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Friends:Breakheart DanTrail Pixie Trespas Kevin kZ Trailgrrl Michelle RunninRob Cookie Monster Steve Latour Pictures:AlbumRunning Data:20102009 2008 |
Sun, 13 Sep 2009Earlier this summer as I lay in bed with a 102 degree fever, I read an article from the June or August issue of Trail Runner Magazine. The artice was about recovering from a layoff from training, and I found it completely demoralizing. I had already lost nearly a month of training and would likely lose at least another. I read that after two weeks of not running, cardiovascular endurance as measured by VO2 max begins to drop considerably. Typically, a runner would need months to get back to his or her previous fitness level after a layoff of a few months. When August 1 rolled around and registration opened for the Stone Cat 50 Mile Race, I immediately filled out the form, wrote a check, sealed the envelope, and then tore it up. I've run only three times since then, for a measly 5 miles each time. The first two of these were in Boston's Fenway/Jamaica Pond area. For the first, I managed an average pace of 9:58 and heart rate of 163, which is quite high for such a slow pace. These aggregate numbers do not do justice to the experience, though. In fact, for the last three miles I was above 170 beats per minute for much of the time and walked out of concern for my heart. The second time, I averaged 9:05 with an average heartrate of 168. Again I ran the last three miles at a quite elevated heart rate. These were both very hot days, and I had a lot on my mind besides running. View Five Mile Run, August 17, 2009 in a larger map I considered that I may have been running too fast and driving my heart needlessly hard. True, a 9 minute mile is not fast to most of you out there, but for me, now, it's pretty speedy. I desided to consider a new measure of fitness that would take into account heartrate and pace and hopefully control for their relationship with each other. It seemed to me that both heartrate and pace will be low for a fitter runner. On the other hand, the lower one measure goes, the higher the other is likely to be. Therefore, the product of the two measures (pace times heartrate) will be lowest for the fittest runner, and may even be relatively constant over a variety of paces on flat terrain. Since heartrate is measured in beats per minute, and pace is measured in minutes per mile, their product will be beats per mile. Essentialy what we have is the number of heartbeats over the course of a mile. Speed will lower this measure by shortening the time and increase it by increasing the demand for energy. Applying this measure to my summer 5 mile runs, I get 1625 beats per mile for the first, and 1526 beats per mile for the second. Comparing these to earler runs when I was better trained, I have 1240 beats per mile for a half-marathon on June 11 and 1365 beats per mile for a 20.5 mile training run on May 31. As the Lyme Disease was incubating, I ran 13.2 miles at 1399 beats per mile and felt like crap afterward. At Race the Wilds, I ran 3.54 miles at 1631 beats per mile. Since this was almost completely steeply uphill, there should be no surprise the beats per mile measure is elevated. I'm ready to begin regular training again, and I've registered for the Ultra Division of the Fells Trail Race on December 5. I'm also carrying on an internal debate. Should I sign up for the Stone Cat Marathon? Should I be even more audacious and sign up for the Stone Cat 50? |
