I'm embedding my responses in original quote. Unless you've actually tried to do a max hr test, I doubt you'd be anywhere near it, esp. when using avg data for miles, and your typical pace is near 10min/mi, meaning you'd have to run 100% max hr for almost 10 min. 80-90% of your running time should probably be in the 65% to 90% max hr range, with easy runs near 70-75% max hr. FWIW, I have 7 yrs of hr data, and I rarely get much above 90% max hr without being in a race or group workout, but I don't do VO2max workouts (low priority relative to hills of many flavors). It's hard for me to believe that your "hard" miles are in mid 180s and your "easy" miles are near 170, say about 15 bpm difference. In my case, an "easy" run is about 75% max hr (135), recovery about 70-72% (130) , LT near 90% (162), and pushing (alone, not in race) I can get maybe to 92-93% (high 160s) max hr. That's about a 40 bpm range. Also, I would expect a greater pace variation between what your reporting as easy and hard, but I don't deal with paces (hilly trails) so don't have a good feeling for them. Are you easy runs really easy enough that you can talk clearly in full sentences?
Not usually no. Usually, I start off being able to carry a conversation but by the end, I'm pretty winded. My recorded HR pretty much supports that with an initial mile averaging around 150, but then spiking to 170+ the rest of the way. My problem has been that I've not truly had "easy" or "recovery" miles, I just tried pushing them too much each time. As such, my "easy" runs are probably about nine-tenths of my "hard" runs. I don't really question my "hard" runs, but it's obvious that I've pushed my easy runs too much that I'm not getting the proper benefit out of them.
AKTrail wrote: Yes, and no. You might look at the Karvonen formula which uses resting hr to calculate heart rate reserve (hrr). With that system, your long and easy runs should be about 60-75% of hrr (actually x % of hrr + resting hr). If you have a high max hr, you may also have a high resting hr, thus all your values might be shifted upward. Also, the critical thing for most workouts is where you are relative to LT (sometimes represented by VT), which is tfrequently near 90% max hr. Except for VO2max workouts, your effort relative to LT is what's really important. The confusion that many people have getting their max hr is why I frequently suggest running by feel - just going by breathing. That's what most training boils down to, esp. for recreational runners - no need for all this confusion about hr, paces, yada, yada, yada.
Yesterday on my treadmill run I wrote about above, I had an extremely easy run compared to what I'm used to. Part of that is because it was on a treadmill, but also because I really controlled my pace. My breathing was VERY easy as I could have done all of my breathing through my nose if I wanted to. A conversation would have been a piece of cake. Checking my HR manually, I was getting about 15 or 16 beats every 6 seconds so that would translate to a 150-160 HR. Dividing that by 75% gives me a figure of 207. Maybe my MHR really is over 200 then.
The short answer to your original question is that there may not be too much different that you can do this close to your race. Whether you should be doing something different still remains a question. My gut feeling is still that you're running your easy runs too hard, but it won't kill you.
That's pretty much what I'm afraid of at this point. That whatever I change now won't make a difference. I just don't want to change anything that is going to HURT my chances of hitting my goal.
Thanks for all the advice and comments!
