Knowing that I have a very addictive personality, is it any wonder that I am now hooked on running with a heart rate monitor strapped around my chest? Today I wanted to do an easy pace but my legs felt good so I decided to try and do as close to an exact race pace (8 min/mile) as possible for 6 miles. I also wanted to get a better gauge as to what my heart rate should be when I run at race pace.
During my marathon there will be times when my pace will speed up or slow down (hopefully not too much though). During my run today I wanted to stay at roughly the same pace and I managed to do that very well. My average pace was 7:59 and I finished the run in 47:53 (my goal was 48 minutes). I found that my heart rate hovered around the 154 bpm range. My maximum heart rate based on my age is 179 so 154 is 86% of my maximum heart rate.
Using the heart rate reserve method is an even better way to gauge fitness as it uses your resting heart rate in the equation. This is mine:
220-41= 179 - resting heart rate (50)= 129 X 86%= 110 + resting heart rate (50)=160
Therefore, 160 beats per minute represents 86% of my maximum heart rate which corresponds remarkably well to where I was yesterday and today.
Tomorrow will be an even greater test as I will have to run close to 90% or higher of my maximum heart rate as I do my track work. Can you tell that I am hooked?
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