Half Marathon Training using the Adidas miCoach - Week 1

St Edmunds Tavern

Armed now with my Adidas Micoach I am using a heart rate monitor as my key method of training for a half marathon. I have never trained for a half marathon using a heart rate monitor as the key determinant.


miCoach uses four personalized zones to help you gauge your efforts during your workouts. The zones are the building blocks for all workouts with miCoach. Each zone represents a level of effort: Blue is easy, Green is medium, Yellow is hard, Red is maximal.

My heart rate zones have slightly changed since the initial assessment run and are now

Red Zone                159-165 bpm
Yellow Zone            152-158 bpm
Green Zone            133-151 bpm
Blue Zone               117-132 bpm
I re did the assessment run and the new zones are slightly higher than before which is good news as it shows a slight improvement in my fitness levels 

My week 1 schedule is as follows :-

30th Aug - 50 minute run - 5 min blue zone 40 min green zone and 5 min blue

1st Sep - 40 minute run - 5 min blue zone 30 min green zone and 5 min blue

3rd Sep - 40 minute run - 5 min blue zone 30 min green zone and 5 min blue

4th Sep - 70 minute run - 5 min blue zone 60 min green zone and 5 min blue

5th Sep - 30 minute run all blue zone

1st week is a total of 3hr 50 minutes of running. Mainly at a green zone pace

Green Zone 70-80% of your max heart rate 

This is known as the aerobic threshold and is a comfortable paced run where you can run for long periods of time as a result your heart and lung capacity are all improved . You burn fats and carbohydrates at the same 50% rate.

I completed my 1st run this morning which was a 50 min run through the centre of Bury St Edmunds .


I passed the St Edmunds Tavern in Risbygate Street. This pub has had a complete refurbishment and change of name. It was formerly known as the Rising Sun and is one of the oldest public houses in Bury St Edmunds. According to the Old Inns and Beerhouses of Bury St Edmunds guide it appeared in a newspaper advertisement in 1727. However it is thought to be older than this and legend suggests that Oliver Cromwell once stayed here.

Vinefields Bury St Edmunds

6.45pm 6 miles in 49 minutes

Week to Date mileage 6

Month to date mileage 116

Average weekly rate 35.4

Average Monthly rate 154

Weather: Cold and dry

I parked at Hardwick and ran through Town and the old graveyard to the Vinefields. This brought back some memories. For many years I visited my Grandmother who lived at the Vinefields. They are of course named after the vinefields owned by the monastery. I am not sure how they got on with their wine production but they were very successful with their beer. Every Monk was entitled to a daily ration of 8 pints of beer a day. Of course drinking beer was safer than drinking water.

I didn't think too much of this when I was doing my hill session. Running a hill session was one of the targets I set my self at the start of the year and this in truth was rather an easy one.

The hill was no more than about 35 seconds of climb followed by a circular run around the Vinefield houses on the flat and down hill which takes about 2.30 minutes all told.

I did 10 intervals and timed them after a few when I remembered to do so as follows

Lap 4 2.28, lap 5 2.33, lap 6 2.30, lap 7 2.30, lap 8 2.29, lap 9 2.31 and lap 10 2.30.

This amounts to only 6 minutes of hill climbing but it is a start. I did have a drink when I got home but not as many as the monks of St Edmundsbury were used to.

Favourite Beer!

River Lark and Water Meadows Run

6pm 7.2 miles in 56.42 Year to date mileage 912

Month to date 106 miles Average miles per month 106

Average weekly rate 24.4

Weather bright and sunny.

Course:Head out through the water meadows and then turn left at Bury Rugby Club . Follow the path through No Mans Meadow which is at the back of the Abbey Gardens returning to Southgate Bridge and then returning over the meadows for a 2nd lap.

Return home up Southgate Street past the Police Station and through the Abbey Gardens graveyard then through town centre and home.Ran this course in a new pb time.


I was generally running this course in 1 hour back in June so I may have improved a little though it was warmer of course.

One of the great things about living in Bury is the smells of the Town. I suppose it brings back memories from childhood. Today they were definitely brewing at Greene King and the lovely malty smell of what I imagined to be Abbot Ale floated on the breeze giving all passers by an intoxicating whiff of one of the great beers of this country.

Send me an e-mail and let me know your favourite beer I would have to say my favourites are

• Abbot Ale Greene King
• Speckled Hen Greene King
• Adnams Broadside Adnams Brewery
• Guiness
• Sneck Lifter Jennings Brewery from Cockermouth Lake District