PBIM HM Worst (hopefully) Performance

 Hopefully, this is the worst HM.  I was walking after 6km of run.  At times, I wanted to run and tried to run, but can only hold for awhile before I have to walk back.  I was really thinking DNF, but I couldn't find runners sitting aside waiting to be carried back, so, I just walked back painfully.

In the beginning of the run, I didn't feel any different.  The only thing was, for the last few training seasons before the race, my heartrate elevated easily.  Typically, my heartrate was ~135bpm when I ran at 8 min pace.  However, for last few seasons, my heartrate was close to 150bpm even at 8 min pace.  So, I have decided to take it easy this time.

However, after ~6km of run, I started to feel dizziness when I looked down, and I felt the dryness of my lips.  Since my friend sent an article on people die while running with one of the symptom is lack of water.  As I was worry about my situation, I started to walk/run a bit in 7km.  After having a drink, I tried to start running but the dizziness feel when I looked down still remained.  So, I decided to just walk until the end.

The thinking of DNF started to surface up in my mind.  I was looking around to see if I can find any runner sitting beside the road waiting for transportation to fetch them back.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any.  So, I just kept walking and told myself to stop if I see DNF runners.  While walking, I started to wonder I can finish the HM before the cut0-off time.  This is the 1st time I had that doubt in my mind for HM distance.

Eventually, I finished the distance at 3 hour 19 mins, 10 mins before cut-off.

When I think back, these are the possible issues I had for this race:-

1.  Lack of water:  From all previous races, I will need to pass out urine before the race and then after 1 hour+, I will need to pass out urine another time for HM distance.  For this time, I don't feel the urge to pass out urine and even for the whole 3 hours + walking.

2.  Lack of rest: For this time, the day before, I still visited Taiping Zoo with family and only reach Penang ~4pm.  While trying to sleep at 7pm, I woke up 8+pm and couldn't sleep again until the race started.

3.  Higher heartrate: For some reasons, my heartrate was higher at typical pace, which I still have no idea of the cause.

I can have solution for the first 2 possible causes but not the 3rd one.  I can only monitor the progress of the 3rd one and hopefully the medical check out in Feb will have some hints.

Fuel:-

1.  Instant noodle with eggs 2 hours before the race.

2.  1.5L water 2 hours before the race.

PBIM HM with Garmin Training Plan

 This is the running post agan after 4 years.  Mainly due to lack of event that I joined in 2019 and no event organized during the year of 2020 and 2021 due to COVID.  Starting 2022, running event started again.

However, in 2021, only virtual running events were being organized.  For the last 2~3 Virtual HM, I find it harder and hard to complete it.  Thus, I decided to follow a free trainng plan.  Garmin Training plan was chosen since I am using Garmin watch.

Throughout the whole training plan, I did follow more than 90% of the training, except for cross training.  The training that I skipped was due to either raining or personal engagement.  Out of 80 trainings, only 2 activities that I skipped due to personal reason.

By following Garmin Training plan, I managed to increase my weekly mileage to more than 30km without serious pain.  Previously, when I run on myself, whenever I reached weekly mileage of 20km, I started to feel pain at my leg.

There are 2 main differences between the training plan and I run by myseft.  Firstly, the training plan ask for cool down (walk) of 5~10 mins after each training session that I didn't do that when I run myself.  Secondly, there are variety of running style, Interval, Easy, etc in Garmin Training Plan while I always run at almost the same pace when I run myself.  These are the 2 main different that I am able to log more than 30km per week, I think.

Although I am not able to improve my time after joining the Garmin Training Plan, but I didn't feel out of breath by running with this pace, not like a few HMs before.  I guess this is the improvement from the plan.

Following is the HR vs Pace for HM from my available data, ie. 10.6sec/km improvement for 5s increase in HR.

As for this particular run, the pace vs HR is as follow.

HM Heart Rate Trend

While I focus a lot on the heart rate, my pace has been reducing tremendously recently.  My hope for training with heart rate (MAF) can help to increase weekly mileage without injury was wrong.  I have been suffering from Plantar Fasciitis for the last 2 months.  This makes the coming PBIM to be challenging as I have reduced my weekly mileage to less than 10km/week for almost the whole October.

However, I took the chance to summary my HM pace trend together with HeartRate as follows:-

As the pace slower recently the average heartrate also reducing.  I will interpret this as no much change in terms of heart rate vs pace.

Plotting heartrate vs pace will get the graph below:-

Hopefully, to run at 170bpm I can be with pace around 6 min/km.

MAF Heart Rate Training

After reading the articles regarding MAF training (https://philmaffetone.com/want-speed-slow-down/) and with the hope that I can increase my weekly mileage to around 40km per week without injury, I had decided to following this method of training for 3 month while increasing weekly mileage. By following the formula of 180-age as the max MAF training heart rate, I find it very difficult to run at 140 bpm. With my run of longer than 10 km, it is very difficult to keep below the max MAF heart rate without a walking rest.  A few days before end of my 1st month of trying, I came across another article from StrengthRunning (http://strengthrunning.com/2015/02/maffetone-method-and-base-training/).  So, I have decided to deviate a bit from MAF training recommended by Dr. Maffetone by adding in strides (suggested by http://strengthrunning.com/2018/02/base-training-fundamentals/) at the end of the easy run.

Following is my running using MAF method for 1st month (analyzed using http://www.graphmyrun.com/).

From above charts, Jan 23 and Jan 25 runs were with wider spread of heart rate due to slightly hilly routes and I was just learning to run by heart rate.  However, starting Feb, it seems that I can control my heart rate throughout the run better.  The higher max heart rate in Jan 30 run was due to hilly route.


For 2nd month, I have decided to modify the MAF to include strides in the training.

Here's my base training plan in the coming month:-

• Keep the max MAF heart rate as base.
• Add strides at the end of run with max time of 10%, ie. if I plan a run of 40 mins, I will add in 4 mins of strides.  This to ensure 90% of training time is within max MAF heart rate.
• Add in strength training and stretches in my weekly schedule!

The training zones on my first run with strides is as below:-

Still able to keep 90% of time within max MAF heart rate with 20s strides (40 steps, ~ 100m) for 5 times.  Will practice the above for 2 runs during weekday and long run during weekend.

My new (again) Heart Rate Training Zone

I have been having difficulty to determine my max heart rate.  Initially back in Dec 2012, I concluded that my max heard rate was 188 bpm.  Then, back in Jan 2015, I noticed my heart rate of 196bpm and thus determine that my max heart rate was 196 bpm.  However, starting 2016 and 2017, I started to read my heart rate of even more than 200 bpm, which I started to doubt the reading.

After talking to a colleague who has been running for more than 30 years, he told me that very likely my heart rate monitoring device is having issue.  I didn't immediately got a new heart rate monitoring belt until I misplaced it.  I then get myself a new heart rate monitoring belt.

With the new belt, I found out that my heart rate is more consistent now.  With the very high stress in the Station 4 running of Penang Round Island Relay with uphill, I found my heart rate of 186 bpm.  After checking the old post in 2012, where heart rate monitoring belt was new, to know that my max heart rate was determined as 188 bpm, I now think that my max heart rate of 186 bpm is more accurate now.

With that, the new training zones are with follows:-

Easy Run (recovery zone)
Pace: 1~2 mins slower than marathon pace
% Max hear rate: 65 to 78% [120~144 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 3 to 4/easy
Talk Test: Complete conversation
Training Run (aerobic zone)
Pace: Marathon pace or slightly slower
% Max hear rate: 80 to 89% [148~165 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 5 to 6/moderate
Talk Test: Full sentences

Tempo Run (threshold zone)
Pace: 20 to 30 seconds slower than 5-K pace
% Max hear rate: 88 to 92% [163~170 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 7 to 8/hard
Talk Test: A few words at a time
Intervals Run (VO2 max zone)
Pace: Mile to 5-K pace or faster
% Max hear rate: 95 to 100% [176~185 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 9/very hard
Talk Test: Can't... talk... must... run...

I will be focusing to increase my weekly mileage to be more than 40 km before working on speed, I will be mostly training at Easy pace with max heart rate of ~144 bpm.  Only with I managed to increase my weekly mileage to be more than 40 km or around that, I will pick a day to train for Training Run and Tempo Run.  Again, during that time, has to work harder on the core strength too!

Training Plan for 2015

I started to get serious about training again 2 months after the Penang Bridge Marathon last Nov.  After the run, I was just running 10~15km a week and skipping run whenever I don't feel like running.

Anyway, I started to be more serious in training again.  By more serious, I meant planning out my running schedule, trying to plan my run to avoid crash with other commitment, look into running mileage per week, look at running intensity, etc.

Following is my guideline to plan out my training plan for 1st half of the year:-

1.  For each run, the min running time is 30 mins.  This is translating to around 5km for my speed.
2.  Add in Tempo Run to my training.  From various articles that I read, my Tempo Run pace should be around 5:20~5:30min/km or heart rate of more than 170bpm.  For a start, I will alternating between Tempo Run and Long Run each week and hope eventually, I can run Tempo Run during weekday and Long Run at weekend.  For the whole last year, I was focusing in increasing my running mileage and mostly run at easy pace.  My target was to improve my monthly mileage to 70~80km consistently at the end of next year.  For now, I hope to keep at least 60km for my monthly mileage while adding Tempo Run training in.
3.  Run Strides at the end of my run every now and then.  My definition of strides is following this article from Strength Running.  I will just start with once per week and eventually increase to run strides at the end of everey easy run.
4. Lastly, my recovery week will be once every 3 weeks.

The planning above will only give me around 2.5 hours of running per week while the doctor suggested me to exercise at least 5 hours a week.  In order to make it 5 hours a week, I will have to run for 5 days a week so that I still can mange my long run.

I will see how it goes at the end of the 1st half of this year to decide my 2nd half training plan

My new Heart Rate Training Zone

After having the heart rate monitoring device for 2 years, I finally found my max heart rate.  This is because I only wear the heart rate monitoring device during actual race recently.  From recent race monitoring, my max heart rate can go as high as 196 bpm instead of 188 that I initially determined before.  Also, from various testing, my resting heart rate is now 65 bpm instead of close to 80 bpm when I initially started running.

With this discovery, the following training zones are now revised.

Easy Run (recovery zone)
Pace: One to two minutes slower than marathon pace
% Max heart rate: 65 to 78% [127~153 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 3 to 4/easy
Talk Test: Complete conversation
Training Run (aerobic zone)
Pace: Marathon pace or slightly slower
% Max heart rate: 80 to 89% [157~175 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 5 to 6/moderate
Talk Test: Full sentences
Tempo Run (threshold zone)
Pace: 20 to 30 seconds slower than 5-K pace
% Max heart rate: 88 to 92% [171~180 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 7 to 8/hard
Talk Test: A few words at a time
Intervals (VO2 max zone)
Pace: Mile to 5-K pace or faster
% Max heart rate: 95 to 100% [186~196 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 9/very hard
Talk Test: Can't...talk...must...run...

I have changed the max heart rate percentage to follow Jack Daniels' definition.  Also, I didn't use resting heart rate for the above calculation this time.

Just by looking at the number, I think haven't been training in Tempo Run zone all the time (although I though that I was training in that zone) not to mention about the Interval zone.  As for my easy run, I am running kind of too hard to make the heart rate falls into the Training Zone.  In conclusion, if following the heart rate training zone, I have been training mostly in Training Zone almost all the time so far!

My Life Has Been Unfriendly to Running

That's right, my life has been unfriendly to running lately.  I haven't been serious in training after the Malakoff Run in March as I knew I had to stop running for awhile after my operation on April 18.  I tried to start running again 10 days after the operation but I stopped after a few steps. I felt the pain when running.  So, I had to start to run again at later time.

Two weeks after my operation, I started to run again with just 1km run slowly.  Slowly picking up the mileage to 3km in 10 days time (after 4 run), I was then forced to stop due to heavy workload.  The few 3~4 hours sleep at several nights and followed with no rest day at all for straight 2 weeks with 15~16 hours of working hour per day causing my resting heart beat to be as high as 90 bpm (~25% higher than my regular resting heartbeat).  I was just too tired to anything.

I finally managed to squeeze 1 hour out for running.  After 2km of run, I felt so tired.  However, I eventually forced myself to complete the 3km run that I intended to.  But this was a very tiring 3km run after all.

My Max Heart Rate

From the recent stress test in medical check up, I was asked to run until my max heart rate using.  Even when I reach my max heart rate, I feel that I can still proceed with the run and my heart rate continue to increase.  So, I started to find out more about the max heart rate calculation of 220-age.

After some search in the internet, I realized that the general formula is the average of all human being regardless of health condition and living habits.  According to an article, the true max heart rate for a healthy man is higher than what is calculated from the formula.

Further search suggested that we can find our own max heart rate.  That is very good.  I followed what is suggested in Runner's World article, Learn to Find Your Max Heart Rate, and come out with my own max heart rate.  It turns out to be 188 bpm, which I think is more accurate.  There's another formula in calculating max heart rate, ie. 205-(0.5*age).  Using the formula will give my max heart rate of 185 bpm, which is close to what I got myself.

So, I will use 188 bpm as max heart rate and 72 bpm as resting heart rate to formulate my training zone target.

Here's the training zone suggested in Runner's World.

Easy Run (recovery zone)
Pace: One to two minutes slower than marathon pace
% Max heart rate: 65 to 70% [148~154 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 3 to 4/easy
Talk Test: Complete conversation
Training Run (aerobic zone)
Pace: Marathon pace or slightly slower
% Max heart rate: 75 to 85% [159~171 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 5 to 6/moderate
Talk Test: Full sentences
Tempo Run (threshold zone)
Pace: 20 to 30 seconds slower than 5-K pace
% Max heart rate: 88 to 92% [174~179 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 7 to 8/hard
Talk Test: A few words at a time
Intervals (VO2 max zone)
Pace: Mile to 5-K pace or faster
% Max heart rate: 95 to 100% [183~188 bpm]
Perceived Effort: 9/very hard
Talk Test: Can't...talk...must...run...