Heart Rate Monitors

[rick]

I recently bought one. Any suggestions on how to get the best use out of it?

[Bob Shepherd]

I think a lot of the road gang have them. John Wilson I remember had one connected to his wrist watch. Maybe they are the ones to get to reply. I'll bet Steve Hallas has one.

[guestx2]

;D
The main benefits to the heart rate monitor as far as I am concerned is that they allow the athlete to work within different parameters for the type of exertion that is appropriate to the individual athlete at specific key times during their training regime. They also help the experienced and less experienced athlete work out specifically to burn fat.
Of course everything is dependant on the level of fitness etc when setting set high rate to beep when you reach what you have set as a maximun or to beep when you reach the minimum. The narrowness or broadness of the high and low can be set as the athlete develops.
For me however the most important aspect of the HRM is the early warning system via accurately recording your resting pulse.
Wear the monitor whilst sleeping , with the sound off, as soon as you awake (before you move a muscle) check your heart rate the fitter you get the lower your resting pulse will be.
You will only see frequent small changes of perhaps a single beat. If you establish your resting pulse and then your RP rises by +10% or -10% it is a sign that you are in the early stages of Fatigue in which case you need to take a break or it can be a sign of the onset of an upper tract viral infection in which case you need to take a slightly longer break.
I made this a religion long before HRMs came out but this technology is easier and more accurate than the methods I used.
The rough guide for maximum heart rate is 220 - your age in Bob Sheps case it is about 25!!! sorry Bob but you always take the Michael out of us!!

[rick]

Thanks Pete.

I certainly used to keep a check on my waking pulse when I was training seriously. I fell back asleep when taking it on more than one occasion.

After learining how to program it the next think I learned was how to switch the beep off. I had it (a Polar F11) set to pick it's own "middle" zone last Saturday. I was running in the forest and every time I came to a hill the "too high" alarm would go off and on the subsequent downhill the "too low" would sound. It must have been driving my running companions nuts.

I've heard of cyclists using them to gauge effort for efficiency during a race. Have any fellrunners tried this?

[Guestx2]

Ye Rick it would have driven them nuts I once ran in the Red Rose half marathon and from about 1 mile I had this guy side by side with me with the beeping every second. I constanly tried to get ahead of him but he would quicken with me so I then tried to ease a little but he did so as well. It all stopped about 3 miles from the finish in a country lane when I grabbed him by the throat . He soon got the message and left me alone (finished about 2 miles ahead of me).
I later found out it was Christine in drag and she fancied me rotten so I had to marry her!!!!