I had some terrible news yesterday and felt very flat today. Sometimes the heart really does feel a weight to carry. After a day at a desk I thought a run might help me recalibrate, so I arranged for my son to be dropped off at grandma’s, 5.5k away.
Rather than having to look at a watch all the time. I thought I would try to maintain a steady pace and an easy effort by nose-breathing. The rule was; if I needed to mouth-breathe, I had to stop. Not a step unless it’s nasal-fuelled.
The first 3k felt pretty good. Then in the fourth km I could feel the effort levels rising and the breathing wobbled, forcing a suck of mouth air and therefore a stop. A glance at the buzzing watch confirmed I’d hit 168bpm and the speed had crept up. But... but... I know the figures are a bit dodge, but that’s meant to be about 95% effort. Which is nuts and balls.
It got me thinking... I had a look through the stats new and old and sure enough, there is a remarkable similarity between my cadence and my HR when running. (Like, less than 5!)
I have ordered a chest strap heart monitor in the interests of science and will report back.
It was a gorgeous afternoon and evening. The highlight of the run was the half hour walk back home across fields, playing in a lightning tree and chitchatting the whole time. The perfect distraction and a reminder that life is precious and good.
Happy running peeps x
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ktsok
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Great way to run... I may have to try this nose breathing only technique.
Sometimes watches do pick up on cadence, it will be interesting to see how different your results are with a chest strap HRM. Have you had your max HR assessed or are you working in default settings?
Sorry to hear that this run was born from bad news, but great stats for an easy effort run.
No assessment. To be honest, all this gadgetry isn’t necessary for a plod-a-long like me, I just find it interesting! I have tried calculating the max HR using several methods and they all generate numbers very close to the 220-age formula.
Maybe some of us have the hearts of humming birds, but the matching cadence is a bit suspicious. As reluctant as I am to say anything negative about my Garmin, there is a lot of stuff out there about the unreliability of the wrist sensor when exercising... it will be interesting to see if the chest monitor comes up with a different result.
Yes, nose breathing does help with pace control, something I struggle with. and forces me to really focus on breathing. I had to stop maybe four times in the last km (which was a big uphill) to take a few gulps of air, but only lost 60 seconds through stopping. I was shocked at how high the HR remained though! I’ll be interested to hear how your nose breathing run goes...
I don't think the 220 - age formula is much good. I'm 61 and so this gives 159 as my maximum heart rate. Now the maximum heart rate is supposed to be the absolute maximum that you can take and you would not be able to sustain for any length of time.
But on last night's run it was in the mid 150s for much of the time, and towards the end around 160-165, and for a fast spurt right at the end it was at 172 for at least a minute. Guess what? I didn't flake out! On parkruns it sustains at around 165 for long periods.
I asked my GP if this was OK and he said it was fine. At the age of 45 he did a 10k, and said his average heart rate was 190 throughout - but the formula says the max should be 175 for a 45 year old.
So I think any of those formulae like 220-age only give a very broad average, and individuals might vary greatly from the average. As you say, some of us might be hummingbirds!
One thing I have noticed from the Garmin data is that with all this exercise, my resting heart rate has dropped from over 60 bpm to low to mid 50s.
Sounds like a fun experiment. What a long way we have come since the days of having to just concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other, now we have to think about how we breathe and everything!!!
Will be interesting to see if it is the watch reading your cadence or whether somehow we naturally match our heart rate to our cadence or the other way round??
I am in awe of your nose breathing...mine is usually too stuffed up or runny to even attempt that. If I onlybran when I could nose breathe I would be forever on the couch : )
so sorry kt about that bad news, I hope , well I don't know how to say it but that you heal from it soon.
Good choice going for a run, it does help leave stuff behind doesn't it? Interesting about the nose breathing. Think my nose is too blocked for that but yesterday I focus on abdominal breathing and that relaxed me. Seems that we run at the same pace and same heart rate (i was 168 average, same peak). Let us know how it goes with the heart monitor, I'm very interested. take care xx
It's not uncommon for wrist based sensors to develop "cadence lock" where it loses the pulse (due to sweat, lose/tight fir, etc.) and locks onto the most steady rhythm it can detect, i.e. footfall. I have a Garmin and it sometimes falls foul of this. I try wearing it a little bit further up my wrist and a little tighter when running, and it seems to help. My stats aren't 95% in the red zone since I learned that trick.
That’s useful to know, thanks. I did order a chest strap monitor and it seems pretty conclusive after run 1 that the wrist sensor has been locking into my cadence.
Sorry to hear you had some terrible news. So glad you were able to improve the way you felt by getting out for a run, exercise really does help the mind.
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Rethinking my approach to 10km
Super gentle hot weather 5K
