Running with LoseIt - 5/31/2021 - Running is Really Hard, Part 2: Thresholds
This is a somewhat 'weekly' post for the runners of LoseIt.
All levels of runner are welcome here, from first timers to experienced marathoners. We welcome someone who just ran for the first time or is just starting couch to 5K (r/c25k) as eagerly as someone who has thousands of miles of experience.
This post is for sharing your weekly progress or excitement with running. From training you got in this last week, your first run, a virtual race, or a real race, we'd love to hear what you did. Got a running related NSV (non-scale victory), we'd love to hear. Have a question or need advice, we are here to help.
In addition to sharing your progress each week, I ramble on about some topic related to running. This week's topic - remember, running is really hard plus bonus sock run reports.
Running is Really, Really Hard
For all those coming to running recently, I have some wisdom. We all ran when we were kids like it was nothing. And, we can see people, in every place in the world running like graceful antelopes. Do not be fooled -- running is really, really, really hard.
Why do I bring this up? Well, I'm ramping up my own running again. I've let my running fitness diminish over the last year to where running is always an all out effort again. Now when I go out my heart rate shoots up higher and I'm winded and panting right away. Even going glacial slow is hard effort. Really hard.
I went out yesterday and run a little under a 5K distance. This was very, very, very slow. I've been working back up to this length of run building from 15 minutes up to ~35 minutes of running over the last four or five weeks. How hard was I working, well I hit my max heart rate at about 27 minutes in - 175 bpm.
Now, I'm obese and old. Younger and lighter folks may think this sounds overly dramatic and more than once I've heard someone diminish running to the level of stroll in the park and say stuff like "anyone should be able to run a 5K". Meanwhile, some new runners may wish they could run 5 minutes, let along 30+.
Max Heart Rate is Hard to Hit
If you have ever tried to max yourself out in earnest, then you know it takes some serious willpower. I mean that, too. WILLPOWER. You have to power through having a serious mental game to go with your fitness level to sustain and keep at it up through moderate, hard, very hard, and finally maxing out.
As you go up in heart rate, the effort your heart is putting out is an indication of how hard you are working. We are made to work easy for a good long time (they call these zone 1-2). Moderately for a couple of hours (zone 3). Hard for an hour (zone 4). Very hard for 20 minutes (zone 5), maybe. And all out, max, every last bit in your, for a few minutes at most (top of Zone 5).
But these zones are predicated on our fitness level.
Thresholds and Fitness Level
Easy running, going slow, jogging along is considered supposedly an aerobic exercise. Aerobic means breathing in and fat energy stores are enough to keep you going. But aerobic exercise and the range of your aerobic efforts is based on your fitness. Running for many new runners is not an aerobic exercise at first. It's an anaerobic exercise. You body needs to tap energy stores that need more than these easy/moderate pathways. Once you pass beyond this easy/moderate level you end up at an effort where you will feel like you need need to stop and catch your breath.
We exercise to make ourselves better at activity, more efficient. When you train to run, you improve your ability to run at an aerobic effort. There's a point where your body needs to use anaerobic energy to make you go because your aerobic energy system isn't up to the task. It's not been trained to pump out enough energy to keep you going at a running pace.
This point where you need to use anaerobic energy and start to get a winded feeling is called a threshold. This first threshold is the ventilatory threshold. But this point is a moving target. And as you run and progress in your training more and more this point, this threshold, moves higher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventilatory_threshold
You also get better at running above the ventilatory threshold. It doesn't feel as hard the more time your spend running in it. That also only comes from running regularly and training.
You push through that. You can be breathless for a hour and still keep going. Guess what? There's another threshold above that.
Second Threshold
After you are running hard and huffing and your body complains it needs more oxygen than you can provide and you train yourself to endure it for while, say 20+ minutes. Well, there's another threshold to get through.
Anaerobic effort comes with another price for the running - lactate. This is a byproduct of running or any effort at an anaerobic level, and its effect in your muscles also makes your want to stop. Now a little lactate is nothing. Your body clears it away pretty easily. But if you keep making it, and make more than normal, well your body gets behind.
This build of lactate in your muscles is something that will also cause you to want to stop. They call the point at which you begin to accumulate this stuff beyond your ability to clear out the lactate threshold. This one requires some fitness to get to because the previous threshold is making you gasp for breath for while before you get to this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactate_threshold
It Gets Easier
As you run regularly, you will get more efficient at using aerobic energy stores. Your ventilatory threshold will be higher and higher -- and you'll get used to enduring the feeling of it. Any time spent using anaerobic energy will make your body better and more efficient at clearing out lactate -- plus you'll also get used to the feeling and effort here.
Socks
I will have a sock update later in the week.
I've run a few times in my Drymax, Swiftwick, and Injini socks. I also have Under Armor, Smartwool, and a new part if Darn Tough socks to check out. I've extensively run in Balega brand socks and I'm trying other brands.
Strava Groups
There's two Strava groups for active Losers, please join and share and get kudos.
Strava LoseIt Running Club
https://www.strava.com/clubs/loseit
Strava LoseIt Cycling Clun
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