Back to Aerobic Base-Building

I've been doing a lot of faster running in the last 2 months. Mostly due to being inside to avoid bad weather. One consequence of treadmill running, at least for me, is running faster and shorter. Time flies when you are pushing the pace! I hate long runs on the treadmill. So I've been doing lots of intervals and tempo runs. Nothing wrong with that, but I need to get back to easy aerobic running to build a nice base. The easier runs will build aerobic endurance and increase my fat-burning. Sometime in mid-March I'll start to throw in faster running again in preparation for the Illinois half-marathon at the end of April.

For now, my "easy" running will be with a heart rate of 140 or less. This is slightly faster than Maffetone-style running, but it is still fairly easy and fits in well with Friel and Fitzgerald zones that are based on lactate threshold. My LT HR is around 161. Take 89% of that as "top of easy" and I get HR=143. To be safe, I'll set my watch for 140 as the peak training heart rate. The average HR for most runs will be around 130-135. Injury-free running!