Whether you’re training for a friendly End of the Summer Fun Run or you’re a serious athlete who needs to shave a few seconds off your personal best, training with a heart rate monitor can be a boon to your exercise regimen — so long as you know how to use it and its data effectively.
Because both under-training and overtraining can derail sincere efforts, lead to injury or dishearten even the most dedicated athlete, making use of a heart rate monitor will help you get the most out of your training.
Find your Functional Threshold Heart Rate (FTHR)
The great thing about heart rate watches and monitors is that they keep track of you and your heart rate. Very few runners have the luxury of a fitness regimen that has been specifically designed to the type of runner they are and have the potential to be.
Instead, most runners are making use of training tools, workouts and other helps that have been developed for a wide swath of runners’ fitness needs. Heart rate monitors revolutionize this one-size-fits-all approach by letting you find, track, understand and make use of your own capacity for work.
Enter: the Functional Threshold Heart Rate (FTHR). To find your FTHR, wear your heart rate monitor to warm up, then run for half an hour as though you were in a race, or you can run a race that takes about an hour to complete.
The average of either of these runs will give you your FTHR. Armed with your very specific-to-you FTHR, develop five different training zones to help you reach your goals. Examples of training zones are:
- Zone 1 or Active Recovery: less than 85% of you FTHR
- Zone 2 or Cardiovascular Endurance: 85% – 90% FTHR
- Zone 3 or Muscular Endurance: 91% – 95% FTHR
- Zone 4 or Anaerobic Endurance: 96% – 102% FTHR
- Zone 5 or Aerobic Capacity: more than 102% FTHR
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Manage Your Intensity
But what do all those zones mean? They exist to help you manage the intensity of your workouts. If you do too many workouts trying to build anaerobic and muscular endurance in a row, you’re likely to injure yourself. You need rest days and active recovery days in your week, too. Likewise, too many runs at a rate of active recovery will never help you increase your fitness.
To avoid under-training, you need to subject yourself to the effort required to increase your aerobic capacity. The great thing about a heart rate monitor is that managing your intensity will no longer be just about how you feel. Accurate, detailed data that is a direct reflection of your abilities can help you train with much more effectiveness.
Monitor Your Feedback
A heart rate watch can also help you develop a greater awareness of your body — so long as you routinely monitor the feedback it supplies you. Changes in your abilities due to illness, overtraining, pregnancy, fatigue and more can all be revealed by a heart rate monitor. Keep track of your resting and working heart rates and note any changes.
An elevated resting heart rate can be a sign that sickness is on the way. If you begin to notice tendencies that don’t align with your training, adjust your workouts. It may be that you need another day or two off or that your nutrition is off. One thing is certain: it’s only by monitoring your heart rate feedback that you can successfully apply the data to your life and fitness goals.
Stay Hydrated
If you aren’t properly hydrated, your heart rate will be affected. Especially if you run first thing in the morning, make sure you have plenty of water in your system for 30 minutes before you head out to run. Blood is thicker when fluid balances are off, which will lead to higher heart rates even at slower paces. In short, improper hydration will make effectively utilizing a heart rate monitor difficult.
Avoid Common Heart Rate Monitor Mistakes
Like with most technology, a heart rate watch or monitor can be as much a bane as a boon if you use it incorrectly. Some common mistakes to avoid when using a heart rate monitor are:
- Over-interpreting data. Heart rate is a reliable judge of training intensity, but it isn’t the only one. Don’t forget to pay attention to how your mind and body feel, too. That data is just as important. Even if it feels less scientific.
- Using a heart rate monitor for speed workouts. Heart rate monitors have to be taken with a grain of salt during aerobic capacity building interval workouts that last less than a minute. Basically, your heart rate doesn’t immediately jump up to indicate your intensity, which can incorrectly indicate that you aren’t working hard.
A heart rate monitor can increase your training effectiveness as fast as hiring a private coach — but only so long as you use it correctly. Follow these tips, and you’ll be on your way to faster, longer, stronger in no time.
