Breathing : Heart Rate ratios

SS - The Last Unicorn

OK - it was a dull day at work today but... if the Heart Rate reflects the need for pumping oxygen to your muscles - then stands to reason (well to me anyway)that it's also going to reflect your rate of respiration - or maybe even it's the other way round. Well they must be related to each other some way, surely? And maybe how they change relative to each other comparing a resting and a flat out effort could give an indication as to what your best distance should be ?

So in the interests of non - scientific surveys, here goes for me - measured over a full minute at work - and for a full minute of 'gasping' immediately after running for 9 minutes flat out at 98-100% all the way (max HR reached used).

Feel free to add yours in and maybe a pattern will emerge


a) Comotose at Desk 9:59 ie 1:6.55
b) After Flat Out Run 66:206 ie 1:3.12

c) Best Distance ? n/k but probably very short

Stickless

Don't know: can't run flat out (legs just don't) but I have always used breathing rate to pace myself. Fast for me means two steps in two steps out, steady means two in three out, slow means three in three out or more. I can't maintain two in two out for more than a few hundred yards, but bear in mind I have a suspect heart.

As endurance improves I find I can run three in three out more or less until I lose control of my legs.

Very useful on hills to discipline myself to smaller and smaller steps, same frequency, so that I stay at two in three out.

I've thought of getting a heart rate monitor, and thought that perhaps that would just spook me further. These guidelines seem to work for satisfactory running: I get round, and am not too knackered to function later. That's what matters.