Garmin Scales

Sea_Shell

Oh have I written it wrong?

The "target" was 12min/mi pace...but I can't run that slow!!

Averaged it out with some walk breaks 😉

I tried to concentrate on keeping my breathing slow and steady, and to relax (reducing HR)

Sea_Shell

Going back to Heart Rate Recovery (HRR), I found this chart on line.  Its probably a lot more technical than this, but it gives us a benchmark.



Basically the more BPM you drop, from max, in 1 min into a rest period, the fitter you are.

I've just looked at some numbers from my "interval" session on Friday, and on average (over 3 efforts i looked at), I maxed out at 180 bpm, and after 1 min of "rest", they had dropped to 146 bpm, so a drop (on average) of 34bpm in 1 minute.

Here, you can clearly see my 10x 2min efforts, followed by 2 min recoveries.  (I'd already jogged a 10 min warm up - this is zoomed in) 



So I think I'm doing OK. 


How you "train" for this, I'm not sure, but by trying to relax, breathe deeply, and slow your breathing you should bring you HR under control quicker.   I think?! 

  

Grumpy_chap

Thanks,
So I looked at the heart rate through my run yesterday:


Not the best of scale, but it seems to have dropped from 165ish to 110ish in 1.5ish minutes, so that's a rate of decrease of about 36 per minute

Sea_Shell

In case you weren't aware...If you log in to your Connect account on a laptop/desktop, you can get better graphs that you can zoom and hover on various points.

Grumpy_chap

Sea_Shell said:

In case you weren't aware...If you log in to your Connect account on a laptop/desktop, you can get better graphs that you can zoom and hover on various points.

Thanks - I was not aware.

Sea_Shell

Ooh, you'll have data coming out of your ears!!!😎

You can sort and compare workouts (up to 4) which is good for routes/sessions you do regularly... and export all the data to excel.

Assuming it's not model dependant 😉 

Sea_Shell

Just for a laugh, I decided to dig out the times from my PB's, having just run my first 10km, since getting my new watch, in a time of 1h06m.  (I was trying to push on a bit)   So that's another new target to go at.

They are (were) ...

5k - 25.15
5m - 40.35
10k - 51.33
HM - 1.54.43
Marathon - 4.27.41

Now considering these were all set, at least 10-15 years ago, I'm not sure I'll return to such lofty achievements now!!      I only started running in 2005.   I've never been a "natural" runner....not lithe, that's for sure.


How long have you been running GC?    Are you a natural whippet? 

Grumpy_chap

They are a good set of PB's - I have never done a longer distance than 5k.

I did another outside 5k on Monday morning, but my time was 24:30 so a bit slower than Saturday.  At least that shows my PB outside 5k was actually a proper "best".

I'd kind of like to do a marathon but really don't have the time to train for that type of event.  Squeezing in 5k to a tight schedule is relatively easy.  

I have certainly never been a runner before.  I was never into any sport when I was at school - always last in everything - and never bothered with any exercise at all as I could always just "do" whatever I wanted right up until I was 40.  In fact, fortieth Birthday I did the London to Brighton cycle ride - no training, just jumped on the bike and went. 

After that, my fitness went quite rapidly downhill so a year later I did the London Bridges cycle ride and it was virtually impossible to complete.  Because of that change, we joined a gym, but it was not actually convenient so never actually really uses it to gain advantage.

My health then deteriorated and my fitness plummeted with it.  By the time I was 43 I was really quite ill and unfit - my resting heart rate was over 120 bpm, I spent some time in hospital, some days I could hardly walk and if I could walk I'd get breathless and need to use the seats in the High Street.  About the biggest challenge I could face was to walk to Tesco to buy the milk, but the milk was too heavy to carry back and I would collapse.  I could not control body temperature and regularly had tremors, which meant I could not see clearly or control anything until it stopped.  It got so bad that I lost my job by the end of 2015 because of the amount of sickness absence.

So, I started my own business in December 2015 and that gave me an income again plus more flexibility on work hours and location (so I could "cover" when I was too exhausted), then joined a different gym which was better location and started doing  frequent (but irregular) exercise which really turned me around. 

The lady PT that did my gym induction was really surprised how weak and feeble I was and very little exercise would leave me exhausted on a gym mat (but better than exhausted on a gym mat than the bench in the High Street).  I still have the sheet of targets from my first gym session / programme that she set out for me and it's motivating to look back and see how far I have come.  Two examples:
 - Treadmill, 10 minutes at 7.3 kph (which I could not do) - my last treadmill run was 5k in 20:32
 - Leg press, 10 reps at 35kg (I could not even move 45kg) - I can now leg press 160 kg

I then began to realise that with the poor fitness and being so unwell, I'd also lost value of self-worth and any fashion etc.  Yet I never felt "down" because I did not realise, though (with hindsight) I realise and understand it was difficult for Mrs GC. 
So, it was a gradual improvement in fitness and I actually then found COVID to be the best thing as it gave me so much more time and I started running because it was one of the few things we were allowed to do - I set myself a target to get an outside 5k at 27 minutes as that was my Nephew's PB at that time (his age 20 then).  I was over the moon when I achieved 26:55.  29/11/2020.

I then found that running was something I could do fitness-wise, I enjoyed, and I was not totally useless at it.  That, in itself became self-motivating.  The improvements in my fitness have seen improvement in health, positivity and self-esteem so I now improving my appearance also (I've got a thread on that).

Sorry, that was a very long answer to the simple question:

Sea_Shell said:

How long have you been running GC?    Are you a natural whippet? 

Short answer = 2 or 3 years

I hope I didn't bore you, but I am actually proud of what I've changed and proof that anybody can do it.

Sea_Shell

Wow!!!   

That really is a journey* you've been on!!   Well done for getting to where you are.

I've always been fit(ish) and did some sport/exercise on and off so I've probably taken that for granted a bit.

I did get a bit lazy in my 20s, married, driving everywhere, drinking more, and got to about 12 stone at my heaviest.

I'd always watched the London marathon on TV, and after joining a running club, it started to become a realistic goal.

I was lucky in that I was on a career break so could dedicate the time needed to train properly and had the money for physio and sports massages as needed, so I managed to stay injury free.    The hardest part is making it to the start line!!

One is enough mind 😉



*Sorry if that sounds clichéd, but I didn't know what other word to use.

Sea_Shell

Oh and I totally agree about being able to run during lockdown.

It definitely kept me sane!!

If not a little bit paranoid about how far from home I should stray.   It was so nice with no traffic about 😉