[vsquid]

I’ve been quite passive for a few years thanks to small children, covid etc. My primary goal is to improve my fitness.

I have been now regularly exercising since early April. I try to perform at least two zone 2 runs per week. In addition, I might bicycle or go to the gym in a non-structured way.

My issue is with zone 2 training. I can jog slowly for the first 20 minutes or so while keeping my heart rate under my aerobic threshold. However after 20 minutes I need to slow down to keep the heart rate aerobic. After 30 minutes I typically need to switch to walking. I haven’t trained beyond 40 minutes recently.

Any idea why mu pace lowers down? Any idea what kind of training would make most sense? Keep it short or do longer exercise even if it involves walking?

Topic

[juskojj]

juskojj on June 29, 2023 at 7:21 am #79103

i’m by far no expert but to me it sounds like your just have ADS. your slowing down b/c your aerobic capacity isn’t there to keep your legs going as fast, as long as your legs aren’t getting tired then it could be some muscle endurance as well.

as for training it depends on what your ultimate goal is, if it’s just get in shape/improve fitness just keep at it and it’ll come with time. one thing i’ve learned is the more training with longer sessions the faster the gains, but you have to keep track of your body. the key is can you do a work out and recover by the next day to repeat it? if you can your not over doing it.

[vsquid]

vsquid on June 29, 2023 at 1:00 pm #79111

Thanks. I’ll give longer sessions a try.

[Jane Mackay]

Jane Mackay on July 3, 2023 at 2:45 am #79428

Vsquid – welcome!

I second juskojj’s suggestion to do longer sessions. Slow down when you need to, to stay under AeT, but go long. Over time you will be able to run for longer periods of time below AeT. You can also try walk-run combinations that progress, e.g. warm up walking (10 mins), then 1 min run / 1 min walk for 15-30 mins, then cooldown 10 mmins walking. When it feels right, progress to 2 min run / 1 min walk with the same warmup and cooldown, and so on. Strength training will also raise your AeT by reducing the amount of energy you expend with each step.

Hope this helps – keep us posted on how it goes.
Jane

[Jane Mackay]

Jane Mackay on July 3, 2023 at 2:47 am #79429

One other note, regular, structured training will enable you to progress more quickly. I recommmend at least 3 (better 4 or more) aerobic sessions per week. This can include hiking, cycling, swimming, rowing, etc. since your primary goal is general fitness. And they don’t have to all be long. You could do a couple of 30 min runs and one or two longer sessions, and note whether the runs start to feel easier as time goes on.

The process does work … patience leads to aerobic fitness!