I had been struggling with breathing sometimes when I ran, so I wanted to get checked out. First, I went to get my pulmonary function number, which came back fine.
Then, I did a treadmill stress test, where I had all sorts of stuff attached to me to monitor my pulse, blood pressure, etc. as I went from a slow walk to a run over about 20 minutes.
At the end, I was at nearly 100% of my maximum heart rate, and the great news is that the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with me on the heart side. So, hopefully I’ve got some annoying seasonal allergies.
Anyhow, as I was chatting with her, I mentioned that my heart rate gets to around 170 when running an average of 7.5 miles an hour. This puts me at or above the Anaerobic Zone, a point where the amount of fat being utilized as the main source of energy is greatly reduced and this level of exercise burns muscle components (mainly glycogen, water and minerals).
I don’t want that. I had been pushing myself to get faster, but I’d much rather burn fat that muscle if given the choice.
So, I’m going to slow things down and see if I can keep myself in the Aerobic Zone (70% to 80% of maximum heart rate), which develops the cardiovascular system.
By the way, my resting heart rate is 59, and I’m pretty happy about that.
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