Your Average Heart Rate Is Hiding the Real Problem

So the distance for the run was just, uh, 4.72 kilometers, took her just under 30 minutes.

Average pace, 6:20 per kilometer.

Average heart rate, 148 beats per minute, and her reported max heart rate was 180 beats per minute.

Her splits for this run, the first kilometer was six minutes 48 per kilometer, then 6:14, 6:07, 5:58, and then the last little bit was 0 point-- well, 5K was a 5:39 per kilometer.

The first thing that jumps out here, though, is this is basically a progression run more than anything else, every kilometer getting faster.

For an easy run two days before you're attempting a 5K PB, is this something that you want to see?

Uh, no.

So I mean, this really does drift into the moderate, um, category, um, and we just need to look at the heart rate data.

So if we put a run up on screen, we can see starts at 130, 150, 156.

So there's this constant climbing of heart rate too.

So we can see that it's not just the pace, um, that is increasing, it's definitely a moderate, um, effort race.

And this is like one of those classic cases where average heart rate is probably not the best measure to use here, um, because at 148, that's at 82% of her reported maximum.

Now, I'm gonna guess that that maximum is probably an age-related, so I'm not too concerned about that.

I, I really don't feel like this is like a threshold run.

Um, but the point is at 148, it's a l- it's probably a little bit on the high side on an average point of view.

So you probably think you're okay, and it was a little bit harder than it should have been, but it's not too bad.

But that's where averages are misleading, because this run goes into the 150s, well into the 150s and okay, there was a recorded maximum of 180.

That's, that's probably also erroneous data.

But the point is that that goes well into moderate and beyond.

Um, and so this is not an easy run.

So that's the first thing I think we just have to be honest is that the intention might have been to go out for an easy run, but this was not an easy run.

Um, and, and it's two days before her main race.

So we don't know what the result of the 5K test was, and she certainly felt like it was easy.

So, um, yeah, I, I guess that's, that's perhaps a sign that she's either not really in touch with the effort, number one, or number two, um, it could also just be indicating that she doesn't quite understand what easy means, um, or that she generally tends to rev a little bit high.

So that's why I say the 148 doesn't make me go, "Whoa, this-- you turned this into a hard run." No, you turned it into a moderate effort run, and this is such a common mistake.