Running economy

As anyone who has read any of my entries will know, I make a big deal about my running economy as a measure of my current condition, that is the number of heartbeats per kilometer; on any given run this is worked out by multiplying my average HR by the number of minutes per kilometer.

Looking back over the years, my average has dropped from 731 for the first six months of 2007, to 706 for the first 6 months of 2008 (both years training for Perth Mara), to 673 for the first 4 months of 2009, when I considered I was in excellent shape for Boston Marathon. From there it's been in a holding pattern - average 672 until the end of March this year.

Since my iron shot course began in the first week of April, my weekly averages have been 651, 651, 637, 629. I know its early days, but that's a precipitous drop. My average for April is 642, almost a 5% improvement.

Today I ran 10.5km @ 4:40pace at 607 beats per kilometre, a little more than 12 hours after a 11.5km tempo run (in a 16.5km total workout in a little over an hour) which I did at the same pace as I raced the City to Surf last year.

I've said it before, I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to ride this horse 'till it drops!