As I continue to experiment with heart rate training (my current bit of reading is the Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot), I am finding that my initial reaction to training with the monitor is common–that I feel like I’m going too slowly when I do my “easy” days.

What I’ve noticed, three weeks in, is that while I seem to be gaining a little speed, I’m gaining a lot more: i’m not nearly as sore after runs and I can go for a long time. In less than a month my long runs are now at 7 miles–more than the length of a 10K–and next week I go for 8. Interestingly, while my back is not 100% after these runs, I feel tons better the day after than I used to.

And my shorter runs–the three milers, which are turning into four milers soon–are dedicated to going “hard”. But hard is not as hard as I thought it would be either.

If anything, the easy days are psychologically hard–I feel like I’m supposed to go faster and hurt more. In fact, toward the end of Sunday’s seven miler I was almost walking to keep my heart rate down.

It’ll be interesting to see what my speed is like in a few weeks.
[ad]