes in the morning to catch the next one. So I'm walking 30 min in the morning and 45 in the afternoon just from the bus to my house, add the 2 hours from each of my 5 classes and yeah, they were very much needed.
 
Onhell said:
I started thinking how they'd be an investment as I am walking a lot and they'll be good for at least 5 years.
Click to expand...

If you wear them all the time I’d say about a year or year and half. For running there’s a rule of thumb of 800km, which for the quantities I’m running is 4 months, but also when running the forces are quite significant. For walking I’d expect about the double.

I’m monitoring the kilometers I’m doing on each shoe via Strava App as I have multiple shoes on my rotation.
Lately I bought 2 more pairs of ASICS Superblast (old one 850km) and 1 pair of ASICS GEL-Nimbus 25 (old one 600km) and wore them one new one old on my feet, the difference is striking something you wouldn’t understand otherwise.

Anyway, I ordered/received tailor made insoles (100€) from the lab I measured my VO2 max and put them on the old ASICS GEL-Nimbus 25 which now I’ll be using for walking only.

IMG_2270.jpeg
 
____no5 said:
If you wear them all the time I’d say about a year or year and half...
Click to expand...

I'm hoping for 2, because I think the only reason they lasted 5 years was due to the COVID lockdowns and getting a car, so I was only walking in class mostly, once we went "back to work." So that may have artificially extended the lifespan. Again, I wore mine down to the point where they started slipping on tile, because the sole was worn completely smooth. Now that I no longer have my car and I walk everywhere all the time again I also think it will be at most 2 years, but totally worth it.

Come Christmas I'll get a second pair to do rotations.
 
Yeah even 2 years could be, walking it's not so much of stress for knees as running is (where the cushioning -provided protection is a real need) just that bounciness and walking on cloud feeling may disappear after 1 year or so.

I have no second thoughts when I buy new and expensive shoes, it's not like I go to the bars /restaurants every day, giving 200$ every 4 months for something I love plus protect my knees I'm happy to do.
 
Cambridge Half Marathon completed!:

Screenshot_20240303-154929~2.png
Screenshot_20240303-154940~2.png
I am extremely happy. I gave a predicted time of 2:15.00 when signing up, and my previous race PB was 2:08.50. This was over 3 minutes quicker than that!
 
Huge congratulations! How was the experience? Had you walked? Struggled? Demons in the head to ask you quit? Had you had runners’ high?

Management of the race was exceptional you even did a negative split, you surely can do a sub 2hrs half marathon.

Can you walk now?
 
____no5 said:
Huge congratulations! How was the experience? Had you walked? Struggled? Demons in the head to ask you quit? Had you had runners’ high?

Management of the race was exceptional you even did a negative split, you surely can do a sub 2hrs half marathon.

Can you walk now?
Click to expand...
Thanks!

The majority of the race was surprisingly comfortable. I settled reasonably early, and I think the sheer number of runners helped as it stopped me from going too fast off the start.

I didn't walk at all during the race! The main struggle came from kilometres 19-20. This is in the town centre, and it's close enough to the finish line geographically that the whole time I was thinking "how do i still have so far to go?". Once I hit km 20, things improved - I skipped ahead to the final song in my playlist (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner) and knew I just had to keep running until the end of that.

I am (even more surprisingly) functional now - tired legs and wouldn't trust myself to squat but walking is fine.
 
Well I certainly get runners high most of the times, but it's not so much what happens after each time I run, as to the general effect running had in my life.
My life transformed towards the better after I start running in every single aspect. Especially my career has skyrocketed.

As we know from neuroscience, one of the biggest powers one can unleash is being in the present tense. This is what meditation teaches us.
I always thought that running is a form of meditation, you are focusing in the present, many thoughts come and go -as in meditation- but your effort is fixated in one thing: moving fwd, the equivalent of bringing your attention to your breath.

So adding to what the article says, running can teaches us to focus and being immersed in the present which two important ingredients for both success and true happiness.
 
I Couldn't agree more. Well, almost. Again, I'm done running and refuse to do so unless it's for my life (or to catch the bus/train). But I feel much better personally and physically now that I'm walking so much. The walks allow me to take in the sights, enjoy the birds, the sunlight, the breeze, etc. All of that helps me "stay present."
 
Reading this is all well and good but it is not something I find myself relating to in the slightest. Running is just that - running - and very much separate from the rest. It's exercise, it's necessary and I feel better about myself for having done it, but I would be reticent to attach any greater importance to it than that.
 
Sure, even for me, running is just running and I’m doing that just and only because I like it.

Though it did transformed my life and the lesson I take is that the addition of a single (and simple) habit, can change your life in ways you wouldn’t dream.
 
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