IronStork wrote:
Thanks for all the replies. To clarify I guess I'm trying to hone in on the trade off between pace and heart rate. Correct me if you disagree but my impression is that you have two options on the run:
1) run a consistent pace, but this will require more effort so your HR should continuously drift higher
2) run with a consistent heart rate, but this will mean your pace is slowing drifting lower.
Running 8:00/mile in the first 5 miles is significantly easier than the last 5. So do you target pace, or HR?
Maybe I'm overthinking this...
1. Yes your heart rate will likely go a bit higher. Until you hit the wall. At that point it will drop to a rate that, on a normal day, would be super-easy heart rate. Only you will have hit the wall and your pace will drop as well. At that point, you will be unable to pick up the pace or your heart rate, no matter what you do. So the limiting factor is not really heart rate.
2. I've run several marathons by heart rate. I've run many more without. The only ones that ever went really well were the latter. Not that I haven't had my share of bad marathons without a heart monitor.
I once said on this forum that heart rate was better than RPE. Caught a lot of hell for that but I didn't mean it in general. Ireally only meant it in one specific aspect: If the heart monitor said my heart rate was too high early on, it always was right. Always.
Unfortunately I experienced the odd effect that monitoring my heart rate seemed to make it go higher. I'm not kidding. If I monitored myself at a given pace, my heart rate would prove higher than if I did not. I could see it in the data. I could see it on the watch. (Maybe Heisenberg's Uncertainly Principle applies to running...)
Anyway if you train by heart rate, I sure don't want to be the Random Internet Guy to tell you not to use it in your race. But perhaps you should use it as I suggested using the watch; That is, if the heart monitor tells you that your rate is too high early on, then fine, slow down a bit. But if it tells you it is "too low", ignore it.
Either way, sooner or later you have to learn how to pace yourself without a metric. It's critical to racing consistently well, in my opinion.