Let's see if I'm doing this right

Post questions and tips on aerobic endurance and aerobic fitness.
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Felix
Posts: 30
Joined: Sep 29, 2004 16:48

Let's see if I'm doing this right

Post by Felix »

In the past six weeks I've started my running program (as part of my general conditioning preperation) from scratch again, starting at 8 minutes and increasing by 2 minutes every workout. I'm now at 30 minutes, I guess that's probably a couple of miles, and I do thise twice a week. Now what I understand from Sience of Sports training, what I've been doing up till now is part one and part two, what I should be doing from now on, is increasing intesity. I currently run at HR-min 134 HR-max 172, at my pace I usually hang around 171 sometimes shooting a little above 174 and seldom 180. What I understand is, that if I increase too much on my heartrate, I'll be working more on anaerobic endurance than aerobic (which is why I run). The book says that after increase in intesity I should lower the duration of the workout. My questions are: how much should I increase my heart rate and how much should I decrease my workout duration after that? Or should I even still increase on the 30 min run?

Thanks in advance

Thomas Kurz
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Joined: Dec 03, 2003 08:04

Let's see if I'm doing this right

Post by Thomas Kurz »

You do not make it very clear but I guess that the part one and part two of your running training refer to the first and second stages of continuous training with constant intensity described on pages 202-203 in Science of Sports Training.

First stage of continuous training with constant intensity:

Exercise (in your case, run) at a pace at which you can maintain steady HR below your anaerobic threshold. Initially this pace may be well below your maximal aerobic pace (see page 351 in Science of Sports Training).

When during your exercise your HR climbs over your anaerobic threshold (you enter the critical intensity), even though your pace of movement is not increasing, it is time to slow down, cool-down and end your workout. Actually, you should not let your HR climb that high, so next time you workout, begin to slow down before you feel that you HR is about to get above the aerobic pace.

Gradually extend the time you can exercise at this same pace until the duration of your exercise is the same as that of your target effort, i.e., a typical intensive sport-specific workout. Another sign that you do enough aerobic work is not getting winded during your intensive sport-specific workout.

Second stage of continuous training with constant intensity:

Increase the exercise pace gradually, from workout to workout, until it reaches your target pace. If your purpose is to increase your maximal aerobic pace, then end the exercise when your HR reaches your anaerobic threshold, or better, before that. If you want to increase your mixed aerobic-anaerobic endurance, then set your target HR about 10 beats higher than what it is at your maximal aerobic pace. As the set pace of your exercise increases in subsequent workouts, you will see that the exercise time gets shorter before your HR gets over the assigned limit.

If you want to work above the anaerobic threshold, then you should do repetitive training and eventually interval training (see pages 203-208 in Science of Sports Training).

To manage your endurance training observe yourself and if you see signs of insufficient aerobic fitness (see page 201 in Science of Sports Training) either decrease the volume of anaerobic efforts or increase the volume of aerobic efforts.

The heart rate range you exercise at shows that you have not paid attention to what is written about it in Science of Sports Training and in my columns (19 and 29). Actually, had you read the column 29 you would know enough to set up your whole conditioning program.
Thomas Kurz
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Felix
Posts: 30
Joined: Sep 29, 2004 16:48

Post by Felix »

Thanks a lot for the enlightening reply. It seems I've really over read what you said about endurance conditioning in your column. And that some time has passed since I last read it. I should have paid more attention to it. I will really revamp my endurance work outs from now.

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