This is a weekly post for the runners of LoseIt to share progress, victories, ask questions, and provide any insight/advice. There's a lot of great runners on the board that can assist and share with newer and those just staring out. Also, it is great to share your progress and continued running. Any and all of it can get you running and keep you running.
All levels of runners are welcome here. Just started Couch to 5K (r/c25k) or just ran for the first time -- welcome aboard! Returning to running? Come on it! Experienced runner looking to share and help out? Please pop-in and give us an update.
This post is mostly about weekly posts and running related NSVs (non-scale victories). But I also ramble on about some topic related to running. This week -- HR Zones and Hills.
Heat Rate Zones and Hills -- What's the deal?
I use Heart Rate (HR) Zones to help me understand how to train on hills.
Hills are incredibly difficult. But if you have extra weight you need to lug those extra pounds or kilos up they become serious obstacle to progress in your running. (They do reward you on the downward side as any extra weight can propel you forward -- that's not part of this post.)
HR Zones tell me how hard I am working running up a hill. Depending on the zone I am going uphill I could be impacting my whole workout with 5 minutes going up a long steep hill.
Before I bore you with HR Zones -- here's some quick Hill Running tips.
Hills -- What I can I do to make them easier?
Here's some general tips.
- Slow down. You may drop to walking paces, but keep a running stride.
- Breathe deeply as you go into the hill. Hills makes you anaerobic, put you in oxygen debt. Replenish yourself prior to getting too far into it.
- Lean into the hill more than you would into a flat run. Try to fall forward uphill as much as you can.
- Fire up the hill off your hips and glutes more than ever. As you push off uphill brace your lower abs more and push from your glutes and hips as much as possible.
- Zigzag/serpentine on a wide uphill path may make them a little easier -- I tend to do this towards the top of get some relief/early recovery.
- Finally -- distract yourself more on the worst parts. See a steep hill coming up, pick a great part of your playlist, pick your favorite podcast, do whatever you need to do to keep your mind off the effort you are expending.
That out of the way on to HR stuff.
HR/Heat Rate Zones
There's five zones talked about in heart rate training.
- Zone 1-2 is easy and light activity. These are zones you can maintain for hours. Hills are not going to be in these zones for long.
- Zone 3 is moderate activity. This is a zone where you can maintain this intensity 1-3 hours depending on endurance training.
- Zone 4 is hard work and is more anaerobic than aerobic. This is maintainable for 20-90 minutes depending on training.
- Zone 5 is maximum/high-intensity work that is overwhelmingly anaerobic. The bottom of this zone is maintainable for 1-5 minutes depending on training. The top 10-60 seconds. I call the top of this zone a completely unofficial thing called Zone 6. It's basically anything that takes you right up to you max heart rate.
It's important to note that Zone 1-3 are for aerobic endurance building. If your goal is to run a 5K, 10K or half-marathon -- then these are zones that provide the endurance results you want. Hills are the one thing that stay a challenge in this, though.
If you are just starting out, don't worry about this HR stuff. Your HR rate will likely jump up to zones 4-5 (and my unofficial 6) no matter what. If you go and read stuff on the net it will likely make you feel bad for leaving zone 2 or having a heart rate over 140bpm. Don't. This is stuff for someone who has some endurance built and can run a 5K-10K easily.
Energy Burn of HR Zone Minutes
I like to gamify this HR rate zone stuff. For instance, I start with a limited amount of running energy to spend. I think of these zones as currency for my energy I can use up from that amount. Higher zones use up more per minute.
I might start off a running session with 70 energy points -- and each minute in zone 3 uses 1 point, zone 4 minutes are 2 points and zone 5 are 5 points. Minutes in Zones 1-2 give back a point. I want as long a run as possible to get more endurance for more energy points.
Why 70 points? Because of my current training load, my fitness level, etc. Most beginners will have less. Most trained folks will have more.
What does this mean with hills?
If you go out and do a hill run and the first thing is steep 3 minute hill, I'm sunk 15% of my energy in 3 minutes. This might be fine if I can go easy for 10 minutes right after because of a downhill -- you might recover nicely. But if it followed by a slight grade that is 10 minutes in zone 3-4 then I'm really burning up my energy and might end up done after 20 minutes where a walking the steep hill would keep me going for 40.
HR Strategy and Hills
Every route is a little different. I have one route I do that has a 3 minute steep hill at the end -- I just recover a bit leading into this hill. But, in general, here's my plan for various hills during a regular run.
- Modest hills (at 2-5% grad) I will just run it very slowly and make up on the downhill. Actively go slowly. I watch my HR zones here and slow down enough to try to stay in zones 3-4. At this grade it isn't a problem usually, but I will keep myself out of zone 5 on a long stretch by going super slow.
- Moderate Hills (6-8% grade) I will slowly run a shorter hill, but will powerhike longer ones. (When I say slow, it's a fast walking pace with a running stride.) If I hustle up a hill in pwerhike mode and I'm zone 3, I know I will max out (Zone 5/6) on the hill running for more than a few minutes. I get just as much endurance building walking up this hill at a hike pace that winds me as jogging slowly up it. As a strategy to run a longer hill I will serpentine up the hills which lessens the grade a little but lengthens the run. I look at my heart rate zones. I will let myself get into the top end Zone 5 on a moderate hill and then switch to a powerhike.
- Steep stuff (9%+) This grade, really anything over 7% changes your posture and form to keep running. I walk these, briskly as I can, keep myself in zone 3-4 HR wise.
- Recover on the downhills! You can really stretch yourself out if you can take it easy on the down side of a hill. Go slower than you would normally. Don't brake going downhill -- just coast. Every minute in Zone 2 you can log will pay off in a longer run.
That's all for this week -- see you next week!
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