Fat burning zone

by Teresa ribeiro
(Enfield Middlesex United Kingdom )

I have been running in and off since I was a teenager, my garmin watch ( I have been wearing it for 2 years) says my fat burning zone is 123 to 130 beats per minute, but I am 59 ( almost 60) so should be training at 121 which falls on warm up zone. I have been following the garmin as I recon 121 add 5 would be 126, so I am training on the 121 to 126 zone. It feels slow but amazingly easy. Have been following for two weeks so far and have noticed that I can run for 1 hour or 1:30 hours easily without getting tired, my pace has dropped a little from 5:50/6 min per km to 6:30/7 per km. (I wasn’t fast to begin with). I plan to carry on with this plan until the end of June then introduce some speed work as marathon training for October.
How many runs should I complete per week? And at what duration? I have read somewhere that I should complete 6 runs of 2 hours per week, is this correct? I am a post woman during the day, everyday I am walking 4:30 to 5 hours. I don’t really have time for a 2 hour run everyday. Can you help? Thanks

Nicole's reply:
Hi Teresa and thanks for the question. You sound as though you already have a good aerobic base and I'm sure that your daily walking has contributed hugely.

I am not familiar with the Garmin fat burning zone calculator so I don't know how accurate that would be. Having said that, it seems to almost align with your MAF zone which is good.

In terms of how much/long to do MAF training per week, it sort of depends on your starting point and what time you have available. I'm not sure where you heard about 6x2 hour runs per week but what seems to work for a lot of people is aiming to get to 7 hours per week. If those are lots of short runs or a mix of short and longer runs, then that is fine. I hope that helps and good luck with the marathon :).