Level of intensity on "easy day"?
Question:I am beginning to get the feeling that I'm overdoing the level of intensity on my easy day of running. I use a heart rate monitor and get my heart rate up to 170 ( I am 26 years old, 6'0'' and 192 lbs.) on an easy day. Is this too much?
For example, on a hard day I might do quarter mile repeats @ 90 seconds each with 120 second lap every 4th lap. I'll do this for about 4-5 miles total, excluding warmup.
Then on an easy day I do about 4-5 miles. Starting at around 120 seconds per quarter and pushing it up gradually into the last mile to 100 seconds per quarter.
I am training for 5k races. My latest race last month, I clocked 19:22. Would like to crack 18:45 next race, but I feel like I'm overtraining.
Advice anyone?
Answers:
How do one prepare oneself to run a marathon if you run only 3 miles every other day?.?
Yes. You are both over training and training ineffectively for the event.Based on your last 5K race, you should be running your easy miles between 8:15 and 7:45 minutes/mile. 80 to 90% of your running should be at this pace. A good easy day workout would be a 30 to 40 minute run at this pace. So yes, your easy days running 400's at 2:00 to 1:40 are way too fast. If you are using a heart rate monitor, keep your heart rate under 75% of max hr.
Running 400 repeats is not the optimal way to train for a 5K. A better workout is to run 800 or 1000m repeats. Based on your current ability, try the following
Once a week, after a 1 to 2 mile warm up at an easy pace (8:15/mile) run 4 x 800 at 3:00 for each 800. Note, running faster than this isn't better so stick with the pace.
Between each 800 jog for 2:30. If you run on a track, jog one lap. If this workout is too easy for you then increase the number of 800's to 6 or run 1000m instead of 800m at the same pace. If you run 1000m, increase the recovery by 1:00 or 1/2 a lap.
Run 3 easy runs per week lasting 30 to 40 minutes at the easy pace. After one easy run, run 6 to 8 strides. If you are not familiar with strides, here's a link with an explanation.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
Once or twice a week run 60 minutes at the easy pace.
Good luck with you 5K.
Who is running the Los Angeles Marathon on 3-4-2007?
a good rule of thumb - if you can talk while running, its an easy day. If not, you're going too hard.What 2 mile time do you need to get into UCLA?
Holy cow, you do a lot of volume in preparing for a 5K race! I don't think your intervals should total more than your racing distance.If you feel overtrained, then you probably are. Ease back, especially on your easy days. Think of easy days simply as being recovery for hard days. I'd scale back to 3 miles at most on easy days at a very easy pace and a couple strides at the end to loosen your legs.
On hard days, you should feel fresh enough to really push it. I would do longer intervals, anywhere from 800-1600, at faster than race pace, with a total distance of 2-3 miles. Keep recovery time fairly short (about 3 minutes...just enough to catch your breath). You are running your quarters at your goal race pace, which should be fairly easy for you, since unlike a race, you have rest breaks in between. I think your problem like you said is that you are not recovering enough on easy days to push hard on hard days.
Another "hard" day might include a long run that lasts between 8-12 miles (I don't know how long your normal long run last). I'd advise you to not do this on the track.
Who loves to Run & What motivates you?
don't overtrain! If you're feeling like you're doing to much, then do a little less for the next week and let our body recover.How fast can u run 100m sprint?
Like Kute, said you should be able to talk while you are running on an easy day, if not you are becoming anaerobic. If you are worried about over training take your heart rate first thing in the morning to see what your resting rate is. If it starts to go up then you are definitely over training. If you are doing repeat 400 on your easy day, or is that just the pace you are doing for the distance? That is your splits? On an easy day just go run on the road or trail and not worry about your splits. If it is supposed to be easy do not worry about speed. Run what is comfortable for you on that day. It is about recovery.I need to know the next marathon in febuary?
On the workout I've been following for a few months now they have me break up the level of intensity into 4 "zones" based on heart rate. Everyone is different but from the generic formula of calculating max heart rate (MHR) you should be around 195 or so for your max (217-(your age x .85)=MHR). That makes 170 almost 90% of your MHR and that's too much for an easy day. From my perspective (and my workout my not necessarily jive with what works for you) you need to slow down quite a bit on your easy days, down to around 120. I agree with what others have said and "easy" days are for recovery and they don't feel like a workout at all. For me it's an easy jog.Here's what my workout outlines for heart rate zones:
Zone 1 (z-1):
Recovery
60 percent or less of your MHR
This should feel easy; you're barely breaking a sweat and never feel out of breath.
Zone 2 (z-2):
Aerobic
60-75 percent MHR
You're working now but could still hold a conversation. You could probably sustain this level of intensity for an hour or so.
Zone 3 (z-3):
Lactate Threshold
75-90 percent MHR
Hard work. You're breathing heavily and feel exhausted quickly—you're running, not jogging.
Zone 4 (z-4):
Anaerobic
90-100 percent MHR
This feels very hard, like a full-out sprint. You could sustain this intensity level for a minute or two, tops.
Track and Field Spikes? (running)?
Well if your training for a 5k and you want your time to improve? Well idont think your overdoing it baceuse all you wanna do is get a good time and what i do when i run is i just puch myself and if there is somebody infront of me i try and pass them and that improves my time like i run the 2,ile 1 mile 800 and 4x1mile and my best time on the mile was5;10;8 nad all i did was push my self and my best time before that was almost 6 mins and all i di was work hard and push myself just like you are and at times i thought iwas pushing to much but by doing that you helping yourselfyes, 170 is way too much for an easy day. your times are too fast, too. i am also training for the 5k (current PR is 19:06). all of my training is based around it. hate the mile, love the 5k. on my easy days, i just have a nice 20 minute jog. very easy jog, although my body is telling me to accelerate.
beleive me, i have been thru all this overtraining/undertraining stuff. it really is pretty damn hard to find out if you're really overtraining. if your resting heart rate is up, that's one clue. for me, the most revealing factor is the feeling you get right when you get up out of bed in the morning. your muscles hurt, your feet hurt, you feel injured all over. once you start really waking up and walking around, though, the pain goes away. that is one thing to look out for. also lighjt headedness and diziness right when getting up from bed. and the dread, or fear, of the upcoming day of training. i've read alot of books, and it really woke me up on how rest = better performance. personally, i dont worry about overtraining TOO much during the week, because i take both saturdays and sundays off as rest days. you definantly are overtraining, pal.
Ooh, one more thing; a study is shown in the exelent book " the lore of running", that runners who rested two consecutive days during the week became much better and improved much faster than the ones who ran 7 days per week, and the ones who didn't train hard.
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