Heart Rate Monitor Training
Posted by Eve on February 09, 2004:
My workouts on the elliptical say that I am working above the cardiovascular zone. The last half, or more, of my workouts show a heart rate of 170+/-. It feels like a comfortable effort while chatting with the folks next to me. My resting heart rate was 60 this morning, although I woke up with a start. Do these numbers fit correctly into the standard heart rate parameters?
Posted by:Brian on February 09, 2004
In reply to Questions about Resting Heart Rate posted by Eve on February 09, 2004:
Eve, I know I gave you some opinion on this on our run yesterday, but it since occurred to me that the HR readings on aerobic machines also can be wildly unreliable because the fields from other nearby equipment, wiring, etc. can interfere with the signal from HR transmitters and the manual HR contacts also conduct erratically. I also remember that two of the four elliptical trainers and all the stationary bikes at the Ellsworth YMCA (for example) have the HR contacts on the handles and will even sometimes produce a number in the HR display but don't actually have the HR options installed on them -- which is very misleading, as you see a number displayed, but it's got nothing at all to do with your actual heart rate.
I know Kitty does a fair amount of her cross-training using HR control and I notice in her post that her zone corresponds pretty well with the one I use. Maybe she can comment here as well. All I know is that when my HR is up in the 170s I'm sure not up for much conversation.
Posted by Kitty on February 09, 2004:
In Reply to: I'd love to know what Kitty's resting HR is. Great info on cross training! posted by Eve on February 09, 2004:
Hi Eve, Brian, and others,
Last I checked my resting HR is around 50-54. When I train using HR, I never use one of the more accurate strap-on monitors, but instead rely on the bikes at the gym which are probably unreliable. But they give me a consistent reading of about 130-140 when I work hard enough to breathe hard and get a good sweat going - very primitive measures of course, but they'll do when I'm attempting to get "homework" done at the same time. My guess is that my HR gets up around 150+ when I do my Nordic Track workouts, because of the upper body involvement. (And because I usually finish wringing wet and pretty well spent.)
When we coach the beginning-intermediate runners on the XC team, we're pretty vague about HR when they do speed workouts. Instead, we attempt to focus on shifting gears and getting them to feel what it's like to be out of breath. Once they get used to those two ideas, progress begins. The more advanced runners are a different story - but then, I don't coach them. Simplicity works for me and for the novices in our group.
Is any of this helpful? Perhaps not, but voila!
Posted by Brian on February 11, 2004:
In Reply to: Re: I checked my resting HR last night and got 52-5 posted by Kitty on February 11, 2004:
My resting HR falls pretty consistently to around 38 if I take it first thing in the AM after waking up, putting the kettle on the stove, and lying on the couch for the time it takes for the coffee water to boil.
As my primary use of the monitor is to keep 'easy' days easy, I don't often wear the monitor during hard runs or races, but I did try it once a couple of years ago during the Walter Hunt 3K which showed my HR about 183-184 just after the finish. This corresponds with what I was able to get it to doing hill workouts.
So figuring the conventional 'recovery ceiling' as 70% of the range between resting HR and maximum, I limit my HR on easy runs to 140.
A few years ago, returning after not running for four months, I found I couldn't run any faster than about 10:00 pace without exceeding this limit. As an experiment I ran 50-60 minutes per day, 6 days per week, keeping under this limit. After six weeks, I was able to run about 8:20 pace.
This past winter, as my mileage started to get up there, I thought it would be wise again rigorously to control my easy running pace. But I now find that I can regularly run 7:30 pace under 140 -- evidence that a lot of easy miles do improve aerobic base.
John Parker in his authoritative 'Heart Monitor training for the Compleat Idiot' offers this workout as likely to produce a max HR reading.
First warmup for 2-4 miles followed by some strides and stretching. Then run five repeats up a fairly steep 200m-300m hill, jogging the downill returns, and repeating each uphill directly and running each one progressively harder. Then on the 5th repeat run the last 100m flat out which should leave you gasping and holding your knees when you finish. Your heart rate a few seconds after stopping should reach your maximum.
Also note that your maximum heart rate will stay fairly constant and does not fluctuate as a function of base fitness the way your resting heart rate can.
