Using HR to pace my first running marathon

HRM's are for training. The basic theory is to: one, keep
you from working too hard on easy (recovery) days, and two,
make sure you are working hard enough on the hard days. By
keeping records you can work out a best guesstimate of what
your finishing time might be (a better way would be to run
some shorter races, 10K's and a half marathon and use one of
the formulas to predict your marathon finishing time)

On race day go by time, a three week taper combined with
super hydration and super nutrition, plus the excitement of
the moment will tend to throw your "normal" HR right out the
window. Anyway for your first- concentrate on finishing.
They are a lot more fun that way.

scody said:

In another post (thanks for all the responses) I shared
that I just recieved an HRM for father's day.

Can/Should I use it to:
A. Pace my long runs and eventual (no time goal... just
to finish) marathon?
B. Estimate how long it will take me to finish?

If A is true... then, I presume that B. is somewhat true.
Today, I went out for a quick 4 mile run with the goal of
staying at 65-70% of my estimaged Max HR. I was saddened
to see it sooooo slow. I mean... my normal 9:30 pace was
slashed to 12:00. EGAD! The run felt wonderful.... but I
was crushed to find out how slow I should be 🙂

If I were estimating my marathon pace keeping my HR at
70%, (not adjusting for cardiac creep), I run a 12 minute
mile for the marathon?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

i run and train 4 marathon with a hrm your 70% is between
142--160?? it will get better as your heart get stronger
i was crushed too but i got over it irun every other day
@ 70 % then on the other days i do my interval and tempo
run plodzilla

scody said:

In another post (thanks for all the responses) I shared
that I just recieved an HRM for father's day.

Can/Should I use it to:
A. Pace my long runs and eventual (no time goal... just
to finish) marathon?
B. Estimate how long it will take me to finish?

If A is true... then, I presume that B. is somewhat true.
Today, I went out for a quick 4 mile run with the goal of
staying at 65-70% of my estimaged Max HR. I was saddened
to see it sooooo slow. I mean... my normal 9:30 pace was
slashed to 12:00. EGAD! The run felt wonderful.... but I
was crushed to find out how slow I should be 🙂

If I were estimating my marathon pace keeping my HR at
70%, (not adjusting for cardiac creep), I run a 12 minute
mile for the marathon?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

scody wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

In another post (thanks for all the responses) I shared
that I just

recieved

Quoted message said:

an HRM for father's day.

Can/Should I use it to:
A. Pace my long runs and eventual (no time goal... just
to finish) marathon?

Once you learn how to use it as one but not the only measure
of your effort, then yes, a HRM can be helpful in pacing
long runs, and even your marathon after the first few miles
of excitement settle out.

Quoted message said:

B. Estimate how long it will take me to finish?

Others will probably post on estimating your marathon time
from the times of shorter races you've done (if any), but
you will get a better feel for this over time as you put in
some longer runs in training, with or without a HRM.

Quoted message said:

If A is true... then, I presume that B. is somewhat true.
Today, I went out for a quick 4 mile run with the goal of
staying at 65-70% of my estimaged Max HR. I was saddened to
see it sooooo slow. I mean... my normal 9:30 pace was
slashed to 12:00. EGAD! The run felt wonderful.... but I
was crushed to find out how slow I should be 🙂

Max HR is not easy to estimate properly, and you really
can't go by formulas. Instead of using some formula for % of
estimated HR, I would suggest simply keep running as you
were before, and record your average HR for each run (if
your HRM gives the average for the whole run, not just final
HR). Then over time you can see how different HRs affect
your recovery and eventually you can test your Max HR
directly, or learn about the so called "lactate threshold"
(LT) heart rate and what that means for different kinds of
training runs. While I'm learning that LT is more a region
of effort than a single HR level, it is still much more
important than Max HR for training. I don't think I've
reached my Max HR more than twice in the last 5 years, but
I've come to know my LT area and I try to set up my training
based on this. HR is just biofeedback and it tells you the
state of your heart's effort based on alot of things, not
just running effort; forget the formulas and just watch it
for a while to get a feel for what its telling you.

- Tony

Quoted message said:

If I were estimating my marathon pace keeping my HR at 70%,
(not adjusting for cardiac creep), I run a 12 minute mile
for the marathon?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

These gizmos are a waste of effort for a first marathon.
Just get your weekly base and long runs up there.