yes I use a heart rate monitor

Congrats on the weight loss. That's a lot of hardwork and discipline to cut that kind of weight in a year.

When I am in shape my resting heart rate is between 30 and 40. When I'm out of shape it's in the low to mid 50's. When I'm in shape it's fun getting a physical. The nurse always does a double take and retakes my pulse. She then asks me, "Are you a runner?" I proudly say "Yes I am."

My real Max Heart Rate is 185. When I run, I try to keep my heart rate below 165. If I can complete a run keeping under 165 the whole way and maintain or improve the time, I add 30 seconds to the run part of the run/walk ratio.

Over the last year my focus has been on long distance training(half marathon) so I rarely go at a pace faster than 11 minute miles. My emphasis has been on keeping my pulse rate below the 165 mark on my runs. My normal pace on most of my runs is around the 12:00 mm mark.

For 3 mile runs I don't take any walk breaks and my pulse stays below 165 the whole time.

During walk breaks early on in the run, my heart rate drops down to the low 140's. The longer my run, the higher the heart rate usually is at the end of the walk. On a 5 mile run it usually drops from 165 down to the mid-140's to 150. Often, if I go for an hour and a half or more, my HR will only recover a little(down 5 or 7 beats) if it's really long (over 2 hours, it may not go down at all)

I don't really know if I answered what you wanted. Post again if you need any clarifications.

We should start a "6' 4" and 220+ runner" thread somewhere on this board maybe on basic training where there is more traffic to discuss large runner issues.

What run/walk ratio are you currently using? I used run 7 min/walk 1 in the half marathon I ran in May for the race and throughout my training for the long run. After doing more research and looking back on my experience I think that was too large of a ratio.

Here is a chunk of a recent post on how I am attempting to find my ideal run/walk ratio for each distance travelled. Sorry for posting this in more than 1 place. I don't mean to be a message board hog.

Being a big fan of keeping an eye on my heart rate while running. I'm a math teacher and am a bit of a numbers geek. I lost 25 lbs a few years ago on Weight Watchers and I always kept track of my time in each heart rate zone while exercising so I could earn activity points for my eating plan. So, I got used to tracking my heart rate.

In keeping a pace for my long runs and for the half marathon, I tried to keep my heart rate below 165 bpm. My max is 185 and I read in an article that was where my bpm should be.

Here is what I mean by finding your true run/walk ratio for each distance:

I recently restarted a moderate training schedule after sporadic running the last few months due to life events. I had been playing around with the appropriate Galloway run/walk ratio for my pace and was getting bored with all of the walking in his recommended ratio for my pace.

My normal running routine when not training for a half marathon is do 1 3 mi, 1 4 mi, and 1 5 mi run each week.

So, what I did a few weeks ago was go for a 5 mile run, keeping close tabs of my heart rate. Every time my heart rate hit 165, I pushed the lap button on my hrm and started walking briskly until my heart rate went down to 145. When it hit 145 I started a new lap on the hrm and started running until my heart rate went back up to 165. I repeated this throughout the entire run. I also kept track of my times at the 3 mile mark and the 4 mile mark.

I then went home and calculated how many minutes I walked in the first 3 miles, first 4 miles, and for the 5 miles. That told me how many 1 minute walk breaks to take on a 3 mile, 4 mile, and 5 mile run as a starting point.

Now, when I do a certain distance at a certain run/walk ratio and I can do the whole distance without going over 165 bpm, I add 30 seconds to the run part of the run/walk ratio. If my time doesn't improve with adding the extra 30 seconds of running on each rotation I go back to the old ratio.


http://This message has been edited by TCO (edited Dec-21-2005).