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.

  • http://gingerbreadrunning.blogspot.com/ Luis Arcangel

    Nice run Gerard. That’s alright if you didn’t hit your PR, not all runs are good for a plethora of reasons. You’re bound to have your share of bad ones, it’s just the nature of the game. Just focus on your training, build your endurance, and you’ll be breaking those PR’s with ease. Hope you could join us sometime for runs or races!

    Regards,

    Luis
    http://gingerbreadrunning.blogspot.com/

  • dimsumandsiomai

    Thanks for the kind words Luis! yep, back to training for the meantime muna. next run is Mizuno 10k! sana below one hour na! see you sa mga races! The only person i know sa takbo is crashnburn(neil) hope to meet more peeps!

  • bong

    100 plus or pocari sweat helps a lot to ease the soreness after any type of run… gatorade is good during the race or workout… but after…. try any of the two.. and yep working out at 65 to 70% burns stored fat… anything over that… the body looks for carbs to feed the muscles….

  • http://gingerbreadrunning.blogspot.com/ Luis Arcangel

    That’s nice to hear :) Well now you know me hehe. Don’t be shy to drop by some time :)