5K and 10K training

[Bazza1234]

I am reading a book called "5K and 10K training" by Brian Clarke and enjoying it. I have been doing most of my training according to a training plan by Jack Daniels and have been noticing that the paces he recommends for certain workouts align with some HR numbers that another runner has equated to those paces for someone with a max HR of 160 (me) .

Clarkes book makes it even clearer how these different "effort bands" line up with my own max HR. For example , he quotes the bands as 60-70% , conversational - very comfortable, 70 -80% comfortable, 80-90% tolerable, 90-95% as uncomfortable and 95-100% as very uncomfortable.

It just so happens that some significant things coincide for me at these band intersections

For max HR of 160

60-70% - conversational , very comfortable =96-112. 96 HR happens to be the max HR that I can get by simply walking as hard as I can and 112 happens to coincide with the very slowest HR that I can get and still say that I am "running"

70-80% - 112-128 . Comfortable -- this band is definitely comfortable for me shorter easy runs at 112 are very easy , slowly building to 120 as distance increases and buidling further to 128 at the end of an "easy" 10K

89-90% - tolerable . 128 -144. At 128 , I am running fairly easy, by the time I get to 144 I am starting to get uncomfortable . OK for a short time but must keep it below 144 if I am to last the distance

90-95% uncomfortable. 144-152-- I am good for this level of effort for maybe 1K and my breathing is quite hard in a 2/2 pattern

95-100% very uncomfortable --152-160 - I can maybe do this for 100 metres at the end of a 5K .

It is good to know these bands - they are important for training and racing and in my experience , seem to line up with the perceived effort quoted.