Front Office Football Central - View Single Post

Alan T · 02-08-2014, 07:00 PM

One of my favorite geeky things to do lately with my running is to measure my running efficiency between runs. Since I constantly run different paths, the elevation is different and comparing those runs are not necessarily always effective, but when I run the same course multiple times I can compare a previous run with current runs to see if via my training I am becoming more efficient.

Setting PRs are great, but I've gotten to the point where I am not really setting a ton of PRs in every training run anymore as I am not necessarily racing them and depending on the day's workout may only be running at 40-60% effort. So what I am looking for is to see the amount of effort it takes to move x pace via heart rate.

Doing this has helped me find that I've been continuing to make slow and steady improvements as I go. Here is a chart I put together of my 12+ mile run that I did today on the same course that I did back on December 21st as well. The workouts were almost identical in intended pace and distance, so a perfect place for me to see how things have progressed in about 5-6 weeks.

This uses the formula:

Code:

Total Beats = (Average Heart Rate – Resting Heart Rate) * Time in Minutes
Work Per Mile = Total Beats / Distance in Miles
Efficiency = 1 / Work Per Mile * 100,000

I already knew before putting this together that today's run was better than the one in December. I ran it 9 seconds per mile faster and did it with a Heart rate that averaged 4bpm lower. The graph shows that my downhills back then as well as today are both close to the same. My limiting factor on those seem to be how fast I can run down the hill without tripping on my feet and going tumbling. Where the big improvements are is that I am getting better at the elevation increases and overall more efficient.

Anyways, like I said, pretty geeky but fun stuff for me to look at. I did the same thing to measure all of my long runs that I did the past several weeks. Was interesting to see the one that I completely fell apart during (19 mile run) vs the 20 and 21 mile runs that I did that felt much stronger.

02-08-2014, 07:00 PM	#1368
Alan T Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mass.	One of my favorite geeky things to do lately with my running is to measure my running efficiency between runs. Since I constantly run different paths, the elevation is different and comparing those runs are not necessarily always effective, but when I run the same course multiple times I can compare a previous run with current runs to see if via my training I am becoming more efficient. Setting PRs are great, but I've gotten to the point where I am not really setting a ton of PRs in every training run anymore as I am not necessarily racing them and depending on the day's workout may only be running at 40-60% effort. So what I am looking for is to see the amount of effort it takes to move x pace via heart rate. Doing this has helped me find that I've been continuing to make slow and steady improvements as I go. Here is a chart I put together of my 12+ mile run that I did today on the same course that I did back on December 21st as well. The workouts were almost identical in intended pace and distance, so a perfect place for me to see how things have progressed in about 5-6 weeks. This uses the formula: Code: `Total Beats = (Average Heart Rate – Resting Heart Rate) * Time in Minutes Work Per Mile = Total Beats / Distance in Miles Efficiency = 1 / Work Per Mile * 100,000` I already knew before putting this together that today's run was better than the one in December. I ran it 9 seconds per mile faster and did it with a Heart rate that averaged 4bpm lower. The graph shows that my downhills back then as well as today are both close to the same. My limiting factor on those seem to be how fast I can run down the hill without tripping on my feet and going tumbling. Where the big improvements are is that I am getting better at the elevation increases and overall more efficient. Anyways, like I said, pretty geeky but fun stuff for me to look at. I did the same thing to measure all of my long runs that I did the past several weeks. Was interesting to see the one that I completely fell apart during (19 mile run) vs the 20 and 21 mile runs that I did that felt much stronger. __________________ Couch to ??k - From the couch to a Marathon in roughly 18 months.