December Training

I have determined a set of targets for my December training which I intended to accomplish during Christmas time. Though I still have a few days left to give it my best to achieve my goal, I don’t think my training has been a big success thus far.

I travelled to visit my family in the South of Germany where there is a mountain range of moderate size. I live in Mainz at the river Rhine and here’s only flat territory. But the hills in the South I did not reckon with when I set my goals:

• Run 40 kilometers per week or
• a minimum of 160 this month
• train with an intensity of 80-90% of maximum heart rate
• stay a maximum of minutes within the training zone of 89-90% of the maximum HR
• lose fat and increase muscle to 44% of the body

I did run 40 k this week, even did 45 during Christmas, but I am still running behind those 160 k for the month. I will manage that, though, with another long run.

Due to the hilly terrain, my runs turned out to be a very slow pace, 5:45 – 5:55 minutes per kilometer. And my heart was racing most of the time. Well, not most of the time but an unsatisfactory 30% of total workout time. I did not quantify the goal of staying within the training zone regarding HR, but I sure did not expect to run 30% of the time above the limit set at 90% of maximum heart rate. So today I went for a long run of 21.2 kilometers at my home town and its flat running tracks. I felt very fit and ambitious but had to constrain myself and constantly slow down to keep the heart rate down. Curiously, it was rather difficult to do so. Somehow my heartbeat was going fast most of the time and I struggled to keep it down.

By measuring the time run within the set training zone – set at 80-90% of max heart rate – I intend to find out my ideal pace and the limits of my ability to increase speed during long runs. This is to train towards a faster marathon time. I will only be able to increase speed if I stop struggling with a heartbeat that’s too close to the maximum. My future goals are based on this training zone, and the ability to stay within that training zone will determine the success of increasing my pace.

I do keep track of my weight with a body analysis scale which measures fat, muscles, water and bone as a percentage of total body weight. I don’t think it to be all too important but find it interesting. And I do want to increase muscles.

Funny how my weight’s increased over Christmas – 1.5 kg!