Goals 2006

You've waited. You've anticipated. And now I deliver.

But, you're totally going to be let down.

I only have one goal.

Last year was the year of racing. I did like a bazillion races and had a million PRs and by the time I got to my fall marathon, I was damn tired. But, this year is the year of training and my one and only goal is...

Heart Rate Training

Yep that's it. If this stuff works like it's supposed to then all my other goals will fall into place. My other goals being the elusive 3:30 marathon, to do better in Boston than I did last year, a sub-22:00 5K, and improvement on my bike in the triathlon.

Here's the plan. There are approximately 15 weeks until Boston. Starting next week and all the way until the 23rd, I will be doing all runs at 70% of my max heart rate. Starting the week of the 23rd I modified the Pfitzinger 12/55 plan to this: one tempo run, one semi long run, one long run, one marathon pace run, and one pure recovery day. In reality only the tempo run and the marathon pace run will be done above the 70% max heart rate. Now if this goes really crappy for Boston, then I'll rethink my plan for a fall marathon or summer triathlon.

Here's my problem, however. I have asthma and I take Albuterol before I run. The Albuterol makes my heart race. Therefore I have two different max heart rates based on with medicine and without. My theory is this: I will always be using the medicine when I race, therefore my max heart rate will be established using the Albuterol. The kink in all this is my minimum heart rate. The things I have read about heart rate training tell you to take your min heart rate first thing in the morning before you crawl out of bed. That's fine but I get a different minimum heart rate based on medicine versus no medicine. To sum up, I'm having a hard time establishing my 70% and 85% because I think my minimum heart rate is too low. This is something I'm thinking of consulting my doctor about since he's done heart rate training and has an unusually high max heart rate like I do.

For now I'm using my max as 193 because that's the highest I've seen during a run. Although I think that's way low. I think my max heart rate is more like 205. And my minimum heart rate is 58 because that's the lowest I've seen during a nap. However, I'm not even sure that's correct because the minimum was 58 but my average during that nap was 78. So I'm guessing normally my heart beats around 78? Any idea, y'all.

I've done two runs this week with 153 set as my 70%. It has been grueling. My first run was 3 miles on the treadmill and it took me 38:45. Good gosh! Then I did a 5 miler yesterday in 59 minutes. My watch beeped at me about every three steps on that run. Of that 59 minutes, only 41 were actually in the zone.

So what do you think? Does this sound like a good plan? Do y'all have experience with heart rate monitors and can give me some feedback about if it works or if I've set something up wrong or ways to establish my zones better (besides spending a million dollars to be put on the treadmill wearing a gas mask)?