Heart Rate Monitor training

There are so many different opinions out there on how to train for a triathlon. One of these is training using a heart rate monitor. If you google heart rate monitor training, you can find various opinions on how to determine your maximum heart rate, and there are sites that say it's too dangerous to try finding your maximum heart rate. Many sites concur that using the generic formula of 220-your age
won't necessarily work, there are still plenty of sites that suggest this method. Only once did I come across a site that added another formula of 226-your age for women.

I did try and find my maximum heart rate using a treadmill and changing the incline. Since then, however, my max heart rate has gone higher than this particular number. I suppose you can say that I'm refining my personal heart rate range.

One misunderstanding about MHR is that it's not an absolute number. It is sport specific, based on the strenuousness of the activity. Therefore, your MHR for running will generally be higher than the MHR for cycling or swimming because running is a bigger stressor on your body, however your running MHR is not the 'absolute' maximum that your heart rate could go to.

Another detail that is often mentioned is that using HRM training enables the easy runs to be easy (zone 1 and 2) and the harder runs to be hard (zones 4 and 5). Often we tend to stay in the middle (zone 3).

This past week, we've been vacationing in Puerto Rico, and I decided to do some 'slow easy runs' in Zone 2. The problem is that in my Zone 2, I can only walk. As soon as I start to run, even the easiest, slowest, shuffling pace, I automatically go to Zone 3. So, while in Puerto Rico, I did two 'long runs' - one 8 miler, and the second a 10 mile 'run'. I basically walked the whole way. I did have to pay attention to my heart rate, because I couldn't just loll around the track, I had to keep a steady pace in order to stay in Zone 2 and not go down to Zone 1.

I don't know if this was the 'correct' way to do my long runs, but it was 'my' way. So, we'll see how I progress



-- lemmefineout - Brooklyn