I’ve been sick for a few weeks so I haven’t been running consistently. That needs to change since I’m about to ramp up training for the Flying Pig Marathon on May 5 – I need to get into the long runs pretty quick if I want to be in good shape for the race.
So that said, I went out and did a really easy and slow 10K yesterday with my running group. Today, I had planned to run a quick NYRR four miler (the Grid Iron Classic) and follow it up with another four. A quick build up to get my base miles in place so I can run 14 next weekend.
That changed when I got out there.
If you exercise regularly, it’s a safe bet that you’re aware of how heart rate effects your endurance. Almost everyone I know uses some sort of Heart Rate Monitor while they’re exercising to keep track of how hard their bodies are working.
I used to think this was bunk, and just another gadget, but when I first started using the HRM, I was running up a hill and breathing REALLY hard. I thought I was giving it my all. But when I looked at my heart rate, I noticed that it wasn’t close to my max (for my age at the time, it was something like 185 beats per minute), so I pushed it a little harder. And while found it harder to breath, I was able to sustain a faster pace and push myself harder.
I’ve taken this to a while new level over the years with speed work, tempo and recovery runs and everything in between.
Another thing I’ve learned is that my heart rate max is more like 181 beats per minute. This is the rate I can sustain for very short periods and not have any negative consequences.
But I want to talk about what happened to me during the race today.
One of the things that was reinforced for me today is that my max is a fluid thing and fully based on my current fitness. Case and point, over the last three weeks I’ve run a total of 44 miles. Usually, that number would be closer to 90 miles, but since I’ve been off the beam, I’m down 56 miles and that dramatically effects my fitness – no kidding, right?
It’s easy for me to tell my friends at the beginning of the race that I’m going to take it easy, that I’m not going to be a hero today, that since I’ve been sick, I’m really just interested in getting the race credit and the miles under my feet . . . but once the gun goes off, that all changes.
I become a competitor.
But what I don’t realize is that my actual fitness isn’t where my mind thinks it is. And if I push my heart rate past my max, there are negative consequences.
It’s happened to me on more than one occasion, but it’s been a few years.
I was about a quarter mile from the end of the race and decided to push it in order to finish in a good time. And then it happened. I started feeling nauseous. I pushed my heart rate past my max and felt awful.
Ultimately I yanked down the zipper on my thermal top to get more air. But it was to little too late.
Not to be graphic, but let’s just say the nausea got worse and after gagging a bunch and then expelling what was in my stomach, it got a lot better.
When I got home and looked at my heart rate it all made sense. Here’s what the last two miles looked like:
Look at the bump in my pace and the resulting rise in my heart rate towards the right of the graph.
Lesson learned, pushing the pace without being in top shape will result in negative consequences. I can’t say I won’t do it again, but I can tell you that I won’t do it again any time soon.
