Target Heart Rate
Target heart rate can be a useful training tool, but only if you know what your individual heart rate zones are! Here are some of my thoughts on using HR in training and how to get started.
Getting Started
If you want to start working with target heart rate zones, buy a monitor and start collecting data. Wear your HR monitor for all your runs, workouts and races. Consider wearing the HR monitor around your home and even overnight occasionally.
During this time, try not to pay attention to your HR and don’t use it as a training tool. Simply collect (and record!) the data alongside your pace and your perceived effort. Over time you will notice trends in your HR readings during easy runs compared to harder workouts or tempo runs.
By studying your own data you’ll already have an idea of your ranges and can then confirm them using a variety of different methods to calculate your HR zones.
When training by HR can be limiting:
INCORRECT GOAL NUMBERS
If you’re using target ranges that aren’t specific to you, the workout likely will be too hard or too easy for the intended purpose.
If the workout is too easy, you’ll make slower progress than necessary, and you’ll have a false sense of your own level of fitness.
If the workout is too hard, you risk injury, burnout and discouragement if you aren’t successful in the workouts.
OVER EMPHASIS on HR
Focusing strictly on HR leaves out the most important training tool: perceived effort. We must always allow room for feedback from our body.
Sometimes we feel able to push harder and longer than usual. On those days it makes sense to take advantage of feeling great instead of worrying about a specific HR range.
Alternatively, sometimes we are mentally exhausted from stress at work, relationships, or life in general. We may need to go slower and decide not to push for a specific HR zone.
TECH FAILURE
HR data is not always accurate. Sometimes the readings at the start of a run or workout don’t make any sense because of static or poor contact. Take the data with a “grain of salt.”
When training by HR can be helpful:
ILLNESS
When you’re sick, your heart rate is usually elevated. Monitoring your HR upon waking in the morning will help you determine when your body is truly recovered and ready to run. Monitoring your HR is also a good way to put up “guard rails” if you decide to run while you are sick. Choose to keep your HR low so you don’t overdo the effort.
MENTALLY EASIER
Some of the runners find greater success executing workouts guided by HR than by pace. It can be intimidating to aim for specific paces in a workout or race because paces leave so little room for the factor of perceived effort.
OVERACHIEVERS
Many runners just can’t take an easy day. They don’t even know what “easy” feels like because it’s such a foreign concept, and so perceived effort doesn’t work. A HR limit is a great way to ensure it actually is easy.
ONE MORE DATA POINT
In inclement weather, unfamiliar terrain or at different altitudes, perceived effort can be skewed and pace will vary a lot. In these scenarios, HR provides more information about how hard we’re working.
PROGRESS TRACKING
HR can be a fun way to measure fitness gains. As fitness increases, we are able to maintain a high heart rate for longer, run a faster pace at a given HR, and recover more quickly between intervals (we can get the HR to drop significantly in a short rest).
Here are a few illustrations comparing pace to HR in interval workouts:
Inadequate Recovery
This runner is jogging the recoveries (pace only dips slightly) and there is very little change in HR at all. The runner isn’t getting much recovery which is compromising their ability to run fast during the intervals. So for this workout, I would have the runner walk the recoveries rather than jog and if needed, extend the rests.
This looks good
The HR drops between each interval but toward the end of the workout, you can see the HR doesn’t dip as low as it did earlier in the workout. I can tell it was a good level of challenge.
Excess Recovery
Based on this data, the runner is recovering just as well after interval 1 as after interval 4. This runner is ready for slightly faster paces OR slightly less rest.
Nicole Sifuentes is a former professional runner and 2-time Olympian, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and full-time Running Coach for adults of all ages and abilities. Read more about her services, and schedule your free consultation today!