don't overtrain!

i am just about done with "marathon," hal higdon's book on marathon training. one of the most consistent themes in the book is not to overtrain. don't work so hard in trying to achieve a specific speed or time. it is better to start the race undertrained than overtrained.

and i have been heeding his advice. for much of the first six weeks of training, i have been running to a 165 bpm heart rate. i have found this to be where i consistently ran my regular 4 mile loop. after struggling with my 10 mile run, along with reading this book, i started to rethink this plan. when i ran my first 13 mile run, i decided to run to 155 bpm. whenever my heart rate goes above 160 bpm, i know i need to slow down, and if it drops below 150, i can speed up safely.

because i had struggled at the end of last saturday's 13 mile run -- without my heart rate monitor or a watch -- i decided to take it really easy on my 3 mile tuesday run. my friend, john, was also planning on doing a triathlon today, so he wanted to take it easy yesterday, too. we ran 3 miles in over 10 minutes per mile. my heart rate didn't go above 150 bpm until we ran across 12 mile road at the end of the run. it was great and my legs felt fresh.

the best part happened today. my scheduled run is for 7 miles, which used to sound like a really long distance, but now is pretty manageable. armed with my hrm, i set out at a comfortable pace, aiming to keep my heart rate at 155 bpm. with a little over a mile left, i was feeling good enough to speed up, but my heart rate didn't sustainable get above 160 bpm. i got home in 64 minutes, good for a 9:00 pace. contrast that with my 64 minute run two and a half weeks ago up north, where i ran to a 160 to 165 bpm heart rate. today's distance was actually 0.12 miles longer, with a slower, more sustainable heart rate, but in the same amount of time. i actually got faster over a couple weeks by 8 seconds per mile! all because i decided to take it easy.

the lesson learned is don't overtrain. it doesn't make you faster, it only makes you tired. no wonder i felt like i was getting sloweryear after year.

robb.