I’m looking for help with understanding the following results from the only two 10K races in my life – the first as part of the LA Triathlon three weeks ago, and the second last Saturday as a stand-alone 10K (Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair).
LA Tri 10K Run Split Time 1:00:22 AveHR=149 MaxHR=157
Manhattan Beach 10K Time 52:15* AveHR=168 MaxHR=176
Questions
Why would my ave and max HR for the tri 10K run be so much lower than that for the stand-alone 10K? Is that normal? Is it possible my body was just too tired in the tri to run fast enough to match the HR in the stand-alone 10K? In the tri, I did feel like I had to keep reminding myself to run faster. Also, my HR for the bike leg of the tri was 145 Ave, 153 Max, not much lower than the run.
Would 168 be a good approximation for LT HR? If so, that would explain why I felt like I was undertraining on my runs when I based target heart rates off a lower LT HR estimate.
For what it’s worth, my pace in the stand-alone 10K was basically an even split, about 8:25/mile for the first three miles and 8:26/mile for the last 3.2 miles. In the last 1.2 miles, I ran an 8:06/mile pace, so at least I finished faster.
So any feedback would be helpful, other than that I’m not very fast, which I know
Thanks,
Steve
Doesn’t count the 35 seconds of shuffle-stepping before I got to the start line and could actually start to lift a foot off the ground, much less run.
that is a pretty limited data set from which to draw conclusions (assuming data is accurate - hrm’s can go on the blink during races).
Depending on how you felt on the oly 10k, it is quite possible that you fried yourself and thus were unable to elevate HR (especially seeing as you negative split the open 10k quite considerably so it was a conservative effort pace-wise).
For HR & run training and racing my 02 is to focus first on developing a sense of easy pace, moderate or steady pace, and hard pace based on RPE and using HR as a secondary indicator. Eventually you won’t need to look at the HRM to know your HR, and you won’t need to analyze data too much to know what went wrong and what went right in races.
But hard pace (call it LT pace if you like) for me at least as an IMer is pretty close to my max 10k effort, which is a ~40min max sustainable effort. Moderate is often LT minus 10-15bpm, easy is often LT minus 20-40bpm, but that is just a generalization.
FWIW my 10k oly and open HR is pretty much the same, although my open PB (39) is 7mins faster than my oly 10k PB (46).
I’d be interested to hear everyones stand alone vs. tri run distances PBs… how close you can get to stand alone effort in oly 10k, HIM 13.1 and IM 26.2. Do I remember hearing a +10% or so general rule?
Why would my ave and max HR for the tri 10K run be so much lower than that for the stand-alone 10K? Is that normal? Is it possible my body was just too tired in the tri to run fast enough to match the HR in the stand-alone 10K? In the tri, I did feel like I had to keep reminding myself to run faster. Also, my HR for the bike leg of the tri was 145 Ave, 153 Max, not much lower than the run.
Yes, you answered your own question. I never acheive the same heart rate in a tri as i can in a stand-alone race. My half marathon heart rates starts at 165ish for the first mile drifts up to 183 by mile 5 and then holds at 183 for the next 6-7 miles before climbing up to 185-186. In a half-Ironman my run starts at 165 and climbs to 175 and that is as high as it goes. Legs are too tired to push harder.
I don’t remember any heart rate numbers for O-distance 10K, but in an open race I start out at 185 and drift up to 190-192. One 8K I ran I started at 188 and averaged 191, however, I didn’t run very well compared to a month earlier when my average heart rate was 185. There is a lot more that goes into a good race than just your heart rate, so don’t get too caught up about what you are reading.
I generally use the monitor on the bike, but I don’t use it for any pacing by the time I start running. You may want to if you are running an IM marathon though, but that is just what I hear from friends.
Thanks for the input, John. Yes, it is a very limited data set, I know When training for the Oly, I was following the Bernhardt book for beginners, and trying to match the run to HR levels just seemed off – that is, it didn’t seem like my effort matched my HR zones, based on an LT HR estimate from a 20 to 25 minute run like it said in the book.
I guess I should have followed my gut, which told me that I wasn’t running hard enough in training. But what do I know, I’m a beginner, and I didn’t want to overtrain. Now I know what many of you do, which is take HR in context with perceived effort.
Training, pacing, etc…It’s all a learning process, right?
Thanks. I’m trying to figure out exactly what my body is capable of, how hard to push, the right pace at different points in a race, etc. During the races I didn’t really pay attention to my HR, except in the stand-alone 10K, worrying at the beginning that maybe I was going too hard because my HR was higher than I expected. But I didn’t slow down, and ran based on effort and pace, anyway.
What I did pay attention to on my monitior during the race was the run pace info, not HR. I’ve got the Polar 625X with the footpod, so I like having the real-time feedback on my min/mile pace. Even if the pace is off a little because the distance measurement is usually off (I never calibrated it), it’s probably off by a consistent amount, so the pace info is still useful to see.
For now, I think I’ll run more based on effort, then see how a bigger set of HR data correlates, or not, before pacing my runs based on HR.
When training for the Oly, I was following the Bernhardt book for beginners, and trying to match the run to HR levels just seemed off – that is, it didn’t seem like my effort matched my HR zones, based on an LT HR estimate from a 20 to 25 minute run like it said in the book.