Measurement versus "feel"
Today's run: Recovery run of 5 miles
Today's run felt pretty bad. The first mile, my left leg felt like an anchor, and the water bottle I was carrying felt like lead. I didn't reach the point where my heart rate monitor was alerting me until about 3.5 miles in, and only very briefly.
Last Wednesday's run was precisely the same route and length. That run felt pretty good! I noticed a handful of things and was sometimes held back by the heart rate monitor.
Both runs followed a Tuesday General Aerobic run and a Monday softball practice.
Quiz: Which run would you suppose was today's run, based upon the numbers below?
A couple more notes I could have included in yesterday's post:
Today's run felt pretty bad. The first mile, my left leg felt like an anchor, and the water bottle I was carrying felt like lead. I didn't reach the point where my heart rate monitor was alerting me until about 3.5 miles in, and only very briefly.
Last Wednesday's run was precisely the same route and length. That run felt pretty good! I noticed a handful of things and was sometimes held back by the heart rate monitor.
Both runs followed a Tuesday General Aerobic run and a Monday softball practice.
Quiz: Which run would you suppose was today's run, based upon the numbers below?
Pace/Average Heart Rate
9:12 / 145 bpm (faster, with a lower heart rate)
9:32 / 150 bpm (slower, with a higher heart rate)
That's right! The first one, 9:12 pace, was today's run. I was going faster, and working not as hard, and it felt like crap.
This is why most scientists prefer to use objective measurements over asking people how they feel. Surveys are often viewed with suspicion on anything behavioral, anything that relies on people's memories or subjective evaluation of things. This is a perfect example, since if one was trying to assess how fast I was going, I would have said I was going faster last week, not today.
9:12 / 145 bpm (faster, with a lower heart rate)
9:32 / 150 bpm (slower, with a higher heart rate)
That's right! The first one, 9:12 pace, was today's run. I was going faster, and working not as hard, and it felt like crap.
This is why most scientists prefer to use objective measurements over asking people how they feel. Surveys are often viewed with suspicion on anything behavioral, anything that relies on people's memories or subjective evaluation of things. This is a perfect example, since if one was trying to assess how fast I was going, I would have said I was going faster last week, not today.
• • •
A couple more notes I could have included in yesterday's post:
- More evidence that my Maximum Heart Rate is much higher than 185 bpm: during the period of time when the heart rate monitor strap was still around my chest (in the first couple of miles of Sunday's 10k, when I was holding back), it took a peak reading of 188 bpm.
- If anyone was curious: The winning time in the race was 36:23, and my 15th place finish was in a field of 117 timed runners (16 more "self-timers", whatever that means).
posted by Brent at
5:37 PM
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