I find myself referencing Dean Karnazes quite a bit, lately. I recently read his book "50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathon's in 50 Days," and I'm currently reading the predecessor to that, "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner." I don't like the writing style so much, but the stories and information are interesting to me as I find my passion for distance running increasing.
One of the things he writes, in the 50/50 book, kind of blew me away though. He makes mentions of the fact that his preparation for the Endurance50 involved training such that he could complete a marathon in about four hours with an average heart rate of 110.
Huh! Is that the secret he's sharing in how he could run 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days? That kind of reminds me of Steve Martin's advice on how to become a millionaire: first, get yourself a million dollars.
My question for Dean: how? What did his training consist of to condition his body to the point that he could run a 9-minute mile pace for 4 hours with an average HR of 110. That's seems incredible to me.
Of course, 110 bpm for Dean is probably not the same as 110 bpm for me. My max is around 175, so 110 is around 65% of that. Maybe Dean's HRmax is lower and 110 is a higher percentage. I seriously doubt that though. Odds are his HRmax is higher which would make that 110 average even more unbelievable.
I don't think setting out to condition yourself aerobically like that is something that you can just do in 6 months or a year. You have to have years of aerobic conditioning under your belt, not to mention the genetic predisposition, to achieve that kind of capacity.
My resting heart rate is normally around 43-45. Dean supposedly has a resting heart rate of 38-39. There have been quiet, restful times when I've recorded it as low as 38 with my heart rate monitor, but that's not typical for me. What is it about Dean that he could run that kind of an endurance challenge while keeping his heart rate so slow? What did he do to reach that goal, if that's what he set out to do as a prerequisite to taking on the Endurance 50?
That's the secret I'd like to know.
Today, I didn't even try to run at 65% HRmax. I did 6.25 course through the neighborhood with a few good climbs, and instead of a pace run, I went tempo. Might have gone out too hard for the workout I want to do tomorrow. This is a cutback week so I don't have a long run planned. Instead, I thought I'd give the 5x5K thing a try, to rehearse the All Day 25K I'm doing in the Carlsbad 5000 in April. I'll see how I feel in the morning (and it'll depend on the weather too).
