Pace or HR

mloc123

Which do you use? Pace zones calculated on race results or heart rate zones? I have been using heart rate zones up till now but these seem quite a bit slower than the pace zones as calculated from latest race result.

Any advice or feedback

tergat

mloc123 wrote: »

Which do you use? Pace zones calculated on race results or heart rate zones? I have been using heart rate zones up till now but these seem quite a bit slower than the pace zones as calculated from latest race result.

Any advice or feedback

mloc123,

Using HR zones is fine but be aware they can vary a lot depening on weather, glycogen stores, hydration status, recent sleep patterns, time of day, running terrain etc.

Using CURRENT paces from a RECENT race would be the better choice but always listen to your body and go by how you feel. When using CURRENT paces then you must consider the weather, recent sleep patterns, recent training, hydration status, terrain etc also.

Example: Joe recently runs 20.00 for 5km road race on flat course in good conditions. He decides to do a 5km paced workout of 5*1km in 4.00 with 90 seconds jog recovery on the track on Friday. Joe warms up on Friday but there is a strong wind. His CURRENT race pace is 4.00 per km but given the conditions and the fact he feels a little tried he decides to do the reps in 4.05. The POINT is Joe gets the same physiological benefit doing the reps in 4.05 that particular day as he would have doing them in 4.00 on a calm day.

Hope that helps.

Tergat

mloc123

tergat wrote: »

mloc123,

Using HR zones is fine but be aware they can vary a lot depening on weather, glycogen stores, hydration status, recent sleep patterns, time of day, running terrain etc.

Using CURRENT paces from a RECENT race would be the better choice but always listen to your body and go by how you feel. When using CURRENT paces then you must consider the weather, recent sleep patterns, recent training, hydration status, terrain etc also.

Example: Joe recently runs 20.00 for 5km road race on flat course in good conditions. He decides to do a 5km paced workout of 5*1km in 4.00 with 90 seconds jog recovery on the track on Friday. Joe warms up on Friday but there is a strong wind. His CURRENT race pace is 4.00 per km but given the conditions and the fact he feels a little tried he decides to do the reps in 4.05. The POINT is Joe gets the same physiological benefit doing the reps in 4.05 that particular day as he would have doing them in 4.00 on a calm day.

Hope that helps.

Tergat

Very helpful, thanks for taking the time to reply. I will work off pace and feel for the next few weeks and see how I find it.

colblimp

I tried the HR thing once but it was way too slow so I just go on pace now, although that's bloody slow as well lol!

pgibbo

I ran a lot off pace last year for the first time using the FIRST approach. This winter I decided to switch to HR zones based on Friel. After I did the 30 minute test and some steady and tempo runs I noticed that there was very little difference between the HR based splits and the pace ones from last summer.

As tergat pointed out, there are factors to be aware of with both. Listening to your body is the main thing though

mloc123

pgibbo wrote: »

I ran a lot off pace last year for the first time using the FIRST approach. This winter I decided to switch to HR zones based on Friel. After I did the 30 minute test and some steady and tempo runs I noticed that there was very little difference between the HR based splits and the pace ones from last summer.

As tergat pointed out, there are factors to be aware of with both. Listening to your body is the main thing though

Yeah, this is what I find... my Friel based (zone1-zone2) based on HR is quite a bit slowed than the zones based on my most recent race (mid December), likewise my tempo pace based on hr is slow and I could run at that pace for far too long.