It's not a chest strap and it's normal for me to spike like that sometimes.  I couldn't breathe well due to congestion so it might have been that.

My area is also hilly so it might have been an uphill that made me go up.

Nope, the only time I see a spike on the TM is when the HR monitor gets stuck on strides.  It happens sometimes.

Nope. My TM does not move at all. Super stable.

But I meant foot stride, lol. Sometimes the HR monitor stops detecting the heart and instead is giving you the stride rate.

Less than 4 weeks til race

* - Indicates treadmill (HR is lower on the treadmill due to 0 air resistance)
MaxHR ~ 196 bpm

Another snowy / icy week here. A couple of my friends sustained injuries last year running in this crap. I'm taking no chances right now and hit the treadmill most of the week but got outside for a perfect weather Saturday long run.

Mon #1 - 2 hours Kinda Hilly @ 7:26 (150 bpm)
*Mon #2 - 35 min @ 8:48 (116 bpm)
*Tue #1 - 60 min @ 9:45 (110 bpm)
*Tue #2 - 30 min @ 1% Incline - 8:22 (124 bpm)
*Wed #1 - 9 Mile Progression @ 1% Incline Mile 1 (9:23) to Mile 9 (6:25) Avg 7:34 (137 bpm)
*Wed #2 - 45 min @ 1% Incline 8:31 (126 bpm)
*Thur #1 - 60 min @ 1% Incline 9:31 (110 bpm)
*Thur #2 - 40 min @ 1% Incline 8:44 (117 bpm)
*Fri #1 - 70 min @ 1% Incline 8:31 (122 bpm)
Fri #2 - 35 min @ 8:03 (131 bpm)
Sat #1 - 17 miles @ 6:28 (158 bpm) Last 6 miles: 6:15, 6:03, 5:54, 6:10, 6:12, 5:50
Sat #2 - 40 min @ 8:20 (130 bpm)
*Sun #1 - 60 min @ 1% Incline 9:03 (113 bpm)
*Sun #2 - 35 min @ 1% Incline 8:57 (120 bpm)

Weekly Totals

Miles: 100.7 Miles
Duration: 13:35
Elevation Gain: 3897 ft

Morning!  Ran a marathon two weekends ago and ran/walked it slow and didn't have much speed in me.  So, getting back on track before Disney in January.  First and longest run at MAF in forever.  As you can see, the weather is helping me behave more.

 

Interval	1 mi	12:22	12:22	12:22	126	147
2	Interval	1 mi	12:14	24:36	12:14	134	144
3	Interval	1 mi	12:02	36:38	12:02	129	157
4	Interval	1 mi	11:55	48:33	11:55	125	148
5	Interval	1 mi	11:53	1:00:26	11:53	112	134
6	Interval	1 mi	11:41	1:12:07	11:41	112	127
7	Interval	1 mi	11:49	1:23:56	11:49	115	133
8	Interval	1 mi	11:35	1:35:31	11:35	128	158

Easy does it!  Keep the goal in mind!  What is your current MAF target?  I haven't done one of those tests in years.  At the time I kept slowing down everytime I'd go one beat over then end up 10 beats below, speed up, go over, slow down, go under.  Obviously, that's terrible training.  Smooth running is where it's at and I just didn't know that at the time.  If I were to do it again, I'd do what the really fast MAF guys are doing and dial into Lap Average HR.

Disney sounds like fun!  I'm a bit Disney'd out at the moment since we got Disney+ over the weekend.  

3 weeks to CIM!!!

* - Indicates treadmill (HR is lower on the treadmill due to 0 air resistance)
MaxHR ~ 196 bpm

Friday afternoon while driving my car, I tweaked my right calf muscle.. AGAIN.. Light pain while jogging and feel nothing while walking. Probably not a big deal but will need more downtime AGAIN. I shouldn't have tried running today but I'll be fine (I think). Sooo, going to take Monday and Tuesday off to recharge. Got to get to the starting line feeling like a million bucks. 3 weeks to go. Looks like the taper will start earlier than expected.

*Mon #1 - 70 min @ 1% Incline 8:53 (112 bpm)
*Mon #2 - 40 min @ 1% Incline 6:47 (146 bpm)
*Tue #1 - 65 min @ 1% Incline 7:59 (128 bpm)
*Tue #2 - 30 min @ 5% Incline 10:13 (119 bpm)
*Wed #1 - 65 min @ 1% Incline 9:53 (113 bpm)
*Wed #2 - 30 min @ 5% Incline 10:00 (126 bpm)
*Thur #1 - 60 min @ 1% Incline 8:50 (120 bpm)
Thur #2 - 35 min @ 9:04 (117 bpm)
Fri - 10 Mile Tempo at Track @ 6:11 (164 bpm)
Sun - 30 min @ 8:10 (128 bpm)

Weekly Totals

Miles: 58.5 Miles
Duration: 8:09
Elevation Gain: 3890 ft

I have not done a MAF test in forever.  I should.  I am way below MAF there, though, as my MAF is 136 but better than the HR I was running at the last few weeks!  The weather sure helps!

Not a fan of age based equations but mine would be 138.  Generally speaking, I only exceed that on days in which I pick it up to a tempo effort.  Technically, I think that's probably what Maffetone was after.  The more I think about it, I think the whole point of tying an arbitrary HR target that in probably more cases than not will keep you out of oxygen debt, is helpful to people who don't know what easy running should feel like.  I'm pretty sure that most people just run until they are out of breath every single day and this stopped them from doing that.  So clearly they would see great gains.  So really, I think MAF is more tailored for beginners than us anyway.

I don't think a MAF test will tell you a whole lot anyway.  It's so far away from a race effort (unless you're super young where the age equation "lets you" run faster or you have a natural low MaxHR). All it will tell you is if you are faster at an easy effort at a specific arbitrary, unscientific point.  The Hadd test is at least a percentage of MaxHR and varies the intensity.  Have you ever tried that?  It's a lot more fun too.

Let's not forget how deceiving HR can be at expressing low intensity effort.  Our heart starts pumping faster based on all kinds of things completely not related to running as well.  I have a great example from this weekend.  I was walking on the treadmill at a 4% incline while watching the Vikings / Broncos game. I was wearing my HR monitor just for fun.   I'm a HUGE Vikings fan and we were trailing 20-0 at half.  My HR was a pretty steady 70 bpm.  Then the Vikings started making a tremendous comeback.  They came all the way back and scored the go ahead TD with a few minutes left.  My HR rose all the way to 120.  In the final minutes, the Broncos drove all the way down the field and it came down to one last play with 2 seconds left from about the 5 yard line.  My HR hit 132.  The Vikings won on the final play.  This is just one example but your HR can skyrocket by simply what you're thinking about and this is especially true at low intensities.  The only situation where I've never seen HR increases due to the music I'm listening to, what I see on TV  or my own thoughts is at efforts closer to threshold.   What's nice about the Hadd test is that the final portion of the test will give you a reasonable hint as to what your current marathon pace is.

I agree.  I don't necessarily follow MAF strictly and can run at up to 145 on occasion especially if it's warm outside. But I was running at 150-160 due to how I was feeling a month ago and that's too high for me.  I think my range is somewhere between 130 and 145 and has always been around there for easy runs.  And remember, now my area is hillier than Miami so keeping it low enough will be good.

Those hills will be very helpful.  Purposely running easy over hilly routes really seems to jump start my fitness whenever i'm coming back from down time.  If I were you, I'd try and find at least one route that is hilly.

I'd agree that 150-160 is too high.  I'm guessing that your breathing is starting to labor a bit too much in that range.

If most people are hitting their mileage sweet spot, 145 likely is a tremendous training stimulus effort.  At least that seems to be the case for most people that I know with the exception of a few friends that have very low MaxHR that race at 150.

I'm curious, when you run Disney, you don't do that for time do you?  More of a stop and get pictures taken a bunch of times?

My HR was higher yesterday and my average was 146, blah.  I was also slow AF yesterday so not sure what was what.  It was a hillier route, though.  Anyway, the 4 I ran were good.