Heart Rate Monitors

Steve Batley

Being one of the older members of Skyrac and developing osteoarthritis in my big toe joint, I have had to reduce the amount of training that I do. I still enjoy my running and competing, so, I needed to get the maximum benefit from the minimum amount of training. For a few years now I have used a heart rate monitor but last year I decided to use it to its full potential. It has been said that any training plan no matter how poor is better than no plan at all, so having read lots of books on training it soon became obvious that the basis for all training programmes was as follows:

A - To train easy one day then hard the next
B - To have rest days
C - To progressively build up mileage over four to eight weeks

My next move was to find the best way to use the Heart Rate Monitor; I read books and articles in magazines and on the internet, from the information I had gathered I needed to establish the following, Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) Resting Heart Rate (RHR)

BY OBTAINING THESE TWO HEART RATES I COULD WORK OUT MY TRAINING ZONES

Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)
To get MHR I used the method as follows, run for five minutes as hard as possible and then take four to five minutes to recover, just walking, (the heart reaches its maximum rate after about three minutes and will not go any faster), I then repeated the five minute run but this time between the three minute and four minute stage I check my heart rate as this should now be approaching its maximum, mine was 175 beats per minute (bpm). The bad news is you cannot improve your maximum heart rate.

Resting Heart Rate (RHR)
To establish my resting heart rate I could use one of two methods. First thing in the morning before getting up take a few minutes to check your heart rate or last thing at night before going to sleep. Do this by putting your Heart Rate Monitor on and relax for a few minutes and check your heart rate. Do this for a week and take an average, I used the latter and at the end of the week my average worked out at 44. The good news here is you can improve your RHR, mine goes between 42 and 45, if you are ever off colour or not feeling too good it will show in your RHR, two days prior to having a cold my RHR did not go down below 49.

Training Zones
Having obtained my MHR and RHR I could work out the training zones using the example below. MHR - RHR = Working Heart Rate * % + RHR = bpm
Looks complicated doesn't it, hopefully it makes more sense with the next examples using my figures.

MHR - RHR =

WHR * % =

X + RHR = bpm

90% effort 175 - 44 =

132 * 0.9 =

119 + 44 = 162

80% effort 175 - 44 =

132 * 0.8 =

105 + 44 = 149

I have rounded the figures up or down and my complete table is below:

100% = 175 bpm
95% = 168 bpm
90% = 162 bpm
85% = 155 bpm
80% = 149 bpm
75% = 142 bpm
70% = 136 bpm
65% = 129 bpm
60% = 123 bpm

Having got my training zones I now needed to know the best way to use each zone to gain the maximum from them without over training. Three types of training are recommended and they fall into these brackets Aerobic, Anaerobic and Peak

Aerobic
This is the bulk of any training programme and for most people will give a good improvement to heart and lungs. Aerobic training is done at 70-80% of your MHR, if you look at my chart you can see that I need to get my heart rate between 136-149bpm. To achieve this rate I jog for two minutes and then run at 70% plus for six minutes then repeat the jog/run this can be done each day with a maximum run of about 90 minutes. If your total distance for the week is 20 miles then 15 of those miles should be done in this zone.

Anaerobic
At this level you start to produce lactic acid and use up oxygen faster than you can replace it, so this zone is to be used sparingly. Anaerobic training takes your heart rate to 85% of MHR for me that is 155bpm to do this I reduced the length of the effort to four minutes but kept the jog to two minutes. With a total mileage of 20 per week only 3 miles would be run at this rate.

Peak Training
If you want to run fast you must train fast and this is it. Injuries will occur training at this level if you are not careful and you can over train at this zone. Peak training is done at up to 95% of MHR, personally I only go up to 92% which is about 165bpm. A lot of club runners, run better on Tuesday nights at the club than they do in races because they get carried away with enthusiasm and bravado at this level. Once again I reduce my effort, this time to two minutes, so it is two minutes jog two minutes run and repeat, from the 20 mile total only two miles is done in this zone.

Summary
Peak Training accounts for 10% of the week's total mileage
Anaerobic Training accounts for 15% of the week's Total mileage
Aerobic Training accounts for 75% of the weeks total mileage

Two examples are shown below using mileage and time:

Miles

Time

Peak

2

20minutes

Anaerobic

3

40minutes

Aerobic

15

3hours

Totals

20

4hours

The Programme
From all this information I have established an eight week training programme starting with 20 miles in week one rising by 2 miles each week until I reach 32 miles in the last week keeping each zone to its overall %, in week five I do not increase the mileage, this has the effect of being an easy week. I do races during the programme which I then substitute for some of my training zones. Running with a Heart Rate Monitor is like running with a personal coach, it tells you when you are not working hard enough and when to slow down. Without any weight loss I have experienced an 8% improvement in my four mile aerobic run taking the time down from 36:27 to 33:45 in just four weeks, this increase has come about without any increase in effort.

If you would like to improve your performance and can wade through all the information I believe you can gain from using a Heart Rate Monitor. Take your time and be patient, make a plan but keep it flexible and most of all enjoy your running.

Good luck