In their words: Heart rate training sparks a running revival

But if you are anything like me, that is about where the understanding of heart rate training came to an end. For some reason I wore my heart rate strap religiously as if someday all of that data I was collecting was going to shed light as to how I could become faster.

Coming back after a recent injury allowed me some time to realign my goals. I had been focused on trail running for the last couple years and the 4-5 hour runs were really cutting into the time I was spending with my family. I needed to find a way to get excited not only about shorter runs, but also my return to the pavement.

A couple years ago, a local trainer had shared a book with me which made a whole lot of sense to me. "Training for Endurance" was written by Philip Maffetone and it really hit home. What I took from his book was this: Fuel is the foundation of endurance. It is possible to train your body to utilize more of your fat stored as fuel and still be fast. The key is keeping your heart rate below your anaerobic threshold (AT). Maffetone uses a simple equation (180 bpm minus your age) for determining your AT. Once you find your AT heart rate, this becomes your baseline.

I had discovered my inspiration and set out on my journey to re-align my fuel supply. During my first run, I knew there was a problem. I tend to run a bit hot in regards to my heart rate. In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for me to do an entire run around 185 bpm. According to the formula, I was to be running at 145 bpm and it was uncomfortably slow. Mark Allen, who successfully used Maffetone’s concept even called it “patience training” but for me, I was nearly walking.

Enter the supportive wife… When I arrived home from my run, my wife had the car pulled out and an appointment for me to have my VO2 MAX tested. This test and the post-op follow-up finally gave me clarity and motivation to really get me on a new path with my training. To my relief, we determined that my actual AT was closer to 170 bpm! I also learned that when I was running at 170 bpm, my body would be using 66% fat and 33% carbohydrate as energy.

I have been on my new program for about four months now and I have really loved my new approach. If you had told me that my new training plan would involve me being perfectly happy running 45 minutes by myself on perfectly flat asphalt I would have never believed you.

The proof is in the pudding and every month, just for fun, I do a one mile time trial to track my progress. After a 15-minute warm up, I hit the track. When my heartrate reaches 170 bpm, I hit the start button and keep it at 170 bpm the whole time. The Forerunner is perfect not only at monitoring my heart rate and keeping track of my laps, but amazing for reviewing my splits afterward. My first time trial in December was done in 7:11. Only 2 months of disciplined training later I had improved to 6:25.

So if you are anything like me, occasionally you will need to mix things up in your training. This method can be a bit lonely and it makes you stay away from hills, but it finally gave me some insight as to how to understand heart rate training as well as provide enough of a change to get me excited for my workouts.

Thanks, Chris, and keep up the great training. And be sure to check out the new Forerunner 405CX, with heart rate-based calorie computation. We'll have more guest posts from the experts in our various markets, so stay tuned or send us your own stories of how Garmin devices have helped you embrace your favorite activities.

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