So, this marks the end of my first week with heart rate training. I've never used heart rate training before and I'm understanding what people mean when they say that it can be "frustrating". Apparently, while I am in good enough shape to run 8 min/miles, I am not in good enough shape to run 8 min/miles without my heart rate going sky-high.
This means that to follow the heart rate training that my coach insists upon, I have to shuffle. Pushing at this stage, according to coach, will only lead to fatigue, illness, and burnout. Shuffling will lead to getting faster.
As my coach says: "Many of you are fit enough to run races and get the workouts done. However, most athletes without a history of HR training have poor aerobic function. While you are fit, you are not aerobically fit. What this means is that your heart works too hard for the work you are doing. The result - fitness plateau, injury, illness, burnout. If you've ever experienced any of this, you need to improve your aerobic capacity NOT work harder to go faster."
So, instead of training to go fast by pushing and hurting, I'm training to go fast by shuffling and walking. I was on the path last night wearing my Boston Marathon jacket and wishing that I weren't as runner after runner after runner passed me (I hate being passed on the path!). A friend from my old running group (who I can beat on a good day) zoomed past me and did a double-take, then looked confused as realized that I was not, in fact, injured. I made some lame excuse about being sabotaged by my coach and told him to zoom off (at 8:30s probably), so he didn't feel bad about not wanting to run so slowly with me.
I'm pretty sure that there's a lesson to be found in this...something about patience...or enjoying the journey...or something like that. I'll have plenty of uninterrupted time to figure it out as I run 11 min/miles for the next month. Be sure and wave as you pass me.
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As someone who has spent the last 3ish years with a 20k row at 21 strokes-per-minute on my workout schedule, I KNOW how that feels. It is annoying enough that I skip it half the time, now that my coach doesn't live in the country. However, nothing impacted my performance more. At least in rowing (and certainly in triathlon), you have to be able to have that base to not only do well in the first part of the race (or your first heat), but to be able to recover quickly and kick ass in later heats. That was the difference between we who did HR training and the schmucks who thought they could do without it...in heat 4, you were still able to access that burst of speed while the other guy was spent. Sooo counter-intuitive and annoying. But keep that in mind as people zoom past you! (Of course, I've skipped almost everything in the past 10 weeks, but that's neither here nor there...)
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