triOK's Group - FULL (Page 8)

The point of a heart rate monitor is to tell you if you are pushing yourself hard enough or too hard.  When you are planning your workouts, you should have an idea how difficult your workouts should be.  Some of your workouts should be easy (recovery and endurance), some should be intense (tempo, intervals, hills) and some should be in the middle (maintenance and endurance).  Your heart rate is directly related to how hard you are working.  When planning your workouts using a HRM, you should know what your target heart rate zone is.  That ensures that you are getting the workout you should be.

A HRM will also tell you if you are dehydrated - when you don't drink enough, your heart rate spikes, and it won't come down.  It can also tell you if you are overtraining (resting heart rate).

I have found my HRM to be extrememly helpful when training....especially on tempo runs (which are difficult when you first start doing them).  It is also great to know if I am not getting enough water.

Garmins are cool toys to have....I just have a Polar HRM though.  It doesn't have all the cool bells and whistles.

Exactly.

Can you elaborate on that?  If you are overtraining, does your resting heart rate stay high? 

Yes.  A good way to test it - wear your HRM overnight and look at the avg in the morning.  If it is above what it *should* be, then you are overtraining...which we all know is VERY VERY bad.

I am not hardcore enough to wear it overnight, but I will leave my strap on my nightstand and put it on in the morning and crawl back in bed for an hour or so.  That reading is good enough for me.

Your resting HR is a good indication of your fitness level...the lower the better.  A high RHR is bad...you need water and a day or two or three off.

Robyn is right on the money.  But let me elaborate a bit more.  People tend to train in an area where they are not going hard enough to get anerobic work in, but too fast to get aerobic benefit.  And also, in this area you don't get enough recovery on a day to day basis.  A HRM allows you to stay in the areas where you are going to get the full benefit of the workout. 

If you need base work, it makes sure you stay in the aerobic zone and if you're doing intervals, it makes sure you are working hard enough to get the benefit of the hard work.  You have to remember that 95% of your 'gain' is made when you are recovering from your workout.  If you don't recover enough or don't push yourself enough, you won't gain as much.

HR fluctuates with dehydration and is an indication of over-training.  Like I can tell if I haven't recovered from a race because I'll go for an easy run and my HR will be in the zone of a medium run.  But that comes with experience and knowing your HR zones.

In short, a HRM is a cheap ($50 max) way to make sure you are working your body efficiently and effectively.  There are tons of add-ons like a foot pod or GPS, but all you need is something that tells you how fast your heart is beating.

Some people can go on Perceived Effort, but that takes a lot of experience in my opinion.  A HRM is a great guide and I highly recommend it. 

How are you determining your training zone?

You need to do a Lactate Threshold test to determine where your LT is.  Your Zone 2 endurance training pace should be around 80% of your LT.  You should do a LT test for both running AND biking since they will be different.  I usually don't ride with my HRM, although I know I should.  I don't usually have a probably with cycling endurance.

The link that Cash posted about will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about heart rate training zones.

How is everyone doing?  Lots of training this weekend, I hope!

Let's have it...training pledges for the third and final week of the challenge.  I will post the percentages tomorrow morning when I get to work.

Aaron,

First things first, you can not compare your HR to someone else's.  It's totally apples and oranges.  For example.  One guy I run with his Race pace HR is in the 130's.  Mine is in the 170's.  When we are runnning 'normally', he's in the 110 - 120 range and the top of my Z1 is 149.  So it's truely a personal thing. 

That link Cash gave is a great resource, but it's a bit overwhelming.  Basically, if you want to determine your zones for running, do this:  find a flat place where you can run for 30 minutes continuous.  Start by running at a moderate pace for 10 min.  Then at the 10 min mark hit  your lap counter and go as hard as you can maintain for 20 min.  The key is maintain for 20 min.  You HR average for the 20 min is your Lactate Threshold.  Put that number into the BT zones which is to the left of your logs and it will calculate your zones for you.

Bike LT is basically a 40K time trial and you do the same thing in regards to HR average.  But 'in general' it will be 10-12 beats LOWER than your run LT.  Again...in general!!

Did you buy the HR strap and watch together?  If so, then you should just be able to send in the chest strap and they will repair it.  Polar has a great fix it policy.  It cost like $20.  If you didn't buy them together, then they might not be coded to read off of each other.  Just a thought for you.

triOK's Group:

No Mercy:  88.5%

kbkav:  100%

firstriguy:  100%

poke4christ:  30.2%

erjellum:  100%

gator22:  90.7%

tyroneNYC:  100%

willie05:  100%

shultzboy:  60.0%

gc150:  100%

Marvarnett's Group:

starcorp:  100%

mcole158:  94.5%

Cashmason:  100%

Marvarnett:  73.2% <----I hope you are feeling better!

Great job everyone!  Last week of the challenge so keep it up!