Running

The maximum heart rate on there is simply what I have hit whilst wearing an HRM and a Garmin- I t hink it was on a bike that I hit the recorded max, climbing a hill.

What I was trying to achieve was to run to the coffee shop from my flat, which is basically what I would have to do in the morning during the week to get to work (or grab a coffee, then walk over the bridge to work).

The additional condition was that I wanted to do it in 50 minutes or under so as to be able to have a coffee and a shower before I started work if I did it for real.

So I was pacing myself at 08.30 minute miles.

I run twice a week I would say, although I've been lax recently as I've been working on the house and counting that as my exercise.

Ideally I would like to be able to rely on hitting 45 minutes for a 10K reliably, it feels like I'm quite a way from that at the moment.

I was 35 a couple of weeks ago.

Worth working out your true running max if you wanna get all HR scientific.

Presuming you don't want to be running to work at race pace... IMO to commute comfortably in 45 mins you should be racing at 40 min pace.

Consistent 3 x runs per week may help you get faster. How long you been running for?

If it's only a few months don't expect instant results - here's an example of one runners progress since 2002. She's running well over 1000 miles a year (40+ miles a month), 2000 some years. Check out the 10k times in the "Annual Bests" table from 2002 to 2009. Unfortunately the training data is only there from 2006, and we can't drill in to see what was done specifically - safe to say lots of long steady runs though in this persons case.

http://www.fetcheveryone.com/userprofile.php?id=75&show=pb

Everyone is different though, so you may find you need to do more or are lucky and can get away with less to bring about the results you're after. The law of diminishing returns applies when you want to run faster though, as you're starting from a faster time and looking to get quicker than the lady above.

Interesting WAVA widget... work out your time / age versus worlds best...

http://www.pinebeltpacers.org/AgeGrade/newwava.html

For 35 Male 45 min 10k is about 60% of worlds best. 50 min is 53%. Pinch of salt with all such things. 100% would be just under 27 mins.