Performance Condition - Why Is So Slow Good?

Former Member over 6 years ago

I've been watching my Performance Condition lately (added to my data screen), and notice that it shows my best perfromance when my heart rate is pretty darn slow. Here are my personal stats:

56 year old, 6' 1", 185 lb male. I run 40 to 45 miles per week, averaging a 9 minute mile. That 9 minute pace, keep sme in the high areobic (green) zone. If I want to hold an 8:30 pace, that puts my heart rate in the threshold (orange) zone, around 157 bpm.

In order to keep my Performance Condition in a positive state, say +1 to +3 range, I have to keep my HR somewhere around 130 bpm. This is a 10 to 10:30 pace for me and feels really slow.

This is really a big picture training question for me. I know that the body is most aerobic in the 70% of max HR range. I believe that "most aerobic" means that you're burning primarily fat. As you get closer and closer to becoming anaerobic, you start burning more sugar, until you become completely anaerobic and burn all sugar, and the body starts dumping lactate into the muscles to shut them down.

Common sense (in my peanut brain) says that if you want to get better as a runner (faster and able to run farther), you should run, most of the time, pretty hard. It seems like you should be really tired and huffing and puffing when you finish a 5 to 7 mile run. I would consider running "pretty hard" as somewhere in that high aerobic to threshold zone. However, the Performance Condition says that I'm performing best in the low aerobic zone.

Here's the BIG question...If I can currently run a 10 minute pace at a HR of 135 bpm, even though this seems really slow, if I train solely by HR, always keeping it at 135 bpm for the next 6 months, would my pace at that HR probably become something closer to a 9 minute mile, giving me plenty of extra HR for harder runs (like a race), or would I just stay a slower runner?

Thanks, Grey

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0 AllanOlesen67 over 6 years ago

What you are seeing is not a "reward for running slowly". It is just a sign of a less than perfect algorithm.

Performance Condition is not supposed to judge whether you current pace is good or bad for you. It is simply trying to tell you if you appear to be in better or worse shape today, compared to your usual shape.

If the algorithm was working flawlessly, you would on a given day get the same Performance Condition score at all paces.

Regarding your training question:
We are many who believe that low intensity training will give improvements which cannot be trained at high intensity. But there are endless threads on the subject already, so I am not going to add to another one.

0 mcalista over 6 years ago

Performance Condition is basically comparing your heart rate to your pace, and against what that means against your baseline VO2Max.

Your body has both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. Running fast needs both of these systems to be performing well, but you really need to train these independently.

By training your aerobic system, you can "cruise" more efficiently, and by being able to run faster before your anaerobic system kicks in, you will be able to run faster overall.

Aerobic fitness is slow to respond to training, but is more persistent once built. Anaerobic fitness responds more readily to specific training, but doesn't last as long. This is why most training plans will start with a focus on long slow base miles, before progressing to more specific anaerobic training (usually different forms of intervals) at the end of the plan.

If you record a higher PC at lower heart rates, it probably indicates a well-developed aerobic system. PC will typically start positive and decline over the course of a run, as fatigue accumulates (as your heart rate gradually increases at any given pace). Running faster means fatigue accumulates faster as well. It's hard to tell from the information provided as to whether you are just seeing natural fatigue accumulate faster over the course of a faster run, or whether you might benefit from more specific anaerobic training.