Running is a passion - 3

Let's talk about endurance - After running for a little while,what do you think is stopping you from going? I will attempt to answer that, it is your heart, literally. Everyone has a max heart rate (MHR). The heart cannot pump any faster than that. The easy way to calculate your MHR is 220 - your age. The resting heart rate is anywhere between 60 and 75 (depending on the individual, trained professionals have as low as 40). As we run, the heart rate climbs up. The ideal heart rate while running is ~65% of MHR, which can be sustained for a long time. More importantly, this is the HR zone where we can lose weight, the body is processing stored fat for energy. As we run and get to the 80% - 90% range, it is NOT possible to sustain for long. Once you reach 100%, that's it. Even trained professionals cannot sustain at MHR for more than a minute. That's one reason why runners drink energy drinks like Gatorade while running. It has sodium which helps bring down the heart rate. I have a heart rate monitor that I use while running. When you get to more than 10 mile runs, you may want to consider buying one. For now,  measure your HR manually when you cannot go any further. It will be interesting to track and see how it improves.