Training Recap: What I learnt from Week 1 of HR Training
This week’s training recap is a little different. Instead of the usual day-by-day byplay, I’m going to focus on what I learnt from it all. Mainly because my entire week was dedicated to runs. 7 days, 5 runs – a 5k race, 1 recovery run, 2 base building runs and 1 ‘long’ run.
This was also week 1 of training with a run focus (even though it is technically week 3 of the 28 week Dopey training), with CrossFit, Swim, etc, etc all viewed as cross training instead of the main activity.
Another first is heart rate based training. I’ve worn a heart rate monitor on and off, mostly to wonder at how my HR could possibly shoot up as high at 170 and I could still easily talk while everyone else around me is in the 140s. But this time, HR training is here to stay! Even if it hasn’t exactly made me a fan of it yet.
1. If you think you were slow before, think again.
I was slow at 13:00ish for a long run pace. I couldn’t possibly be any slower, right?
But I was!! My Z2 pace was at 15:30ish. It was all I could do to not pull out my hair in frustration.
Now, I’m told that that is the way with HR training. And that there is a certain method to this madness. So I’ll start taking bets on how slow is really slow 🙂
(This is just *my* pace and what I feel about it, I’m not putting down anyone with a pace slower or faster than me.)
2. 45 minutes of Z1 & Z2 running makes me more hungry than 2 hours of moderate effort running.
Just this one week has undone all the good work I’d done with my nutrition and food for the past 1 month. I’m hungry all the time.
Runger caused by a 45 minute run is far worse than runger caused by a 16 mile run! There is absolutely nothing in those 45minutes/3 miles that would justify eating everything in sight. In fact, I’d think it would be the opposite – not being tired all day should give me power to stay strong!
3. Trust
I don’t know where this HR training is going and obviously with just one week in, I can’t see how this is helping. To be going at 15:30 pace on flat when my earlier easy pace on flat was 13:00ish!! But it is a leap of faith I decided to take.
I trust, I trust, I trust … maybe if I say it enough times, I will begin to completely trust without doubting.
(For the record – I DO trust. I wouldn’t go through with everything if I didn’t believe. It is just that sliver of doubt that I need to get rid of.)
And a confession. I’m not a control freak or a type A++ person, but I do a lot of things the way I’m used to. And sometimes my way is impulsive (a trait I must’ve developed of late, because I’ve always been a very methodical person). To let go of the impulsiveness, to find the discipline to stick to the higher goal and to trust it all – that will be a true journey for me.
4. Patience
And I lack patience.
I want to be a strong and fast Kenyan FauxRunner. NOW.
Two years ago when I was training for that (still elusive) marathon time, someone told me. “Patience, young Grasshopper”. I worked and waited patiently, but then things derailed. Since then, I’ve been chasing unicorns and rainbows without a proper plan, and without the patience to see through whatever hodgepodge plan I’ve had.
4. The world is awesome
Running slow made me smell the flowers.
Literally.
I could smell the gardenias and hydrangeas.
I heard the birds chirping and heard how the chirping changed from 6:30am to 7:30am.
I listened to the water in the Chattahoochee river gurgling, probably a first even though I run there all the time.
The world around us is beautiful, if only we stop for a minute to appreciate the beauty.
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