Do you wear a heart monitor during a race?

I use mine in races to keep me from blowing up on the bike. It is a very good pacing tool for oly and longer events. Probably not required for a sprint.

chevy57

I wear one just so I can download data later.  If I blow up in a race, I can check the data and maybe see why.

Other than that, for sprints or olys, I just go by feel and ignore the HR and just hammer.  It's going to be elevated due to the pressures of the race and other things, so it's better to just go by feel IMO.  Also, many times, during the run portion, my HR is actually lower than what my RPE would make me think it is.

For the longer races, it may be helpful to have something to check, but I still wouldn't be a slave to it.  I will wear mine for my IM as a reminder, but not a coach.

Not for everyone.

My advice:

Don't look at it in a race.  It will hold you back; training HR is not equal to racing HR.

bryancd - 2008-09-10 11:02 AM

Scout7 - 2008-09-10 12:48 PM

jfritz - 2008-09-10 12:54 PM While it's a must-have training tool...

Not for everyone.

My advice:

Don't look at it in a race.  It will hold you back; training HR is not equal to racing HR.

Well, I suppose it depends on what you expect to see while racing. If you look to target a very aggressive heart rate, I find it's a great racing tool to ensure that I hold a high effort and not let myself slip.

Not that I am anywhere near as fast as Bryan, this was my thought.  I don't race by HR, but I know if I look down and my HR is 165 in a 10K, I'm dogging it and use it to push me faster.

ChrisM - 2008-09-10 2:46 PM

bryancd - 2008-09-10 11:02 AM

Scout7 - 2008-09-10 12:48 PM

jfritz - 2008-09-10 12:54 PM While it's a must-have training tool...

Not for everyone.

My advice:

Don't look at it in a race.  It will hold you back; training HR is not equal to racing HR.

Well, I suppose it depends on what you expect to see while racing. If you look to target a very aggressive heart rate, I find it's a great racing tool to ensure that I hold a high effort and not let myself slip.

Not that I am anywhere near as fast as Bryan, this was my thought.  I don't race by HR, but I know if I look down and my HR is 165 in a 10K, I'm dogging it and use it to push me faster.

I agree with this, assuming you have race experience, and can correlate the numbers to how you feel.

For someone that doesn't, I find they have a tendency to try to go by training HR and zones, hence my original comment.

I've only done 1 tri (a sprint) and am doing my next one (another sprint) Sunday.  I wore mine during my last one and will do so again.  I just like to collect the data, see how it matches up with my timing chip and get my calories burned counted.

It's totally a personal preference, though.

IM or HIM - yea, I can see where this makes sense to use (disclosure- never done an Ironman so I am making a guess).  Sprint/oly distance - No, you don't need it. 

I have found that my experience during a race (PE) is much more useful than heart rate measurements.  HRM training zones differ from training to race as much as they differ from sport to sport, so what you measure during training is not a good indicator to use while in a race.  Like I said, maybe for a full or half but not as usefull for a sprint or olympic.  This is an argument to learn to train using both your PE and HRM.

Let me add one drawback to paying too much attention to an HRM in a race.  In local road races in my past, I remember several riders who gave up when they were trying to jump from the peloton because they thought their heart rate showed that they should slow down instead. In hindsight, many of them said later that they felt they could have broken away.

I started wearing my Garmin this year for my tris.  Like others I don't pay much attention to HR during Sprints and Olys but checking the data afterwards is useful.  I had my first HIM this past weekend and used the HR on the bike to monitor effort.  I did not use HR data on the run.  I really like the avg pace on my Garmin for the run to keep my effort where I want it to be, making sure I'm not going too easy.  I also use it for all my standalone running races but not for the HR rather the pace/distance.   

I wear the heartrate strap during the swim and leave the Garmin on my bike.  I setit up for a bike/transition/run multisport event.