Running: Keeping within 70 – 75% of my Maximum Heart Rate

After my not so amazing 5 minutes beyond my personal best finish last Sunday at the Autoreview run, I went back to running at 70-75% of my heart rate to build up some endurance and to be able to rank up some mileage.

Monday night, a day after the 10k fun run, my legs and thighs were still sore from the run. I most probably didn’t do enough stretching after the run. Even with an ice cold bath after the run, my legs and thighs still hurt. It was a chore going up stairs and torture going down them. Despite the slight soreness I still ran. I read somewhere that doing recovery runs, as the name implies, improves and hastens recovery so I treated this run as sort of one. I ran for recovery.

I ran 7k last Monday night. Did it in 55 minutes at an average heart rate to 140 bpm and an average pace of about 7 minutes per kilometer. It was way inside my 70-75% limits and I felt accomplished for doing it.

I woke up the next day with slightly less sore legs and thighs. Looks like my recovery run didn’t go as planned but I am happy that the soreness was lessened.

Tuesday night, two days after the 10k run, my legs and thighs were still a little sore but not as sore as they were the day before. I planned to do another slow run and do it I did. I only ran 5k. Ran for 40 minutes at an average heart rate of 134 bpm and an average pace of about 8 minutes per kilometer. I was again feeling accomplished for staying with in my planned limits.

What good does this do to me? I don’t know. They do say that your body burns stored fat when you exercise with in those limits. That might be one.

I might give my legs a break tonight. Might do an LSD on thursday.