[Steve Freides]

Hi.  A brief introduction.   I ran from my 20’s through my 40’s, had a bad back injury, discovered powerlifting and have been competing at that for the last 20 years.  I’m just shy of my 70th birthday. I was 5’7″ and 148 lb at my high school graduation and I’m 5’6″ and 148 lb now.  Best 5k was 20:10 at age 45.  Best half-marathon was 1:36:40 in my late 20’s.  My goal is to run a half-marathon again, either this Fall or next.

 

I can still sprint great, but to keep my HR in anything even vaguely aerobic, I am in misery because I have to run so slowly.  I started running again last summer but, thanks to having been a very sickly, asthmatic child, I can’t run outside in the current weather where I live, metro NYC.  When I started last summer, I had to run for :30-45 then walk for a couple of minutes for my HR to slow down.  I had worked up to about equal parts running and walking before the weather got cold.  I plan to run outside again in late March or whenever I can get in a midday run and temperature will be 45F or better.

 

I’ve been using box step-ups steady state and kettlebell swings to give me some approximation of Zone 2 cardio.  I had a treadmill test done last Fall and they said my aerobic zone was 130-144, and that feels about right – I’m ok at 144 but more than that doesn’t feel sustainable for very long.  Formula predicts max HR of 165 and I’ve tested it and I think that’s about right.

 

I’m working with a coach, just thought this looked like an interesting forum and thought I’d see what people thought.  I was that kid who, even though he was skinny, no one could catch in backyard football.  I have recently deadlifted just over 2.5 x my bodyweight in a powerlifting competition.  https://www.openpowerlifting.org/u/stevefreides will find my PL meets over the last 20 years.  I also have video of my training and competitions on YouTube.

 

My thanks in advance for your replies.  I suspect the answer will be, “just hang in there” but I’m really interested in ideas for non-running things to do that might help me when I start running again in another 6 weeks or so.  Step-ups and swings are doing OK for me, just curious to hear what folks here think.

 

Thanks again.

-S-

[Scott Johnston]

Hey Steve:

Thanks for the questions and sorry for the slow reply.

Read this article that specifically addresses your issue. https://evokeendurance.com/resources/aerobic-deficiency-syndrome-ads/

But you are not alone. In fact the vast majority of folks that come to us are in the same boat as you find yourself when they do not have a solid aerobic base.  We see this especially with the Special Ops guys we work with.  You have already begun to see an improvement in your running vs walking time. We use that run/walk progression often.    It will take months to build this aerobic base and you must be patient.  In the 25 years we’ve been preaching this method we have never encountered a non-responder to this type of training.   We often see folks move from the 13-14min/mile range of running pace to 9min/mile in 6 months to a year. This improvement depends exclusively on the volume of this low intensity work.

Scott

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