Advice on pacing long runs to manage heart rate drift
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Hi all,
I find that on runs lasting longer than two hours it starts to become difficult to choose an initial pace that will not exceed my AeT HR by the end of the run. I am wondering if there are any commonly employed strategies or heuristics you all use for deciding on a starting pace or HR for longer runs? Or do you just go by experience?
I’m approaching the end of my 50k training plan, and for training runs of about 15miles and upwards I have very little experience to fall back on for settling on an starting HR, and tend to blow up towards the end of the run. I am monitoring my HR, so I know when i’m reaching the top of zone 2, but find it very difficult to adjust enough at that point to make a meaningful difference to the upward drift of my HR.
For me, even a pace that feels very very comfortable and corresponds to a low HR, will drift up to and over AeT HR by the end of a 3 hour run.
Some ideas that I had, but haven’t tried yet:
– Calculating a starting HR based on an assumed HR drift of 5% per hour compounded over the estimated length of the run.
ie, for my AeT HR of 150, with a four hour run and a HR drift of 5% per hour, I would need to start (or try to average the first hour, maybe) with a pace that corresponds to a 124bpm HR, in order to accommodate that 1.21% total increase.
– Setting hourly pace targets: ie. my AeT pace measured on a treadmill at #2 grade is 9.30 minute/mile, so to accommodate that I could attempt to decrease my pace by ~5% every hour or ~30sec/mile.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Joe: Great questions. Have you done an AnT test to see the spread between AeT and AnT? With a 9:30 pace at AeT it is possible that this spread might be less than 10%, in which case you might want to be doing more of your aerobic base training down in Zone 1 or around 125-135. That’s not far off your suggested 124 starting HR. Pacing on longer runs is always tricky. Have you tried that strategy of starting in the 102s? If so did you feel better at the end than if you start in Z2?
The bigger question is how do you feel the next day after longer runs done with these two strategies? It sounds like you blow up if starting in Z2. That in itself tells you the answer. Z2 is unsustainable for you for more than 2 hours right now. It will improve with time but the best route to accomplishing that is to do more easier volume.
I hope the helps,
Scott
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