Recently I have achieved a small but significate triumph. Previously I have only ever interested in the big things, long endurance events, getting faster or stronger but as I have got older pushing than hard comes with a few costs. Apart from feeling achy and sore all the time I was picking up too many niggling overuse injuries, some thing had to change.
I have a watch that gives a rough estimate of my heart rate while wearing it, I have used the GPS maps and timer on it for years but never worried too much about the heart rate option. I thought I knew exactly what hard and easy felt like, I was just running by how I felt in my body.
Seems I was wrong and without really know it, my easy runs ended up harder than they should have been. Not a major problem when I was younger but it was always going to catch up with me as I aged.
Eventually I read up on low heart rate training and gave it a try.
I thought my fitness was good but I struggled to run and keep a low heart rate. It took weeks of practice to run efficiently with a lower heart rate.
For the past few months I have been really focused not on speed, strength or distance but my pace, while keeping my heart rate low. They call this building your base. Which can be very frustrating but eventually now I am starting to see some progress and am feeling a lot better for it.
This mornings low heart rate run had some nice views.
