Fear not I am not about to tear down your local quaint Main Street and throw up a 1,000,000sqft Mall! What I am talking about is changing my zones that I posted about here. After posting them Wes from A Code Geeks Tail asked where I got my zones from and I pointed him in the direction of the website…and this is why I love being a blogger and the community of athletes that I know, he immediately offered to work out my zones properly and suggested I follow the 20 minute test, of course he didn’t offer to do the test for me!
And of to the gym I went, there was no point in trying this on the road, I work in the foothills, it’s all up or down.
I set the treadmill at 1% grade and set off. A simple 10 minute warm up, 20 minutes at best effort without blowing up and then a cool down, average HR for the 20 minutes: 164.66, let’s call it 165. Not sure what the heart-fart is around minute 17 through? And I was surprised to see that I can still throw down some consistent sub 7:00 miles, although it’s a ways off my 5k best pace.
Woot! Just as a reminder, here’s what I had by comparison to the new ones:
Of course none of this was possible without Wes, so a big Big HUGE thank you to him. If you haven’t checked out his blog you should, self described as: “A Neo Southern Gentleman from the Heart of Dixie, navigating the silver waters of the IT industry, IT Consultant, family man, marathoner, triathlete, Ironman. Come dance with me as I train for Ironman Arizona in November 2010...”
So what are you waiting for…he asked you to dance!
You are most welcome. You could have done a lot of running in your original Zone 2, and it would have been fine, but I suspect you would have felt more like the tortoise rather than the hare :-)
ReplyDeleteRe-take the test every 6-8 weeks when you have a thirty minute all out effort in you, to make sure your zones stay dialed in. Also, I would find a track or a half mile loop or something outside to take the test on next time. Wind, humidity, and temperature all affect our heart rates.
Good luck and have fun!
Wes
I love that Wes notes his recovery zone starting at "0". LOL!
ReplyDeleteI need to do this test on a run and bike to get a better idea of my true zones. I am just scared :)))))
That's very cool! I'm hoping to get a HR monitor over the winter and use it to a) build my base mileage intelligently and b) to follow a good race plan.
ReplyDeleteWow. Nice post. This one is definitely favorited.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably been a year since I've tested my HR, so think next week I'll give this test a go.