Is warming up more important than your workout?
For the past 40 odd years I would have said no but recently after a string of injuries, poor performances and a slowing parkrun time (more than just me getting a bit older) has left me wondering. These disappointments set me off in search of some possible reasons and answers on what I might be doing wrong.
I had heard of low heart rate training before and always tried to keep my easy runs under 130 heartbeats per minute, but I rarely really checked or monitored it. If it felt easy, it was probably close enough to 130. I remember working out my maximum heart off garmin, double checking against the old 220 minus your age, then multiplying it by the zone 2 easy rate of 60%.
I suppose I was doing this calculation like 10 years ago. 10 years of aging meant my old 130 easy heart rate probably had me working too hard most days in recent times. Especially since I probably went even higher without knowing it on hills and with any other everyday work and life stresses.
Dr Philp Maffetone seems to be well researched in low heart rate training, so I used his zone 2 guide line of 180 minus your age to do a new calculation. This leaves me with an easy run at a heart rate no higher than 122, which seemed really low.
I tried, but basically, I just could not run and keep my heart rate that low. It was all over the shop, and I had to walk on any sort of hill.
I was close to giving up and throwing Mr Maffetone’s book in the bin along with my garmin fenix 3 wrist based heart rate watch, thinking they must be wrong or this method of training just does not suit me.
Until I read the charter on warming up and down.
Previously, I had never had the time to warm up. It was always just straight out the door and into it, maybe just starting off a little easier and just counting that as my warm-up. When I was young, it seemed to work fine. I got so much done, but now I do not seem to be getting away with it.
Anyway, cutting a long story short, I have been trying a proper separate 15 minute warm up with walking and running, and it seems to work. After the warm-up, I do the proper workout, and my heart rate is a lot more stable and easier to control.
Hopefully, more running in my easy zone 2 will help me stay fresher so I can occasionally run a bit faster every now and again at parkrun.
How seriously do you take your warm-up?
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