I have been running for a while. I thought I knew how to run. What there is to it, one step after another. If you want to run faster, just pick up the speed. After many injuries, as most runners do, I also realize it is not that simple.

I read an article a couple of days back, 80/20 Running. For a short distance, it may not matter, you can speed up, and when you are done with your 5K, you can chill. The efficiency matter when you are going long distances, and you need to conserve your energy. You will need to pay attention to your heartbeats, pace, cadence, etc.

Before going out to run, I set my workout goals. To improve efficiency, I wanted to stay within the heart rate zone 3, which is 120 – 138 BPM. While setting up the goal, the watch treated me very nicely and followed every one of my commands. That was not the case on the course.

I knew I need to run slower to keep the pace that I set up. But after a mile or so, it was downhill, and I sped up and kept the same pace while I was going uphill. And the watch starts beeping, you exceeded your range. It was nice that someone promptly told you to make adjustments. As I slowed down, I saw the pace on the watch going down, nice!!  I kept running and at times, the watch kept beeping and I took the corrective action.

After about 6 miles, I got a beep and when I looked at the watch, it showed that I sped up again, and the pace was high. I slowed down to normalize the pace. And while I was slow, it beeped again, now what. I looked at the watch, it is telling me, to speed up, I was under my set pace goal. What the heck, I had to speed up the pace to stay within the band of my goals.

In Summary

The tool is there to help us. It is up to us to take advantage of it. Here is the data from the run. As you may see, at times I had to stop running and walk, my pace is zero. But the good thing was that my heart rate was below 150 for the first time. I know it is higher than my set Max, which I need to continue to work at. Another bright spot was that towards the end, I was still left with energy, my ending stamina was 42%, and I could have easily gone for a couple of miles more.

To get the last laugh at the end, it gave me my performance score. Yes, your guess is right, my score was at the low end of the low. There is no need to get disappointed, it helps to know where I  am and what I need to work at.

This is my follow-up run. The data speaks for itself.

1. 1. I depleted all my energy, and stamina at the end was 23% from the start of 97%
   2. Average HR stayed around 152. It is still high, and I need to work on it
   3. Ran Longer distance

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