[death.jester]

Hello,
I have a question regarding running with a weight vest. I’m often running with my girlfriend, who runs considerable slower than me. If I run with her, my heart rate is on the flats at ~115bpm and on my “normal” uphill track ~125bpm. My AeT is ~154. So this would be low Zone 1 or even Zone 0 for me. It’s nice as a recovery workout, but I don’t want to do recovery workouts so often.
So, I started to wear a 10kg weight vest when running with her which elevates my heart rate to ~135bpm. This is at least Zone 1 for me.
But should I consider such training as “specific”, as opposed to “base building”? Because this is kind of a “light” muscular endurance workout, no? Or is it ok to go even heavier as long as my heartrate is below my AeT? Because I have now bought a set of leg and wrist weights.
Thank you for your wisdom! 😉

Topic

[Steve B]

Steve B on March 29, 2020 at 7:16 am #39953

Not an expert by any means, but I’ve tried running with a weight vest in the past. Be careful not to get injured. That’s all I can really contribute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on March 29, 2020 at 1:44 pm #39961

Good question.

First, there’s no downside to running a lot in Z1. Look what it’s done for @reedshea. With low training volume and modest intensity (lots of Z1), he’s made huge progress.

Second, 10kg is on the heavy side. I have a pretty high AeT (87% of max and less than 5% from AnT), but I wouldn’t run with an extra 10kg. As @stevekbooth said, I’d be worried about overuse injuries. Also, I would think that some kind of ME effect is happening. That may be fine, it may not. It depends what proportion of your training time is ME.

Third, rather than extra weight, would your wife go for aerobic intervals? You could run with her for ten minutes, then out and back at AeT for 6-8′, then repeat.

[Hav]

Hav on March 30, 2020 at 2:03 pm #40000

I think you’d be best to accept that these runs are going to be Easy Z1 or Recovery runs. I would avoid the ankle and wrist weights while running. You’ll be altering your mechanics in a way the weight vest does not and potentially reducing your running economy. I’d recommend adding a set of strides after the run, or extend the run after she’s finished or add a second run later in the day. Another option is to see if you can build the volume of these shared runs so that the stimulus is the volume of aerobic work. Most slower runners are self-concious about running with obviously faster runners, which is why I think the best option is just to accept these easy runs as a chance to recover from/for harder solo workouts.

[Reed]

Reed on March 30, 2020 at 2:03 pm #40001

If you take conservative ranges for your zones, you might set the bottom of Z2 as AeT-10% and bottom of Z1 as AeT-20%. That would give you roughly 125bpm-140bpm Z1, 140bpm-155bpm Z2. 115-125bpm isn’t that much lower, and it’s still going to have a beneficial impact even if sub-optimal. I’ve made the bottom of my Z1 more like AeT-30% because I didn’t like my watch telling me that I was running in “zone 0.”

A few years ago my wife and I spent a winter training for a marathon. I was faster than she was, and we mostly did separate workouts at my insistence. She finished the marathon, no problem. I bailed 19 miles in, because I felt too close to real injury due to the accumulated stress of months running faster and harder than I was really capable of. Running together has kept me from doing (as many) stupid things, and I have gotten faster.

[death.jester]

death.jester on March 31, 2020 at 3:25 am #40012

Thank you everyone for the reply.
I was not worried to not run too much in Z1. But without the weight vest I’m running in Z0. But as Reed wrote, maybe it’s ok to set the numbers for Z1 lower. I often tend to run too fast anyway. So maybe this will slow me down, and also help me mentally to not run too aggressive. Currently I don’t do any ME workouts at all. I’m just doing a verrrryyy llooooonnnnggg base period.

I also figured out running with the ankle wights doesn’t work very well. I ordered a pair, but after a few minutes into the run, I lost them, because the strap was not good enough. Now I will just use them at home for my other exercises, but not for running. And yes, I didn’t thought that having extra weight on my ankles would maybe alter my moving mechanics. I won’t try this again.

Thanks @Reed you have a very good point:

Running together has kept me from doing (as many) stupid things, and I have gotten faster.

Because when she is not running with me, I often push too hard. So maybe it’s good that way.

Thanks again for the good input from all of you! And keep running slow 😉

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on March 31, 2020 at 4:02 pm #40043

A few years ago my wife and I spent a winter training for a marathon. I was faster than she was, and we mostly did separate workouts at my insistence. She finished the marathon, no problem. I bailed 19 miles in because I felt too close to real injury due to the accumulated stress of months running faster and harder than I was really capable of. Running together has kept me from doing (as many) stupid things, and I have gotten faster.

#thumbsup

[davelockyer101]

davelockyer101 on November 11, 2020 at 12:04 pm #46712

My zones are very similar to yours and I also put on an 8kg (10% bw) pack when the wife suggests a run together and have done this numerous times. I would typically only do up to 10 miles but actually find this a good way to combine some aerobic work with an additional strength benefits. It’s v subjective but I feel my core and hip strength in particular benefits.