High heart rate - push through or slow down?

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2006-02-26 3:30 PM

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Covington (New Orleans), La
Subject: High heart rate - push through or slow down?

Okay - will try to make this long story short.

 Post-Katrina, I had been reduced to run training only - no biking or swimming for about 4 months.  I was running about 4 hours a week just to keep some semblance of training in my routine.   Finally getting back in the swing of things and started biking and swimming again a couple of weeks ago.  My training schedule has increased from 4 hours a week to 10-12 hours a week.

My heart rate when running used to be in the low 150s average.  Over the past couple of weeks, with the other training mixed in and increased hours, my heart rate is staying in the high 160s to low 170s on the run if I try to run at the same speed I used to.

My question is this - even though my heart rate is higher than what it should be, I feel good on the run.   Should I just chalk this up to a little bit of fatigue and keep running at the same speed, or slow down when running to keep my h.r. where it should be?

Thanks!

2006-02-26 10:41 PM
in reply to: #354807

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Boulder, Colorado
Subject: RE: High heart rate - push through or slow down?

"Over the past couple of weeks, with the other training mixed in and increased hours, my heart rate is staying in the high 160s to low 170s on the run if I try to run at the same speed I used to."

And therein lies the problem - follow the HR, not the speed. Find your LT and train at the right HR, not the speed you think you should train with. :-)

2006-02-26 10:55 PM
in reply to: #354807

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Subject: RE: High heart rate - push through or slow down?
Yep...obey the HRM.  And that's probably one of the toughest things for us triathletes to do.  We have a certain pace that we know (think) we should be able to train at and we have a serious issue accepting anything less.  I'm the same way...I know very specifically what type of pace I can run at a given HR so if something isn't right that day I really need to have a serious conversation with myself to keep things in check and slow the pace.  This week is a good example...I'm running something like 9min pace at the top of Z2.  But I'm at altitude and dealing with lots of hills this week.  At home I'd be cruising easy at 7:20 pace at the same HR.  You just need to accept that the pace is simply a result of using the appropriate effort level and that pace may be impacted by various factors...let your HR dictate the pace and rest assured that you're doing the right thing for your training.
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