Best Plan of Action? | Uphill Athlete

Best Plan of Action?

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  • #54686
    BrittanyB
    Participant

    Hi there! I’m new around here and have read through a lot of the forum, but have two questions for you all. I’ve also included my general training background below for reference.

    1. I finished Training for the Uphill Athlete a couple of weeks ago. Using HR drift test (and polar h9 chest strap), determined my Aet to be about 153 and then determined LT to be about 177 so some ADS going on. It sounds like it is to my benefit to do all my (now very slow) running right up against my Aet to get the most benefit so I’ve been shooting for 150, but I do find myself going up and over a few times and having to correct to get my HR back down. I think probably the hills in my neighborhood and crossing streets are to blame. To give an example, my run this morning was 1 hour, 7 min and I spent 12 minutes up above my Aet. It wasn’t far above it, but a few bpm. My max HR was 161. Is this time detrimental/should I instead shoot for 145 to give myself more of a cushion?

    2. I’m planning to run a trail marathon in late January 2022. Since I have ADS, my plan is to continue building my base (currently 35 mpw) with three build weeks/one down week and all zone 2 running until September. Then in September, start the 50k run cat 1 plan (from the book) to start formally training. Does this seem like the best use of my time or would it be more beneficial to start the plan earlier and repeat some other sections?

    Training background: 31 years old, female. Have been running off and on for ten years, but over the last year have really been consistently running 5-6 times per week (2x on trails), slowly building up my base from 10 mpw to currently 35 mpw. Unfortunately I’ve realized that all that running was in the dreaded zone 3 or higher, so working to correct. Also doing strength work twice per week. Growing up, did a lot of climbing, downhill skiing, mountain biking but not much running.

    Thank you very much! Super excited to see where this takes me.

  • Participant
    LindsayTroy on #54718

    Hi Brittany, welcome!

    As for point 1, if you can stay below the whole time, thats definitely better. Do you have a watch linked to your HRM that you can set to beep at you when you cross from Z2 to Z3? Thats what I do. Either that, or just walk the hills. Its definitely better to stay below that threshold, but its not like some magical line you cross where instantly you’re doing harm.

    As for point 2, that seems like a great plan! I would also throw in, especially as a runner, you should do some strength training, which I see you mentioned. Maybe you could view it as a mini cycle of max strength + base building between now and September.

    Participant
    BrittanyB on #54741

    Awesome! Thank you, Lindsay. Yea I’m definitely keeping a close eye on my heartrate but I’ll give myself a bit of a larger, lower range so there is some more wiggle room below aerobic threshold.

    Sounds great, yes, strength + base building sounds like a good plan. Thanks for taking the time to review and reply. Looking forward to reporting back with how it all went.

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #55343

    In addition to what Lindsay said:

    I do find myself going up and over a few times and having to correct to get my HR back down. I think probably the hills in my neighborhood and crossing streets are to blame.

    No, pace is always to blame. If you slow down, it won’t happen. 🙂

    my run this morning was 1 hour, 7 min and I spent 12 minutes up above my Aet. It wasn’t far above it, but a few bpm. My max HR was 161. Is this time detrimental/should I instead shoot for 145 to give myself more of a cushion?

    Rather than try and settle on a number of minutes, look at the distribution: 12 / 67 is 18% of your training time. If you’re trying to improve AeT, then yes, that’s probably too much. But if it’s 12 minutes within a 3-hour session, then it’s probably fine.

    As Lindsay said, set an HR alarm before your target and adjust your pace whenever it goes off. Also, anticipate the changes; slow down going up hills, etc.

    Participant
    BrittanyB on #55859

    Thank you, Scott! Set that alarm lower a few weeks ago and have been doing much better at anticipating changes. Thank you both, again!

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