Welcome to Episode 7 of my 2022 Training Diaries
documenting my training in lead up to my first race
a 7-day stage race in the country of Georgia in June
followed by UTMB in the Alps late-August.
If you're new to the channel, my name is Jeff Pelletier
and this week I'm going to address some of the questions that I had
around heart rate-based training in my episode a couple of weeks ago
about the benefits of speed work for ultrarunners.
More specifically, I'll be explaining why I no longer train with heart rate
and what I recommend doing instead.
I'll also be talking about some of the new run nutrition products
that I've been testing over the last week from a brand called Untapped.
But first, as always, let's talk about this last week of training.
So Monday was a rest day as usual
followed on Tuesday by an easy 75 minutes on the trails.
Wednesday I had two big workouts on the schedule.
Both a speed work session and a strength training session in the gym.
For my speed work I decided to run on the track
and Audrée joined me as well for her own workout.
We did a warm-up on some nearby trails first
and then I was scheduled to do 2 sets of 10 minutes at tempo effort
with 5 minutes of easy running in between
followed by 3 sets of 3 minutes at maximum effort with a 3 minute recovery
and finally a cool down.
But my left hand string was feeling a little bit tight still
from the back to back long runs that I did last weekend
so I decided to back off a little and to skip my second 10 minute tempo interval
so I could save it for those all out intervals instead.
For my strength training session, I also backed off a little as well
in terms of the number of sets and we modified a couple of the exercises
to avoid overworking the hamstrings
and then added in some extra mobility work instead.
It's always important to listen to your body in cases like this to avoid injury
and I was perfectly willing to bail out on my speed work session altogether
had I felt that hamstring getting any worse.
But it seemed to handle it okay.
Thursday I then did 75 minutes of easy running on the trails
and while I was a little bit stiff at the start I ended up feeling great towards the end.
Friday I did my second strength training session in the gym
but I had no running on the schedule at all.
Saturday was then my longest scheduled run of the season so far at 6 hours
and I did this with a 10 pound pack, just like my five hour run 2 weeks ago.
It was a beautiful weekend so I set out from our home here in North Vancouver
to run across the bridge and onto the Trans-Canada Trail heading East
which would take me up and over Burnaby Mountain
and then down to Burnaby Lake where I'd do a loop
before retracing my steps all the way back home.
I actually decided to test out a new pack this time, the Salomon XA35
which is quite a bit bigger than the 25 liter pack that I used in Namibia.
My route was mostly crushed gravel with a bit of pavement
and some small sections of single track
Okay, so 5 hours in, I've run about 49 km and I'm feeling good
which bodes well. It shows that the progression has been working.
So yeah, it's a good sign.
I feel like I could keep going for a few hours if I had to.
In the end, I ran just over 60 km or about 37 miles
with 1,160 meters of elevation gain or 3,800 feet
in just over 6 hours.
I ate a total of 1,250 calories, so just over 200 an hour
and drank about 3.5 liters of water, which was just right.
Audrée joined me on her gravel bike to keep me company for the last 10 km or so
and I finished feeling surprisingly good.
It was just the last few kms where I was suffering a little bit
and reduced to more of a shuffle.
Sunday, we got up early and went paddle boarding here in Deep Cove.
It was actually my first time ever on a stand-up paddleboard
and I didn't fall in the water once, so I'd say that was a success.
We're actually out testing some new inflatable paddle boards
we just got courtesy of Goosehill
so stay tuned for the full video from that.
I then hit the trails for about 75 minutes of easy running
which I treated more as a recovery run after my big effort the day before.
So overall during the week I ran 103 km or 64 miles
with just over 2,000 meters or 6,650 feet of elevation gain plus equal descent.
Special thanks to Untapped for fueling me this week.
They're a company based in Vermont, in the United States
with a line of products made from strictly organic ingredients
like maple syrup, raspberries, real lemons, and coffee.
Their founder Ted was a professional road cyclist
who wanted to create a better tasting performing and digesting alternative
to the mostly synthetic products on the market.
They make a series of waffles, energy gels, including some with caffeine
and drink mixes both in liquid and powder form
and they are all super delicious.
So if you want to try them for yourself
I've got a discount code for you that will get you 15% off
with a minimum purchase of $25.
So as I said, I've had lots of questions over the past few weeks
about heart rate based training
specifically like how to calculate the heart rate zones
that I talk about so often like Zone 3 for my tempo runs.
I started training with heart rate just a few years into my running career
when I began training at a facility here in Burnaby
called the Peak Centre for Human Performance.
I would go there for coaching and they'd handle all of my training programs
which were all based around the concept of training different energy systems
based on the data that they'd collect on me on an ongoing basis.
So once every few months
I would go in to get a Vo2 max and lactic threshold test done on a treadmill
where I'd wear a special mask to measure oxygen consumption
and I'd then have blood drawn at regular intervals
so that they could measure my blood lactate levels at different intensities.
These tests will provide you with an accurate reading of your Vo2 max
which is the maximum amount of oxygen that an athlete can utilize during exercise.
This is determined largely by genetics though
and it actually changes very little over time
dropping very slowly as we age.
But there are two other thresholds that do fluctuate much more frequently
your aerobic threshold and your anaerobic threshold.
Your aerobic threshold is the level of effort where
he level of lactate in the blood starts to rise.
Below this is the level at which you can run for hours on end.
So as endurance athletes
this is where we should be spending most of our time in training
especially on our longer runs.
So it's important to know where this threshold is.
But as exercise intensity increases
we start to rely more and more on anaerobic sources
to supply our muscles with energy
while also switching from predominantly slow twitch muscle fibers
to a growing proportion of fast twitch fibers
and this in turn results in the formation of lactate within the muscles
which can actually be used as fuel
and we can train our muscles to do this more effectively
but at high levels this is what leads to that feeling of muscles burning
and will lead to fatigue.
Our anaerobic or lactate threshold
is the point at which your body begins producing this lactic acid
faster than it can be metabolized
and once we hit this point it's like a ticking time bomb
where the fatigue increases at a higher and higher rate
until we're forced to slow down or to stop altogether.
Training at or just below this threshold can help us to improve it
as well allowing us to run faster for longer
while making room for us to in turn develop a larger aerobic base
by also raising our aerobic threshold.
The results of these tests will typically be provided
as both a pace and a heart rate zone.
The pace of course is only applicable for running on flat surfaces
while the heart rate target might be better for use on the trails.
So for example, I was doing weekly track sessions
with the coaching team from the lab as well
which was great because the coach would have already taken my most recent results
and would have translated them into estimated track times.
He'd actually read these times out with a stopwatch
and would let me know how I was doing based on these targets
which were often as fast as a 1:12 per 400 meter lap of the track.
Now just a side note here
at the Peak Centre we trained with a 5 zone system
with 1 being marathon pace and 5 being an all-out sprint.
Unfortunately, there exists 6 zone systems and likely others
which can really lead to confusion when speaking with other athletes
who might be working under a different methodology.
But those aerobic and anaerobic thresholds
as well as your Vo2 max are what really matter.
I always noticed a drop in these thresholds
after taking more than a week or two off
say after recovering from a big race or maybe an injury
or even just a vacation.
But as your fitness improves throughout a season from doing speed work
your thresholds are likely to improve as well.
That's the whole point of doing speed work.
So O would typically get tested in the lab every few months no matter what
to make sure that I wasn't training with outdated targets.
Many modern GPS watches now have wrist-based
optical heart rate monitors built right in.
Most watches are also compatible with chest based heart rate monitors
which are much more accurate than the risk-based ones.
But this data is completely useless if you don't already know what heart rate
you should be targeting for a given effort.
It's been years since I've had one of these tests done
since the Peak Centre here closed down in Vancouver
and that's why I no longer bother training with heart rate.
Because it can actually be counterproductive to train based on the numbers
if the numbers are wrong.
Plus heart rate can actually fluctuate in the short term
based on a number of factors like fatigue, stress or even just caffeine intake.
Not to mention that it's a lagging indicator to begin with
and it can take a minute for your heart rate to catch up
to your level of effort during a hard workout.
Again, that's why at the Peak Centre we also used corresponding pace targets
or lap times for our intensity work.
So where does that leave us when it comes to
figuring out what effort we should run at when doing things like speed work?
Well, there are formulas we can use
like subtracting your age from 220 to first determine your maximum heart rate
and then applying percentages to this figure
to determine your target heart rate for different thresholds.
But in my experience, these are so inaccurate that they're basically useless.
I compared these formulas once to the data that I was getting in the lab
and it was laughable how far off it was.
Not to mention that it doesn't account for those changes in fitness
throughout a season that we discussed before.
But there are some test runs that you can do at the track
to help determine your current fitness levels
or you can do some calculations based on some recent race results.
But in my experience, determining your actual heart rate zones with any accuracy
is just really difficult to do outside of a controlled laboratory environment.
I find the best solution is to simply run based on perceived effort
using what's commonly referred to as the talk test.
This can be translated into what's called the Rating of Perceived Exertion or RPE scale
which is a scale from 1 to 10
with 1 being basically at rest
and 10 being your maximum effort.
In fact, this is how my coach Eric prescribes my workouts to me.
So take the speed work session that I did on Wednesday at the track.
For my tempo intervals, I was targeting an 8 on the RPE scale
meaning I should only be able to speak about a sentence at a time.
For the shorter maximal intervals I was targeting 10 RPE
meaning that I couldn't talk at all
and I was literally just holding on for dear life.
Perceived exertion also controls for those changes in your fitness throughout a season
as well as other environmental factors like heat or altitude
because if these things are going to make running a certain speed
feel harder on one day than on another
then that's exactly what we're trying to factor in.
Because effort is relative and that's the whole point.
Having observed dozens of runners over the years while I was training at the lab
there are two things that tend to be true.
The first is that many of us tend to run our slow runs way too fast.
There's a pace that feels comfortably hard
typically close to that kind of half marathon effort
that many of us tend to fall into for a lot of our shorter runs
because it feels good to push ourselves just that little bit too hard.
It makes us feel like we're really working.
So it's important to keep our easy runs nice and easy.
Now the second thing is that we tend to run our hard efforts too slow.
I was often surprised, at least at first
by how fast some of my own targets were being set for my speed work at the track
but once I mentally adjusted to this effort I was able to hit them
at least occasionally.
When we say that you should be running at a conversational pace during an easy run
make sure that you can actually have a conversation.
But for those hard efforts, make sure that you're really pushing yourself as well.
You can use the talk test even when you're alone.
But hey, maybe this is another reason to run with a friend
so that it's more natural to be measuring effort with words
especially for those hard efforts
where it never hurts to have a little bit of friendly competition.
So I hope you found that interesting.
There's a lot more to unpack here when it comes to heart rate based training
and I do plan on dedicating a few more in-depth videos to it in the future.
In fact, in preparing for this video
I realized that it's probably about time that I get back in the lab
for another Vo2 max and lactic threshold test myself.
So I'll be sure to take you all along with me when I do.
As always, I want to hear from my supporting channel members
with any questions you might have about my training.
So be sure to leave those in the comments below.
You can become a channel member if you haven't already
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And I will talk to you all next week.