Measuring Training Effort

Today I checked out a new loop route in south harriman on a few new trails, combined with ones I knew. The slow climb up the valley on the yellow trail from seven lakes drive was very rocky once it turned left away from the white trail. I went out slow, since I ran for an hour and twenty minutes yesterday, and I wanted to control my effort, especially early in the run.

I was reflecting on where I'm at in my training, happy to be feeling so good and following my plan this early in the year, and I'm thinking I can have a good year finally, after 5 years or so difficult years in my life. I also came through a fall that busted up my left knee, then an overcompensation injury to my right knee. So far the knees are feeling pretty good; a little more creaky than they used to be, but still, they haven't been anything close to a limiting factor in my training recently.

After a half hour warmup running up along the stony brook, I ascended the northern ridge of Diamond mountain to the east, my climbing legs getting into action and feeling capable, but I moderated my effort somewhat, changing over to a power hike when my heart rate went into the 140s, then switching back to a run when it dropped. The trees on the ridge were sparse, with exposed bedrock jutting out everywhere and only pockets of topsoil to hold trees and vegetation in between. I stopped for water before turning south on the blue trail, then came to the view (the * on the map) near the top of the mountain, but it was windy so I just had a look and didn't stop.

Over the years I've tried many different ways of measuring effort for my runs, the most empirical being average heart rate for the run and often for certain segments of the run. In recent years, in addition to recording heart rate for some runs, I was also recording perceived effort, using very easy, easy, moderate, hard, and very hard. The problem with perceived effort is it's very subjective, and on top of that, it lacks a defined range to which it applies. So I've occasionally been thinking about what range of effort should apply to a daily run, trying to keep it as simple as possible.

Since I'm a trail runner, the terrain varies so widely that speed is a very poor measure of effort, so I very rarely concern myself with speed or distance. For me what's important is how long a run will take me, and what kind of effort I'm putting into that run. Then I total up my weekly time to get some idea about my running. I estimate climb based on elevations, sometimes counting map contour lines, but mostly by experience. Obviously climb and descent are important in training for hilly or mountain races.

Today's run isn't extremely hilly, but it does have some general climb up the creek valley, then over two big ridges. Since this is my secondary long run, while some hills are good, I will probably use this one for harder efforts on slightly flatter ground later, leaving the main long run on more hilly technical terrain. That way I can get my legs moving a little faster sometimes. After the view on the blue trail, I found my way down the ridge steeply to the southeast on a connector yellow trail, which went down very steep bare rock for the most part, not a route to take when there is ice or snow, I noted. From there I ran over to the dirt road at the head of pine meadow lake, heading for the black trail on the other side.

In choosing a range of effort, one can consider using an absolute measure of heart rate, such as percentage of maximum heart rate (%maxhr), which is said to vary little from year to year. The problem with using %maxhr is that depending on where you are in your training cycle, you may not be ready to run anywhere near your maximum heart rate. The other problem is that for longer runs, you will obviously not be able to run as hard, which will limit your %maxhr, even though for that longer duration, you pushed very hard.

Then I considered looking at it in terms of what effort could be done for a given duration, given a certain level of fitness. For example, for a 5k race effort, I might be able to run at average HR of 185, but for a marathon I might only be able to achieve 170. But I would only be able to achieve these efforts when in peak rested condition, so I thought again about how the effort measure could apply more directly to my current fitness, whatever that might be at a particular point in the training season.

I decided to switch to using a scale of 0 to 10 for perceived effort, defined as follows. Level 0 is the easiest possible effort to maintain the activity. For running, this would mean a slow jog, but not a walk, except on hilly trails where some exception is given. The highest level, 10, represents the best possible race effort I could make for the given amount of time. So if I'm running for 30 minutes, I would compare my effort for the run in question to an all-out 30 minute time trial. The same would be true for a 2 hour run like I did today. How high an effort could I have made running for 2 hours today, as fast as possible, given my current fitness? I did a moderate run today of average 135 heart rate, but for my current fitness level, that run would rate a 4 on a scale of 0 to 10. Later this year when I will be fitter, this effort level might only rate a 2. The measure then is comparing the effort for a given duration to your best effort given your current fitness level.

Why even bother to consider effort level? This was the question I asked myself recently, because I'd been logging perceived effort for years, and aside from key workouts I didn't really use any of those 'perceived efforts' that I wrote down. I figured it would be more useful if it related directly to my current fitness instead of my goal fitness, or a higher level of fitness from years past. When your main metrics are duration, effort, and climb, some thought about effort can be helpful, at least for me.

For some reason I hadn't done this end part of the black trail before, which loops around from the lake, crosses the white trail, and then goes south into the highlands. I'd always turned left or right on the white trail instead of heading north into this little loop section. But today I was running it from the lake side in the opposite direction, and I found it to be a fun but very gnarly little trail, with nice views in a few spots. I stopped at one of them to have a snack, drink water, and absorb the rare warmth of a winter day with full sunshine and temps in the upper 40s.

This part of the Ramapo highlands is so rocky and difficult that it was only settled very sparsely, which is one reason why we have these vast wilderness parks today. The thought had occurred to me before, but sitting there on the black trail looking out into the jumbled landscape, I thought this very terrain, which reoccurs throughout the northeastern US, played a major role in the revolutionary war, because troops could hide in it anywhere. From where I was sitting there could have been 100 troops hidden within shooting distance of me. If the east coast was not forested and difficult topographically and locally feature-dense, the British troops would have flushed out the American troops much more easily, and history would have had to wait for thoughtful intellect to overtake might. Now though intellect is only another currency, subject to the usual motives. What was once a more open and honest intellect, with science at it's heart, has largely given way to an intellect of vested interests.

Ready to finish my run, I hit the white trail and followed it back into the second creek valley, finishing up on the red trail, and, feeling pretty good, I decided to push the pace a little on this somewhat faster more familiar trail. Keeping my longer runs at a low effort level this early in the year means I will be able to recover well and continue to slowly increase my weekly volume and long run duration. Today's 135 heart rate for a 2 hour effort is a good level to shoot for, and it left me totally under control to put in a harder effort for the last 30 minutes of the run, netting a 150 heart rate for the last section. In 10 days or so, I'll run over 3 hours and see what effort level makes sense.