Newbie Advice Please.

Hi all, hope everyone's well and keeping safe.
Need some of you're advice please - jogging every day up to about 50 mile per week, wonder I'm doing 3 days LHR training at 16 Min/mile pace about 7/8 miles in 2 hours to the Maff formula and then 1 day at tempo zone 3/4  about 11:30 min/mile pace covering 5/6 miles over an hours training after setting my Lactate threshold via the 80/20 running by Matt Fitzgerald and sticking to the new HR zones instead of the basic default ones from my Polar M430 oh and I use a Polar H10 chest strap and disable wrist based HR.

Does this approach sound OK to you all or do I need to change the way I'm doing each day by adding zone 3/4 intervals of a few mile onto my LHR training for each day or keep each day seperated into LHR for the total jog and then each tempo session just a tempo session with no Zone 1 mixed in with it??

I'm 55, come from couch to where I am at the moment and 4 Stone lighter, but the weight is now stabilizing, but pleased with my progress and not aiming at upping the pace yet but will hope that I progress with my pace but steady as she how's right now.
Thanks All. Paul.

Comments

  • chamolkchamolk ✭✭✭
    Hi Paul

    Well done on the progress so far, a fantastic achievement to get the 5k done and lose 4 stone.

    50 miles is a lot of running each week - more than I do except in the last month or two of marathon training.

    To me, your general plan seems reasonable overall. I think most coaches that I've read would tend to suggest keeping some of your easy runs each week as easy runs, rather than adding some tempo pace to each one. You could try adding a few tempo miles in the middle of one of your lhr runs (I'm assuming this is low heart rate BTW, easy pace) each week and see how you feel. Another thing you could maybe try, if you're keen to test something a bit different, would be some fartleks or strides in the last mile of one of your easy runs - run a bit faster than your tempo pace for brief periods/distances (maybe 20-30 seconds, or pick a tree/lamppost up ahead as the target) then run easily again for a minute, and repeat this a few times. Again, see how this feels - you might love it , you might hate it.

    In the grand scheme of thing , it all depends on what you want to get out of your running, and where you want to go with it. There's no need to force changes you don't want if you are perfectly content with what you're doing and where you are already
  • Hi Chamolk,
    Thanks very much for your help and advice, the 1 hr runs are my tempo runs, but I'm struggling to keep the pace down on these runs, usually HR zone 3 to 4, went out this morning and covered 7 miles in 1:30 so the distance is improving.
    I do 3 days LHR easy Zone 1 HR and can stick with this pace OK about 16:00 min/miles, but my tempo pace is around 11:30 min/miles on canals so nice and flat.
    Thanks for the advice again Chamolk, I will stick with this plan I think and monitor my pace over the next few months, but enjoying it at the moment and check my monthly 80/20 percent training through the Polar App.
    Regards Paul.
  • chamolkchamolk ✭✭✭
    There's always a bit of variability in what pace people advise for different aspects of training, and I think tempo pace can be hard to get right. I don't really train by heart rate (I often find my hr is a bit higher than it should be for easy run , but maybe I'm just not running easy enough), and prefer to go by perceived exertion, though I think for the most part it corresponds reasonably to heart rate.

    Given your easy pace, your tempo pace seems reasonable - if you can do it for 90 minutes it's probably technically a bit slower your actual tempo pace - it's often quoted as the pace you can run for an hour. Do you keep the pace steady throughout that run, or have an easy start /finish , and a faster middle section? 
  • Hi Chamolk,
    Thanks - my pace during my tempo run is a little hard for me to keep up so I think as you say its about right for me at this stage.  I try for 11:30 min/ miles but on a 7 mile run the last 2 mile tend to be slower and I average out around the 12 min/ mile pace but try my best to keep the tempo up, but this is very new to me and I want to focus on a steady progression if I can.  The weight loss is stabilizing now but I'm really happy at the progress I've made cause I only started fast walking around the end of February, I've had to cause the medication I've been taking to control my Eczema has upset my liver, had a fibroscan on it and the results were bad so had a wake up call so just got off the couch and decided to loose some weight to try and help things. I've since come off the bad medication and gone onto injections for my skin, the improvement has really helped me sort things out especially now I know I'm off the medication that caused problems for me.
    So a steady progression is what I'm looking at, had a look at the Maffetone formula and read 80/20 running by Matt Fitzgerald so I'm trying to implement this in my jogging but its been very recent, so taking things slowly, but been out today for Zone 1 and covered 9 mile in just over 2 hours - not going to break any records but as I was sedentary, I thought get a HR monitor to keep a check on things and really pleased with my progress so far and will keep at it, the Maff training is very slow with walking uphills cause I'm so out of condition fitness wise but I think if I keep at the Low HR training pace will eventually increase, I'm seeing slight improvements over pace already with my times slightly improving so will keep doing 3 easy followed by  1 hard jog and repeat 3 easy again followed by 1 hard and just see where it takes me but cause of the really easy sessions its very enjoyable and look forward to push myself a little on the hard days but I struggle even with a monitor to try to ease off a little on the hard days but I think this will come over time as said quite new to jogging.

    Thanks again Chamolk for your help and advice take care mate.
    Paul.
  • chamolkchamolk ✭✭✭
    No problem - if you can't find a bit of support and discussion about running here then I dunno where else you'd go.

    Sounds like you're doing all the right things at this stage - keep going, and it'll likely just gradually progress. 
  • alehousealehouse ✭✭✭
    You seem to be doing well, Paul. The important thing is consistency: as Chamolk says, keep going. Gradually increase things, with the emphasis on gradual. Don't rush things though! And don't forget to plan in cutback weeks. 
    Progress is rarely a straight line. There are always bumps in the road, but you can make the choice to keep looking ahead.
  • northernsoul_mannorthernsoul_man ✭✭✭
    edited August 2020
    Hi Alehouse,
    Thanks, yes I think I could do with a cutback week I think next week, I'll ease off a little only I try to get out every day if I can so could do with a rest and recoup but the easy days are very easy in Zone 1 Maff plan , still early days, my Zone 1 is set at 69% MHR at the top and 62% MHR bottom of zone lock and I use the lactate formula from the book to work out my HR zones but the easy days are just within my Maff HR setting - having to walk uphills to keep a lock on my top HR but I'm so out of condition so the Aerobic base is what I need I think to focus on and if things stall, I will try what Chamolk suggests, Fartlek and mixing the zone  levels in each jog but sticking to the 80/20 rule.
    Thanks again Alehouse, regards Paul.
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