Heart rate training for the marathon is a great way of boosting your endurance in a controlled matter. Shawn sent this question :
I've read through your site on heart rate training and am intrigued by it. However, I don't understand how to apply the concept to a "standard" mileage chart for marathon training. Can you help cure my ignorance?
Hi Shawn, this is how it works :
In your marathon training you want two things ;
1) A controlled alternation between your easy and hard training days.
2) Variation in your training, but where the main portion of the training is at an intensity that gives you "the best benefit"
What heart rate training does when you are marathon training is to make sure that you run easy enough on the easy runs, which should be below 70 % of maximum heart rate. My experience is that most go above this on their easy run.
The result ?
Not enough recovery before the hard sessions and a sure way to "overtraining" and "underperforming".
On the hard training days on the other hand, you use a heart rate monitor to control how hard is ideal to run. For most sessions this is between 80 and 87 % of maximum heart rate. Now, this is a training zone that is hard to determine without the "help" of something like a heart rate monitor. With a heart rate monitor, however, this is real easy.
If you want to do heart rate training, I have a whole section about this in the 100 day plan for marathon training : Marathon Training There you will also find the full outline in a day to day schedule to your question.
I'm often asked what shoes I personally recommend to help stay injury free while running (on the 100 day plan) so I'll add a little bit about it at the end of these Q and A's.
Good shoes are crucial if you want to stay injury free during your marathon journey. In general, the best is to find a shoe that fits your feet according to your foot type.
However, these three shoes will do an excellent job with their mild correction - and will work for most runners :
1. Asics Gel Kayano (click for zappos reviews for other runners views)
The legandary shoe from Asics. You cannot go wrong with this one.
The most sold running shoes ever - and by every model seems to get better and better. About the same weight as the Kayano but the fit is a little bit different.
The 2150 is a great alternative for the faster work you'll be doing in the 100 day plan. It is one of the few shoes that "feels" like a lightweight one but at the same time has more than enough stabilty to prevent injuries with the marathon type length of some of the interval sessions.
A tips for international (non-US) runners : check out roadrunnerssports.com :
Example : Asics Kayano (RoadRunnerssports) they ship worldwide and it can really save you some money on your shoes.
I'm often asked what shoes I personally recommend to help stay injury free while running (on the 100 day plan) so I'll add a little bit about it at the end of these Q and A's. 
