I’ve actually ran a decent number of times over the past 2 or 3 years. Since I downloaded the Adidas running app in Mar 2024 (I’ve since followed the herd and downloaded Strava too), I’ve run 157 times. That is approximately once a week and probably 5k on average (maybe a little less).
Despite this I haven’t really got any faster, lost any weight or gotten any fitter. I guess it’s not really enough running to see vast improvements.
Stress has played a huge part of my life since 2019 and I’ve struggled to get the balance right with my running.
For the most part I stick to easy runs but occasionally decide that progress is too slow and then red line a 5k instead.
This makes recovery take a lot longer than it should and then I go 2 or 3 weeks without running again.
My mental health has been a factor too and this has made running more regularly difficult.
Overall, I think, not having a proper plan has held me back the most.
One thing that has helped a little and I believe could help me further is running to heart rate. I have a Garmin Forerunner 55 watch (nothing too fancy) which tells me my heart rate as I’m running.
Having worked out what zones my heart rate sits in, I can control my effort so the runs aren’t too hard on my body and I recover quicker.
For the time being I am running all of my runs in zone 2.
I have a decent amount of muscles mass for my age and can still sprint at a good speed so I have figured that it’s my aerobic capacity that I need to improve and also to simply get more miles in my legs.
So, the plan now is to run 3 times a week. 2 easy 5k runs and 1 long 10k run.
I am doing this for at least 4 to 6 weeks and am very interested to see if my times improve while keeping my heart rate i.e. effort, consistent.
For Zone 2, I need to keep my heart rate below 142 and although I do creep past this on hills (it’s very difficult to go slow enough to stay in zone 2) the average heart rate is usually in the mid-130s so not taxing overall.
My average heart rate should hopefully be very similar and even if it’s not exactly the same, it should be easy to compare runs and see if I’m actually getting faster whilst putting in the same effort.
Do I really need to track my heart rate? Can’t I just run to feel like they did in the oldun days I hear you say? Possibly, but I have a tendency to think that I’m not doing enough and the temptation of a fast/sprint finish is always there too.
Keeping my heart rate below 142 makes sure that I don’t push too hard.
My legs were still suffering quite a bit after my first 10k in a long while last Saturday and had I ran it even a little bit harder, I don’t think I would have been able to do my easy runs on Tuesday and Thursday.
The other thing that is holding me back is my weight. I know I run much better when I’m lighter and 93kg at 5ft 10 puts a lot of strain on my dodgy knees.
To aid my weight loss I am also doing intermittent fasting on my easy run days. For me this involves not eating all day until the evening after my easy run. It’s a variant of the 5-2 diet I guess but I’m not counting calories or too concerned with sticking to under 500 at the moment.
Running unfuelled is possibly not recommended by the experts but as I’m only running in zone 2 and refuelling straight after, I am hoping that this will be a help rather than a hindrance.
So, to summarize, the 3 steps I’m taking to become a faster and more consistent runner currently are:
- Run in zone 2 at all times
- Run 3 times a week and include 1 long run
- Intermittent fasting 2 days a week
I will update at least every 4-6 weeks to record my progress and I’ll also do a follow -up post to this where I explain how I have worked out my heart rate zones.
