Bought a heart rate monitor... Now what?
- Thread starter Monkspeed
- Start date
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HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I hardly ever use mine but its all about training zones, keeping your hear rate in a certain zone and not going into the red.
A bit of clever editing there, what about the rest of it!
There's lots of articles, here's one as a starter. Most are found on running forums
http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/training-heart-rate-monitor-basics-28838/
You need to work out 5 or 6 zones , depending which advice you take. Another use for it is to monitor your resting pulse and/or recovery time which is a nice indication of fitness and learn when your HR is lower than you expect or higher, which can be indications of illness or tiredness.
As most of us can't afford a powermeter or don't need one, HR monitors can be useful or if you just like looking at the data, whatever floats your boat really.
The hardest part of working out your zones is figuring out your max HR. The above article gives an alternate to 220 - age formula, which is notoriously innacurate. Google, ramp tests, if you want to know about finding your personal Max HR.
http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/training-heart-rate-monitor-basics-28838/
You need to work out 5 or 6 zones , depending which advice you take. Another use for it is to monitor your resting pulse and/or recovery time which is a nice indication of fitness and learn when your HR is lower than you expect or higher, which can be indications of illness or tiredness.
As most of us can't afford a powermeter or don't need one, HR monitors can be useful or if you just like looking at the data, whatever floats your boat really.
The hardest part of working out your zones is figuring out your max HR. The above article gives an alternate to 220 - age formula, which is notoriously innacurate. Google, ramp tests, if you want to know about finding your personal Max HR.
You need to establish your own HRmax. That's your first step. It would be better if you could get more zones, but if you can manually adjust your zones, then set Zone 1 from 65% to 80%, Zone 2 from 80% to 90% and Zone 3 from 90% to 100%. Use Anything below Zone 1 for recovery rides and endurance training, Zone 1 try to avoid as much as possible (also known as no-man's land*), Zone 2 for SST and threshold training, and Zone 3 for anaerobic endurance and maximum effort interval training.
*Known thus because it adds little to your conditioning, but adds to your fatigue.
This is kinda quick and dirty, if you want to use it more effectively get a good book on HR training. One I like is Arnie Baker's Smart Cycling: Successful Training and Racing for Riders of All Levels
Trevrev
Veteran
- Location
- Southampton
I've had a polar HR monitor for years, didn't take long for the novelty to wear off. It's been sat in a drawer at home for ages now. Waste of my well earned money to be honest.
gb155
Fan Boy No More.
- Location
- Manchester-Ish
Used mine today for the first time in ages
Was in Zones 2/3 the most
I have no idea what this means for me in real terms now tho
Was in Zones 2/3 the most
I have no idea what this means for me in real terms now tho
GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
cycling plus have got one of their fitness guide magazines out. good enough section on HR training in there.
Arsen Gere
Über Member
- Location
- North East, UK
One point to note is your HR won't rise if your cadence is low, no matter how hard you pedal. You need to get your cadence up to 95 rpm for your heart to be used efficiently.
I use mine on the turbo as reference for how my body is feeling the effort. What your head and legs say is different to your heart.
So let's say you do a routine of intervals and at each change you record your max and average HR. When you repeat the same session a month later you should see that the HR average and peak have come down, if you have been training!
You also get thermal drift, what I mean is if you pedal at the same rate and load for an hour your heart rate will creep up.
You can expect your base rate to vary with temperature too. Generally the warmer it is the higher it goes up.
Out on the road there are a lot of other variables like wind and temperature so as previously stated power meters are more popular.
You can also use it to restrict your effort. Lets say you are doing a long slow ride you can ease off when your HR goes over a certain level. The reason for doing this is so you get to build your aerobic base and separate it from your other training. A long hard run kills your strength and speed work later that week. As you get fitter your speed will increase at the lower threshold. Maffetone recommends (180 - age) for this, regardless of your fitness or age.
What have used is my (max HR - min HR) to calculate the range my heart can peform. Then break that in to 5 zones. IHMO you only really need about 3, 1 to keep your pace down for base aerobic training, 2 for what you want to sustain for a given period of time or race and the third for pushing your self beyond your aerobic limit into lactate threshold stuff.
HTH
( Alternativley you can wear it in bed and use it to show when yer missus is not trying hard enough
)
I use mine on the turbo as reference for how my body is feeling the effort. What your head and legs say is different to your heart.
So let's say you do a routine of intervals and at each change you record your max and average HR. When you repeat the same session a month later you should see that the HR average and peak have come down, if you have been training!
You also get thermal drift, what I mean is if you pedal at the same rate and load for an hour your heart rate will creep up.
You can expect your base rate to vary with temperature too. Generally the warmer it is the higher it goes up.
Out on the road there are a lot of other variables like wind and temperature so as previously stated power meters are more popular.
You can also use it to restrict your effort. Lets say you are doing a long slow ride you can ease off when your HR goes over a certain level. The reason for doing this is so you get to build your aerobic base and separate it from your other training. A long hard run kills your strength and speed work later that week. As you get fitter your speed will increase at the lower threshold. Maffetone recommends (180 - age) for this, regardless of your fitness or age.
What have used is my (max HR - min HR) to calculate the range my heart can peform. Then break that in to 5 zones. IHMO you only really need about 3, 1 to keep your pace down for base aerobic training, 2 for what you want to sustain for a given period of time or race and the third for pushing your self beyond your aerobic limit into lactate threshold stuff.
HTH
( Alternativley you can wear it in bed and use it to show when yer missus is not trying hard enough
)Enigma2008
Über Member
- Location
- Nottingham
I was lucky to grab a crane heart rate monitor from aldi for £7!
So how can I incorporate it into my training runs now?
Thanks.
The first thing is to go out and ride a ten mile Time trial as fast as you can using your HR monitor. Find out what your average heart rate was and find 95% of it. This will give you an estimate of your Lactate Threshold. Once you know this you can set your training zones. Get onto Joe Friels blog and you'll soon find out what they are.
