I downloaded the heart rate file from last Monday's 8 mile run at 8mph on the treadmill. I compared it to a heart rate file from May 3, 2004 where I did the exact same run... 8 miles at 8mph on the treadmill. The results shocked me. My average heart rate was 20 beats higher last week. 20 beats! Wow, I have a lot of work to do. And, ok, maybe I can chalk 3-4 beats up to calibration issues with the treadmills (last weeks' was fast, May's was slow) but that's not all that much. I'm out of shape. This is the biggest demonstration of my decline of fitness that I've seen.
So then I took three more runs of the exact same distance and pace on the treadmill. Even runs in February were about 15-20 beats better. One that I noted "This hurt" was still 12 beats better.
Wow. Gotta get back at it. Some of this is due to the fact that I went from speedwork in the early part of the season to long distance in the later part of the season. But the gap shouldn't be that large. My injuries played a big part in my slow decline of fitness over the course of the season. What's so amazing is how it snuck up on me. I was comparing one month to the next and never skipped back a few months to see how I was declining. Frustrating.
Look at that gap! The bottom line is the exact same run from about six months ago. Wow, I'm out of shape. Keyword Tags: heartrunningrate
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The top line is my pulse on an 8 mile run last week at 8mph on a treadmill. The other lines are my heart rate on the same run at various times throughout the year. Keyword Tags: heartrunningrate
SufferFest 08 Day 4
