Heart rate Shmart rate...

It's been a pip of a week. A pip I tell you! As I write this my weekly mileage is 22.5 and 10 of those miles were on a treadmill and just typing about running on a treadmill makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out with a knife.

 

I'm working on a project I like to call, "make treadmill running less yuck". Pretty self explanatory. I do random speed work on the treadmill to pass the time and sometimes I try listening to music. Lately I've been listening to podcasts. Specifically podcasts from Trail Runner Nation. I figure if I'm stuck on a treadmill I can at least listen to people talk about awesome trail running adventures.

Well I came across some podcasts about heart rate training. You know, run at a lower heart rate, train your body to run on fat instead of carbohydrates, body starts working more efficiently, magic happens, you run faster, burn more fat, and win the lottery! Ok maybe not all of that, but some of it... Here's the one that got me.

http://trailrunnernation.com/2013/01/dr-phil-maffetone-speed-up-by-slowing-down/

Speed up by slowing down? You're speaking my language. I mean, I'm already slow! There's no where to go but up!

I've toyed around with my heart rate monitor thingy a few times I the past, so I thought I'd give it a shot this week. So I did some math and got my number and I was off. Turns out I run slow and to keep my heart rate lower I get to run even slower... Oh boy. It wasn't so bad on my shorter runs, I just had to slow down a few times or take a short walk break.

Then came a long run... Lots more walking. Lots slower. So I'm running this 10 mile run that is taking 475 hours and I'm thinking, really? What is this all about. Sure I could go for just about forever because I'm moving at a crawl, I feel like a million bucks, but really? How is this gonna make me faster? What is this voodoo magic all about? I don't get it. I know I know science and blah blah blah. But I kind of feel like it might just be a big funny way to allow people to slow down a little. I'm all for that!

Gotta quit typing and get back to my magical fat burning.... Or something