Training Plan Question: Marathon, Level III, Heart Rate

I've done this training plan twice with my Forerunner 610 now - once for my BQ last year and then again this year in preparation for Boston. These are what's referred to as "doubles," and they're definitely intended to be completed morning and afternoon. There's many benefits to running doubles with a few hours recovery in between. Getting up at 5 AM twice a week to run before work isn't always a treat - especially in January, but it's worth it for your training. Take a little bit of comfort knowing that the morning runs are never more than 30 minutes at Z2 - which for me is about the maximum I can muster immediately after waking up. See the link below for more information:

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/strategies-doubling

Thanks Mike! I appreciate the response and this helps a lot.

I'm curious, how has the training plan worked for you? I have been doing the level II one, but plan on graduating to the level III in about a month. It "seems" as though these plans don't have a lot of longer runs/time at zone 3 or higher. Maybe in the grand scheme of things this isn't needed and not intended. The intervals are definitely a good workout, but sometimes I know I could do more reps for a longer workout to expose my muscles and heart to higher heart rates for longer periods of time. I just worry that these workouts don't push me enough overall (intervals yes but the other Z2 ones no). However, maybe historically I have just been over-training.

Trevor

Good questions Trevor, exactly what I was wanting to know. I have been following the 16 week plan for HR 1/2.
My HRmax is 171, I like to run at 145 to 155 but often push once a week at LTHR of 158 for 6 to 10 kms. The plan is full of Z2 and Z3 that's only a hard walk...
Interested in Mike's reply.

What I've found with the full marathon level 3 HR plan is that it starts off by setting your targets to your heart rate zones during the first half. Around week 8, the intervals and long run days start switching the targets to "pace" - be it your "10 k pace" or your "marathon pace" etc. It takes a little bit of experience to know what those paces are for each individual runner, but I use a combination of either my PR pace or my goal pace.

Of course, the auto generated workouts don't know what those paces are for every runner, so I go in and adjust the target just prior to doing my run - it only takes a few seconds. So where for example Week 12 Day 2b might say "Intervals - 10 k pace for 1000 meters, repeat five times," the downloaded workouts will just try to keep you in Zone 4. That's fine, but it's not exactly the same as what the training plan is asking for. When the plan calls for a pace, that's what I aim for, heart rate or not. I feel like there's too much noise in (my own, at least) the heart rate data, and it doesn't always accurately reflect performance goals. Again, only for myself, when a recovery run is scheduled calling for Zone 2, I just run along at whatever pace is easy / comfortable. Most of the time I find it's slightly over the top of Z2 into Z3, but after 35 minutes or so it flattens out more. I try to be more strict with my rest periods when the workout has higher intensity segments included.

My understanding of Garmin's training plans got a LOT better when I took the time to review these PDFs hidden in a lost corner of their website: http://www.garmin.com/uk/training Click Running, then click the plan you're following from Garmin Connect. They line up, but the PDF / paper version sometimes gives more / better details. I've also ran into a couple situations where the Connect workouts don't have the correct intervals or rest segments set up - like it'll tell you to do five intense intervals with no breaks, followed by five rest segments - just typos, but we've come to learn that's common from Garmin.