You will be looking for a gym most resorts have one. Stationary bike, eliptical trainer, etc. Also there should be a pool near by. might be small but usually early mornings they are empty. Take advantage of running in the sand. a great workout. But wear shoes don't want to cut your foot an anything.

  You can definatley increase your distance and maybe even get "faster" swimming on your own.  But,  attending masters will actually give you access to a coach to assist you with form and make you more efficient.  A lot of new swimmers actually "fight" the water and not glide through.  Don't get me wrong, I am not getting sponsered by masters swim programs.  It seems like I harp on that a good bit.  I know it really helped me.  I am not swimming masters this year.  I am just swimming with a small group of much better swimmers than me.  That helps me get better.  If masters was out of your league try a swim clinic or maybe get a swim coach for a few weeks to assist you with form. 

  Looking at it from a periodization standpoint you can put your last two weeks of "build" into the first two weeks of June.  You can "recover" duing your vacation just keeping fit by running or maybe even some easy biking on the piece of crap bikes resorts and hotels have.  When you get back it's "peak/race" for a week  or week and a half and then a small taper.  You should be just fine.  I do this every year before Ironman.  I take a week vacation 3-4 weeks prior to the event to make myself recover and get ready for my peak/race pain when I return.  Helps me not burn out too soon.  We pay too much $$$ for these events not to have fun and finish.  Just an idea.

  I wish I knew an easier way.

Training Logs

Just a reminder - let's all try and keep our logs updated starting today.  After a few days it becomes a habit. 
Also - anyone in for a weight loss body fat percentage loss contest starting in January?  I need to cut 8 lbs to get back to racing weight.  I usually do this by March. 

By no means did I write this article - It came off of Trifuel.com.  But I always stick to this concept. 
PERIODIZATON - in a nutshell - pick your one or two "A" races (The race you really want to do well in).  It could be your first sprint ever - that's an "A" race.  It could be your first OLY - HIM - or even IM - those are definately "A" races.  Put the date of your race(s)on your calendar and mark the weeks backwards and follow this chart as a guide.  Right now, we are all in Prep.  Some folks will go to base and build quicker because of early season races, but you should get the concept.
The thing to remember is that you need to take a RECOVERY WEEK - rest, recharge batteries (I HAVE A HARD TIME WITH THIS UNTIL MY COACH BEAT IT INTO ME) inbetween these sessions.  Especially inbetween the build and race stages.

Phase	How long?	Frequency	Duration	Intensity	Volume
Prep	4-8 weeks	High	Short-Medium	Very little	Low
Base	12-24 weeks	High	Medium- High	Moderate	Moderate to High
Build	4-8 weeks	Moderate-High	High	Heavy	Moderate
Peak/Race	3-5 weeks	Moderate	Short	Heavy	Low

The first phase of training is called the Preparation (Prep) Phase. This is a period of time from three to six weeks. It involves performing your aerobic activities at a low heart rate and it helps your body adjust to the rigors of training again. This is also the time to work on your drills for each sport. This would include many of the drills in swimming, isolated leg pedaling in cycling and/or strides in running. The workouts in the Prep Phase are usually short in duration, low in intensity, and may be frequent. The volume for this cycle is low. This period prepares you for the Base Phase.

The Base Phase can last anywhere from twelve to twenty four weeks. The longer this phase lasts usually means the more aerobically fit you are entering your key sessions for the season. The Base Phase runs in three to four week ‘blocks’, and can have up to six blocks within this phase. These would be called Base Phase Two, Three, etc. The amount of blocks you have in this phase is dependant on your training experience. If you are in your first few years of training, the more blocks you do in the base phases, the better off you will be in the long run. This phase continues to focus on increasing your aerobic capacity while improving your efficiency with drills and skill workouts. The intensity in this cycle remains low or non-existent, while the frequency may drop, and the duration of your longer workouts keeps extending itself. The volume in this cycle starts out low, but will eventually be your greatest of the year as you get closer toward the end of your base phase. After the Base Phase has been completed and you get closer to your key races, the next step is the Build Phase.

The Build Phase drops in volume, increases in intensity and may keep the same or drop off in duration. The key to this phase is to become more efficient (faster) at a certain distance or go further in a certain time period. This is done by adding ‘interval’ training to your workouts. These intervals can be repeats in the pool, on the track, or on your bicycle. In this phase, the volume is consistent, the intensity high, and your duration for your long workouts should be at an all year high. This phase lasts about four to eight weeks and comes right before the big race. Before we get to the big race, we do something called ‘peaking’.

The Peak Phase and ‘peaking’ itself is a very tricky thing to do. Basically, you are trying to bring together your whole season for one or two important races. It could be the local triathlon where you need to beat your training partner, or it could be a qualifier for the World Championships. Either way, you want to perform your best. In order to peak for the race, we taper down our training. We cut back to let our bodies rest and restore itself. Our volume is low, our intensity is high, and our duration is short. Frequency for some is quite high, as some athletes like to keep their ‘feel’ for the water or keep their running ‘rhythm’. Others don’t have such problems and cut back the frequency as well. This is when training is personal choice

When ever you swim at an open beach dont try to swim against the currents.  If you notice that the current starts to take you out to sea(undertow) swim parallel to the beach until you feel that you are free of the current.  If you try to fight the current , tide, undertow, you will get tired quick.  Remember to not panic as well when it does happen.

 

Keely and Joe,
Good luck today racing, if you get it in.  Its snowing sideways here in Falls Church and we have about a foot on our balcony.  That should make things interesting for you guys.

Thanks for the info!  I now understand periodzation!  I'm up for the weight loss challenge.  That is one of my biggest goals before this HIM. 

OK.  I've got a Polar Heartrate monitor.  Now what? (yes, I'm serious.) 

  HR Training zones.  I will be posting a guide for HR training zones this afternoon or Tuesday.  I am trying to get all of my information together so I can get it up in one post.  It will be a long post, but you should have all of the information you need to guide you. 

Keely/Joe,

How did the Celtic 5 mile run go on Saturday?  Are you thawed out yet?

Christmas is almost here. All the partys are making it hard to lose weight but I am huvering not to bad.  We will be leaving on wes morning to drive to the montains to spend the holidays with family. So wes will be a forced rest day. Once there my workouts will consist of running and snowshoeing. No biking or swiming. We will be diving back on monday another forced rest day. I will try to post in my log as best i can but I might be out of touch.

  No worries - your logs look great.  Just keep plowing ahead and enjoy your holiday season. 

I was nice and warm during the run...but mostly because I was still in bed and didn't go.  We had about 20 inches of snow Friday/Saturday, and since Baltimore has no idea what to do in the event of snow, I didn't like the idea of trying to drive there during the heaviest part of the storm.  Plus, the run was through over half a foot of fresh powder.  As you can see, I'm trying to justify skipping it by pretending it wasn't possible for me to get there or run, but it was since I'm only a couple miles away, I just wussed out.  I think about 350 of the 2000 signed up finished the race.  My alternate workout was to play in the park with my girlfriend's dog and shovel the sidewalk...so a good 30 min of cardio and 15 of strength.

Damon et al,

Can you give me feedback on my planned training?  I'm finishing up my current No-Fluff plan in Jan, then plan to transition to the 8 week swim focus winter plan (I want a swim focus, either this plan or adding extra swims to another).  After that, its a two week gap, then the 16 week HIM plan starts, culminating in my first A race, the RI HIM in July. 

A) Does that seem like a good plan?  The point of the No-Fluff was increase speed...so hopefully I've done that and want to make sure I don't lose it.  Also, I technically shouldn't do this HIM plan based on the description (its my first HIM, this plan says you should have already done one) and I don't have 3 years of base, only 2.   Based on my training, I'm pretty sure I can handle it though.

B) Since starting serious tri sports training, my strength training has dropped off a ton.  It was pretty much nothing in season, and since its been very sporadic as its been tough to work in with the no-fluff plan in terms of time and tired-ness.  My thought was to use the 10 weeks (8 of the swim focus winter plan, and the 2 week gap) before the HIM plan starts to really try to focus on strength, especially legs, where I haven't done anything for months.  So my question is, 1) Is this a good idea?  will focusing on strength training help me down the road? 2)  I plan to really push swim, but how much bike/run do I need to do to not lose anything?  I'm not looking for gains in those areas in the 10 weeks, I just don't want to lose anything. 3) Should I put the two week gap right after the no-fluff ends in Jan, and plan lower swim/bike/run training time to get into a strength rhythm?  One of the reasons I've cut out legs is that  since I'm not used to doing it, after a strength session, I'm pretty dead for bike/run for at least the next day, maybe 2.  I'm thinking maybe i get my legs back used to the stregth training in the two weeks, then they will be ok to handle both the stregth and bike/run after that.

Wow, that was a lot of questions and was probably not clear at all...let me know if what I said makes no sense and I can try to clarify.  Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

I probably would have stayed in bed too.  It was all I could do to drag myself out in the misty rain to run on Saturday.  We all have those days.

  OK - let me try and answer in order - anyone else can jump in here as well. A) The planned training you are currently on seems to make sense to me.  Remember, and it's only my opinion, but the BT plans are pretty aggressive, and with your current plan and fitness level you should have no problem  finishing your HIM.   I think your new plan makes sense but don't beat yourself up about missing or shortening a workout.   B)Bottom line - early season strength training especially legs will do nothing but pay off in the long run.  Maybe doing less weight and more reps would help you recover faster so you don't have a trashed workout the next few days.  I always have a "recover" spin on my schedule after an intense weight session.  Just spin and keep the blood flowing.  Might be a good thing to do in the two week gap is the stregth to get you up to speed. 
I have not looked at the HIM plan you are following, but I assume it's strength heavy in the beginning and tapers off to give way to swim, bike run?  As far as losing fitness on your bike and run during a swim block - don't worry.  Remember, your entire body is getting a workout while you swim.  Of course you'll want to do some interval training maybe once or twice a week, but if you have a true swim focused block your run and bike fitness will not go anywhere.  During a swim block during prep I try and swim 5 hours a week (5 sessions at 1 hour apiece) and 3-4 one hour sessions of either bike or run.  I only do this to keep from getting stir crazy in the pool. 

Folks - I was putting together all my notes on HR training to post to you and I ran across this posting that says it all.  This is the first of 2 posts.  This is a BT member username "sherrick".  This nails it!!!  An easy guide to help guide you.  The second post will follow. 

Sherrick writes:
The single best outcome from using your heart rate monitor is to ensure your easy days are easy and your hard days are hard. This sounds almost too simplistic to even mention, but habits dominate almost every aspect of our lives, including being an athlete. “Just going out for a ride” tends to result, by sheer habit, in cycling at nearly the same effort whether it’s 60 minutes or 4 hours. Your body improves most by cycles of stress and recovery, and using your monitor correctly will help keep each workout on target, whether it is lung-busting intervals, or an easy recovery ride.

So how do you know if you’re working at the correct effort by watching your heart rate? If you know how fast you’re your heart is capable of beating while cycling (a maximum) and you know what your heart rate is at complete rest (a minimum) you can find zones in between which give you a decent picture of how hard you are working within a given ride.

Before describing how to determine these zones for your workouts, I want to cover a couple very common myths regarding heart rates and training zones. Let’s use an example… Your cycling friend Urs is telling you about his ride last night and he says he did a solid aerobic cycling session workout at 70% of his maximum, which he said was a 150 bpm average. You ask yourself, is 70% good? Should I maintain 150bpm for an aerobic session? Should I also maintain 150 bpm for running? How did he know his maximum heart rate to begin with?

Myth: You have a single maximum heart rate number that can be applied to all activities. When people talk about their Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) what they really mean, whether they know it or not, is that MHR really only applies to the type of activity you are performing and it is not an absolute maximum. Your heart can easily beat 300 times a minute if your brain tells it to do so, but you will hopefully never see this out on a run or bike session. When we talk about MHR, we always mean activity specific. You may find out your MHR for running is 190 bpm but on the bike it may be only be 175. The amount and type of muscle fibers recruited and the amount oxygen needed by the muscle groups contribute your brain’s decision making on how fast the heart needs to pump. While you may use leg muscles for both running and cycling, the bike supports most of your body weight and overall recruits less muscle activity than running, resulting in most people having a lower MHR for cycling than running.

Myth: You can use a formula to find your maximum heart rate.
As we've seen above, your MHR is different for every activity you perform. In addition, it's also difficult to predict a number within each sport with formulas such as the popular MHR = 220 –age or the newer MHR = 205 -.1/2 age. The fact is that even if the formulas would be based on a single activity, there are wide genetic differences between individuals that make these formulas too vague to be predictably useful.

As an example, my actual MHR for running is 4 beats less than what the 220 - age formula indicates, but my cycling MHR is 13 beats less. If I used the formula's value to determine my training zones, then my "easy" heart rate for a long bike isn't so easy anymore. Performance testing, not using a formula, is the only really accurate way to find your MHR.

We now know that maximum heart rates are very unique to both individual and activity, and it’s easy to see why Urs’ workout targets may not be applicable to you at all. We will now also see how more accurate training zones can be calculated instead of just simply measuring percentages of our MHR.

Data Collection--Your Personal Physiology
In order to set up effective training zones, we need to know a few pieces of information very personal to you: your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) and for each sport, a Maximum Heart Rate (MHR).

Note: While I use a monitor for cycling and running, I don’t use one for swimming. I’ve found it often difficult to get a good reading in the pool and for training, you only typically get to see the monitor value while stopped at the wall. While doing start and stop of intervals the heart rate will lag behind the actual effort your are performing at thus giving often false feedback to you. In the pool, I instead use the clock and perceived exertion to determine how hard I am working.

Now, let's start measuring!

Calculating Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)
The test to find your maximums for running and cycling are going to hurt! There's no other way to do it. In fact, the harder you work the more accurate the measure is. The MHR test for running and cycling both consist of the same protocol except one is performed on the bike and the other is done while running. Before completing these maximal tests on your own, please, please, (please!) get a thorough physical and a doctor’s clearance. The level of exertion is significantly higher than just going out for a healthy jog around the block. Even better would be to do the test for the first time at a medical center where health professionals can do a complete physical, blood work up, and the performance test (at least for running) all together. Check your local hospital or university athletic department for a contact for these centers.

The test consists of a short warm up, a gradual increase of intensity over time, a final push to get a maximum, then a complete cool down. The reason for the gradual build up is that brain doesn't signal the heart to work at its true maximum for that activity instantaneously. So if you warm up for 5 minutes, then sprint your hardest for another minute, the heart still will not have achieved a true maximum for that activity. Slow, steady increases are needed to coax the heart to a true maximum.

Here is the actual test which works well for both running and cycling:

5 min. warm up slowly to a pace at the end where you are beginning to breathe a little hard
5 min. maintain the pace, increasing a bit at the end
5 min. increase pace again to labored breathing.
5 min. on a gradual incline increase the pace from just breathing hard to
breathing very hard. Transition directly into…
2 min. all out sprint on a steep hill to maximum speed!
1 min. push this max speed while still going up and hold for a minute or
as long as possible!! Record MHR.
10 min. cool down at a very easy pace and stretch.
------------------
33 min. total ( 18 minutes hard, 15 minutes warm up/down)

Why include the hill climbing in addition to already killing yourself? I found quite by accident that I could push a higher heart rate climbing hills than standard flat running tests. I had an treadmill test performed in a laboratory and another sprinting test around a track and both had registered a running MHR of 179. A couple years later after moving here to Switzerland I did basically the same test time with the final minutes on a very steep incline and recorded a new MHR of 184. I felt the same level of complete exhaustion in all tests, but with a new high value.

If you happen to have nothing resembling an incline in your area, you can do the same test on flat ground, but keep in mind that it will probably not be a true maximum for the activity, but a "level ground maximum."

I used to do a MHR test about twice a year, but now that I think I’ve determined an accurate max, I only do it once a year. Your MHR for each activity does not change with fitness level but may however, decline slightly with advancing age.


Calculating Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
Compared with the previous test, RHR is pure joy to measure! At a point of complete rest, simply take your pulse for 15 seconds, multiply by 4 and record. The best time to measure this is first thing in the morning while well rested and not in an overall overtrained state. Another option is to wear your monitor overnight and look at the average. I've found both to come out to be about the same number. One caveat is that if you really have to pee first thing in the morning this can raise your RHR or if the alarm clock scared the bejeezus out you, turn off the alarm and/or use the toilet, return to bed for another 5-10 minutes and then record.

Some coaches recommend taking this measure for 3 consecutive mornings and calculate an average. For me, I haven't found much difference day to day as long as I'm about at the same fatigue level and I am getting the same amount of sleep.

Unlike MHR, your resting heart rate does fluctuate with your fitness level. Over the long term, people typically have a decline in RHR as their fitness level improves, although genetics does play a part. I can train to my wits end but I will never attain 5-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain's RHR of 28. Your RHR also will change with your body’s fatigue level, so taking your morning pulse often can indicate overtraining/illness if you notice a rise of more than a few beats, especially if higher readings last more than a few days.

Working Range
Why do we need to measure resting heart rate to calculate training zones? It would be simpler to just find a maximum heart rate and base the training on percentages from that maximum. But just as everyone has a unique MHR for each activity, each person also has a unique RHR. To ensure your basic survival, your heart rate never goes down to zero, so think of the area between your resting and maximum heart rates as your available working range for each activity. We'll base your training percentages from this range instead.

Calculating Training Zones

The Karvonen formula takes advantage of the difference between your MHR and RHR and is what we will use to derive our training zones based on your personal measurements:

Heart Rate % of Usable Maximum = ((MHR – RHR) * P ) + RHR

where P is the desired percentage of maximum (1, .9, .8, .7, etc..)

As an example, I'll use my own personal measured data to calculate percentages from 100% down to 50%.

My Measured Data
RHR = 44
MHR = 186 (running)
MHR = 176 (cycling)

Using the formula for 75% I get: 75% rate = ((186 – 44)*.75) + 44 = 151bpm

Here is the entire chart for my cycling and running:

Effort		Bike	Run
100%		176	186
95%		169	179
90%		163	172
85%		156	165
80%		150	158
75%		143	151
70%		136	143
65%		130	136
60%		123	129
55%		117	122
50%		110	115

So after performing these tests and calculations you have very personalized target percentages for both cycling and running. In the next article, I'll show you how to use these percentages to plan your training, list more myths such as “fat burning range,” show some common pitfalls of HR based training, and introduce some additional (free!) tools which complement your HR monitor to have an even better picture on how your body is performing during your workouts.

Here is his post number 2


"Welcome back!  Hopefully the information from Part I was a good overview of the possibilities and limitations of using your heart rate monitor (HRM) and I also hope you had a good sweat while collecting those maximums for cycling and running.   Here in Part II, we’ll put those numbers to use by presenting a couple options to use your HRM in workouts. 

 

Before We Talk Numbers…

 Many a manly man can tell by looking (while grunting) at their garage walls that no single tool is ever a complete solution, and your HRM is no exception.   Now that you’ve dropped a thousand drachmas on your new monitor to help tell you everything your ticker is doing during your bike ride, I’m here to tell you that there’s an even more overall effective and low-rent tool available—your own body.  

 What we athletes are really looking for when using our HRMs is a simple number on a watch to give us a complete look under the hood at our body’s intensity.  What you will find in practice is that sometimes you will get an accurate intensity picture by looking at the readout and sometimes you can be fooled.

 I’ll present 2 methods of using heart rate data for your workouts. The first and simplest is using the percentage chart we created in Part I.  This chart is easy to follow but has some drawbacks in terms of accuracy.  The second method is using the HRM along with perceived exertion, or your own awareness of how intensely you are working.  Using perceived exertion takes some time to become aware of, but is more accurate in accounting for the realities of workouts such as changes in fitness, weather, hydration, stress, etc.

 Whichever method you choose to use in practice, your goal for using the monitor should be to become more aware of what your body is doing-- heart rate is only one indicator of your body’s intensity.  During all workouts you should try to become keenly aware of how hard you’re working and use heart rate as backup—not the other way around.

 Method One:  By The Numbers

The easiest method of using your HRM for workouts is to simply follow the numbers.  Let’s revisit the chart created back in Part I.  Chart I shows an example using my current heart rates based on the Karvonen formula. 

 Chart 1:  Heart rate chart based on Sport-specific Maximums and Resting Heart Rate 

Effort		Bike	Run
100%		176	186
95%		169	179
90%		163	172
85%		156	165
80%		150	158
75%		143	151
70%		136	143
65%		130	136
60%		123	129
55%		117	122
50%		110	115

 Planning workouts around these percentages is quite easy to apply.  Let’s put a name to some common workout ranges and then assign values:

 I.    Long Slow                        =  50-70%

II.  Endurance                        =  70-75%

III.  Steady State                   =  75-80%

IV. Tempo/Threshold             =  80-90%

V.  Interval                             =  90-95%

VI. Sprint/Power                     =  95-100%

 Your workouts could be planned using these ranges as:

Long Slow:      used for recovery, most runs off the bike, long easy workouts in the off season.

Endurance:     the bulk of your runs and rides.  You’ll still produce a sweat, but should be able to talk most of the time.

Steady State:   many training publications lately are recommending to not spend much time in this zone.  It has been recommended to either drop back to the easier zones or move up.  In the past I haven’t tried to avoid this area, so I can’t yet advise to follow this information.  My personal training in the next year is aimed at experimenting with this to find out.

Tempo/Threshold:  fast work that you can hold for some number of minutes.  Similar to an average (not max!) pace you can hold for a 10k length race.  Typical workouts in this zone include tempo work with a slow warm up and warm down and a 15-30 minute effort in the middle at this high pace.

Interval: short bouts of 1-5 minutes at high pace, similar to end of 5k race.  These workouts may be performed but are not the staple of basic endurance training.

Sprint:  All out efforts usually saved for races.  This pace can only be held for less than a couple minutes at most.

 In general, the bulk of your workouts will be geared around Endurance and Tempo/Threshold.  Higher intensities are also used for swimming since recovery time is quite short.  Planning a week or even an entire season becomes more complex since each individual has a different goal set and also different strengths and weaknesses.  Whether you work with a coach or find training plans on the net or in books, you can easily translate these effort levels into the plan descriptions. 

1. However, 9 months later when fitness has improved considerably the pace might be much too slow even at 70%.   This drawback of following fixed percentages leads us to Method Two…. 

Method Two:  Gettin’ in Touch With Your Feelings

Long before endurance athletes were sitting around a pint bragging about their HRM graphs of everything from snogging to running up Pike’s Peak, a Swede named Dr. Gunnar Borg was publishing research on measuring the physical and mental sensations that people experience. 

 Below in Chart 2 is Borg’s Modified RPE chart showing exertion rates.  The chart is numbered from 0 to 10 (with a peak category called “*” or off the chart).  Borg wrote simple descriptions for each level ranging from complete rest at 0 to maximal possible exertion at “*”

1. I’ve put both together here in the same listing in case you are already familiar with using the original RPE values. (1)  

Chart 2:  Borg’s RPE and Modified RPE Chart

 

Original RPE	Modified RPE	Description
6	0	Complete Rest
8	1	Very Weak
10	2	Weak
12	3	Moderate
14	4	Somewhat Strong
15	5	Strong
16	6
17	7	Very Strong
18	8
18.5	9
19	10	Extremely Strong (almost maximal)
20	*	Exhaustion

 

Applying The Heart Rate Numbers--Your Personal RPE Chart

 Chart 3 is a full page with RPE values and places to enter your current personal heart rate data.  At the end of this article, I’ve also included a Chart 4 below which is a much smaller version that you can tape onto your bike stem or tape to back of your mp3 player to take along during workouts.

To fill in the chart, you’ll see that 0 indicates total rest—here you can enter your resting heart rate (RHR).  At level “*” (or off the chart), enter your cycling and running maximum heart rates (MHR).  In addition to Borg’s descriptions, I’ve added some more that should help.

 Chart 3:  Matching Heart Rates with Borg’s Modified RPE scale

RPE	Description	Bike HR	Run HR
0	Complete Rest	RHR=	RHR=
1	Very Weak: light walking
2	Weak: strong walk, very slow run, easy conversation pace
3	Moderate: easy run
4	Somewhat Strong: still easy, sweating a bit more
5	Strong: breathing becomes a bit stronger
6
7	Very Strong: breathing very laboured, but can still maintain pace for some minutes without slowing.
8
9
10	Extremely Strong (almost maximal)
*		Bike MHR=	Run RHR=

 

Now comes the hard part—filling in the middle of the chart.  The easiest way to do this is practice.  Wear your monitor on bike rides and runs of all different intensities and get a feel for how hard you’re working and try to make an honest assessment placing an level number to that effort.  While it would be much easier to calculate a fixed number but the values wouldn’t be accurate.  Also, most of the values for expending effort take up most of the range  of the chart so drawing a line between resting and maximal will not give accurate numbers.(2) The reason is that there are only a couple levels to describe everything from complete rest to fast walking is that most of us don’t have much of an interest in distinguishing effort levels from just watching TV to dialing the pizza guy while watching TV (although I’m sure the calorie burning does add up after enough dialing.)

 So why isn’t there a formula to fill in the chart and why use it instead of the simple chart from Part I?  Matching effort level to heart rate is very closely linked to your fitness level at a specific time in each sport .  For example, in January, running at what feels like a moderate pace (Level 3) might show as 150.   In June, that same moderate feeling run may only show as 140 due to many factors such as increased fitness and warmer temperatures, or even negative factors such as overtraining or illness.   If you had stuck to running January’s 150 level for your run, you’d be going too hard for your moderately scheduled workout.   

1.  

Chart 4:  Compact RPE/Heart Rate Chart

(print one each for the bike and run)

  

RPE	Description	HR
0	Complete Rest
1	Very Weak
2	Weak
3	Moderate
4	Somewhat Strong
5	Strong
6
7	Very Strong
8
9
10	Extremely Strong
*

  

Myth:  The Fat Burning Range

It is true that while performing aerobic exercise that at the lower end of the aerobic zone (about Level 3 on the Modified RPE chart) that the body does burn a higher percentage of fat than carbohydrate and that at higher intensities (Level 8) the body burns a higher percentage of carbohydrate than fat as fuel.(3) 

Notice that I said percentages and not total calories.  A Level 8 workout for 30 minutes is going to burn far more calories than at Level 3.  Let’s look at an example of a 150lb person running at Level 3 (ex: 12min pace) and also running at Level 8 (7.5min pace): 

Level 3 run for 30 minutes:  burn 55% fat, 45% carbohydrate, 288 total calories

Level 8 run for 30 minutes:  burn 10% fat, 90% carbohydrate, 460 total calories

1. More total calories burned = Smaller Jeans.

 

Final Note:  Cardiac Drift

Now that you have a good overview of RPE and using your monitor in workouts, I’d like to another point that can cause some discrepancies between effort level and heart rate.  During long workouts of usually more than 1 hour, the heart has a tendency to beat slightly faster even though you do not feel as if you are working any harder—this is called cardiac drift, or cardiac creep.  The heart rate increases even for the same effort expended because as you sweat, your blood volume decreases due to fluid loss and also your heart tries to do its part in regulating body temperature.  The good thing for you is that in most cases you might not need to slow down as the heart rate creeps up.  As long as your major muscle groups aren’t being affected and you don’t feel more laboured, there’s no reason to strictly obey your HRM.  Common sense should prevail in extreme conditions of heat, cold and dehydration though.  If you’re training or racing and your HRM is showing elevated (or depressed in the case of cold temps) values, do a self assessment to see if you really should follow the numbers or if common sense tells you to slow down.  Again, the point of this entire article is to show that the HRM is a useful tool, but that it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know

 

Edited by irondg 2009-12-21 10:14 AM

Wow!  That is a lot of info.  I need to be careful what I ask for.  Thanks so much.  This is exactly what I need.  I will read through it throughout the day. 

Thank you for reviewing my plan...it made sense to me but thats not always a good indication that its the right thing to do.

I so did not want to overwhelm, but if you read it in pieces and apply just a few formulas you will be good to go.  It took me about a month to really "get" it.  But it has really paid off.

I agree.  I am always up for other folks opinions. 

OK.  I'm going to take the watch out of the package tonight and start reading the directions.  Hopefully I will have a chart soon after Christmas.  heading to the pool now!