Heart Rate Training

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Comments

  • If you start to get tunnel vision - then you're doing it right...



    Much easier if you have an evil pal to shout at you and can pick you up.
  • Not knowing time, date or year added to list of stuff I do Badly!image

    Goldstone wrote (see)

    Isn't that 2 years and 4 months later? image

    Effing Madness wrote (see)

    By way of encouragement.

    October 2012, 13min miles to stay sub 150Bpm

    4 Months of HR training later

    Last Friday 8:10min miles, Average 151Bpm which included a few uphill sections.

    It works!

     

     

  • VDOT52VDOT52 ✭✭✭
    Hmmm evil pal- good call. There is a treadmill version of the maxHR test that may be easier to conduct especially with n evil pal/grumpy Mrs image
  • I went through the agony of a proper protocol to test max HR and discovered I could just have spent 2 seconds doing 220 - age. The figures were the same!

  • VDOT52VDOT52 ✭✭✭
    That puts you in a minority group.
  • Sorry to hijack this thread but just a question about max heart rate. Based on 220 minus age it would calculate it to 176 (yes I know I am old) but based on max heart rate over 5k hard (ish) run it would be 187. (Two 5k runs and same result).

    is the 187 a sign that I am very unfit and over exerting or should be the figure used to calculate heart rate zones ? i struggle to stay in zone 2 based on 220 minus age and using 187 would give a little more scope but I am worried that using the wrong figure would mean I am training in zone 3. Any help and advice would be appreciated. 

  • VDOT52VDOT52 ✭✭✭
    187 will be much nearer to your max HR tha 176. If 176 was your max you would not be hitting 187



    Realistically your max is probably about 8-10bpm higher than you have seen because getting yourself to max out requires a lot of effort and real discomfort. I achieved my known max during a 5k with a good hill that is ran up 3 times. I set out to max out so I ran harder during each lap so that I was already exhausted before the last run up the hill, which I bombed up and I was dizzy as I reached the top.



    Obviously the higher your max is the higher your zones will be. I would assume that all of your easy running should be at about 140 based on a max of 187, if that is too uncomfortably slow then try 145 and stay there until your pace improves by 30secs a mile and then drop down to 140 which by that stage will be the same pace you were doing at 145 when you started.



    HTHs
  • Gideon Levy - many thanks for your response. Will work with the 187 for now and test again in a few weeks. 

    Is is this something that needs to be monitored and changes as fitness improves ?

  • VDOT52VDOT52 ✭✭✭

    Your easy run HR will not change, but you will get quicker at that HR. As a general guide your easy pace needs to be at a HR of less than 77% of your max, with 70% being the eventual target. 

    If you do your easy runs at the right level you will be much stronger in hard workouts and races.

  • MaxHR is your maximum heart rate, no more no less. It's not a reflection of fitness (or at least, I've never seen anything suggesting it is). This is why the 220 - age doesn't have much accuracy, as yout MaxHR shouldnt change much (everything I've read says that it slowly decreases with age, but not alot else changes it).

    Your resting heart rate, and the time it takes following exercise for your heart rate to normalise are indicators of fitness.

  • Yep, MAX is MAX and is not really impacted by fitness

    MAX reduces as we age, but the pace of reduction is decreased by keeping fit

  • So after a load of injury problems amongst other things I am back in training and looked again at heart rate training. Went to the gym this morning and went on the treadmill but given my fitness is back rock bottom my heart rate shoots up as soon as I run. I am wondering, is it better to keep my heart in zone 2 and do a walk/run program to keep it at bay or should I forget about the heart rate training for a few weeks and build my running distances and general fitness up before I start the heart rate training?
  • Does anyone here work with/ monitor Function Threshold Power? We have a guest blogger who has recently posted a really interesting explanation of how important FTP is for training. As I'm sure many of you know, it's closely related to maximal aerobic capacity or VO2max and is also an important determinant of endurance exercise and performance.

    In basic terms, FTP identifies the highest power output we are able to sustain for an hour without fatigue which can be used to analyse the effectiveness of a range of training methods therefore assisting predictions of future performances.

    Interesting stuff!!
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