Ticker Time - Heart Rate Monitors For Run Training

An old friend of mine (now a tae kwon do instructor in Texas) asked the other day how I felt about heart rate monitors. Naturally, his take is from a strength, speed & power standpoint, so his question was framed from the viewpoint of a guy who looks at running or aerobic activity as "cardio." Like I mentioned about a month ago ("S'weat's New?", October 23, 2010), if you intend to use a cardio machine to help melt adipose your heart rate needs to be anywhere from 50-to-60 percent of maximum heart rate. Cardio fitness requires a level of intensity somewhat closer to 75 percent of maximum heart rate.

If you've ever been on a cardio machine at your local YMCA or fitness studio which has seen its better days, the odds might be against you getting an accurate heart rate reading. Working out at the wrong intensity can be as effective as dieting without portion control; too much (food) can be as bad as too little. I like using heart rate monitors for run training, both for encouraging an athlete to run at an easier pace during training runs when the effort ideally should be lower, as well as for tying a number to a feeling of intensity. Most experienced athletes, I've found, can provide a good ballpark figure of where their heart rate is based on the intensity level of their activity. The heart rate monitor can also help determine whether more recovery time is needed after a hard workout; if the resting heart rate first thing in the morning is as few as five beats higher than normal (depending on the baseline) it might be a signal to forego that early morning jog.

I've played around with, purchased, used, beat the daylights out of, & discarded half a dozen or more different heart rate monitors, including units by some of the major players in the game, namely Nike, Polar, Suunto and Garmin. Depending on the information an athlete needs, their comfort level with technology, brand of computer, willingness or desire to slice-and-dice (export) data, & level of sticker shock they're willing to undergo, there is a model from a maker which may fit nearly every athlete.

One of the first monitors I owned was the Suunto G6, which was pretty much a high-end monitor, with a frightening level of expandability; I purchased an ANT+ compatible footpod which tracked speed & distance by a battery-powered accelerometer. The G6 could do nearly everything imaginable, save for order me a beer at the end of a training run, but it could & would not (at that time) play nicely with my Apple MacBook computer. Since then, Suunto has developed an on-line, fairly user-friendly workout tracking program called MovesCount, but with the MacBook I had to purchase a Windows emulator program to crunch my workout numbers. I had difficulties with the G6 receiver unit's battery life, compounded by minimal U.S.-based technical support (California, if I rightly recall...). Since that time, Suunto has expanded its presence in the U.S., especially in the major metropolitan areas, & may still have a package deal with Carmichael Training Systems, a company owned by Lance Armstrong's former coach Chris Carmichael.

Most good-quality HR monitors will tell you how long you were exercising in a particular target heart rate range. Others will tell you how long you spent in particular heart rate zone. If you want to know whether your workout was effective or if you're on the edge of overtraining, again, look to Suunto monitors. The monitor & accompanying software programs will show you progress over time and the training effect of the workout you completed - measured by Exercise (Post) Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). EPOC measures the "calorie burn" which persists after the workout is completed...kind of like measuring how long the hood of your car will scald your bare legs should you decide to sit on it in shorts after driving all day.

If you decide to keep a HR monitor for a long period of time (read: send it in for repairs when it breaks or the batteries die) I still consider products by Nike & Garmin to be the best bet, since they have regional service centers. When I owned the Suunto there was only one place - San Diego, I think - to send the monitor for TLC.

Nike's C8 monitor had software & components which were easy to use & fairly user-friendly, with on-line "set-and-forget" (or "set-and-regret") functionality. I could also use the strap on spin bikes & Life Fitness equipment at the local YMCA; I never thought there was a downside to having a non-coded transmitter strap, but my wife was always a little less-than-enthused when her elliptical trainer workout would suddenly change intensity...it would pick up my heart rate & adjust accordingly. But...get that thing near any amount of water & you could guarantee a bad day...a guy who sweats a great deal should never use electronics which are not waterproof.

My most recent acquisition is the Garmin Forerunner 310 XT, which is a GPS unit with ANT+ compatible footpod for treadmill running, ANT+ wireless cadence meter for power estimation on the bicycle, & has, in my humble opinion, the most comfortable HR strap I've used. Oh, & I guess I should mention since it's built specifically for triathlon, it's waterproof. It has a battery life of about 20 hours, but how many people wear their HR receiver the entire day?

My wife will use gymnasium cardio machines, & keeps track of how hard she works by the pulse pads, but she absolutely hates the thought of having anything rub her chest or wrist...it irritates her (She rarely wears her ring, but we don't mind...) to no end. Even the Mio, which uses two finger pads on the monitor, was out of the question...definitely no good for cycling. I almost had her talked into trying out a Polar HR system a couple of years ago; it seems as though enough women complained about how difficult it was to wear a sports brassiere AND a heart rate monitor strap. The fine folks at adidas developed a running top which provided a modicum of support & a means for attaching the chest strap. But, as my wife likes to remind me, support wear is a personal thing, & one size does not fit all...it only fits one size.

Back to Polar, I've seen mostly their more inexpensive HR monitors, which tell the HR. Since my spin class had a bunch of these & my most recent HR monitor is not Polar compatible, I ended up using their strap. Functional, simple. Friends of mine have higher-end units: Polar is good at providing products with incremental increases in quality, features (and price). Their highest-end HR set-ups will tell you nearly everything you would need to know, work with programs like TrainingPeaks, & can help the individual athlete set up training plans.

But, if you're not going to figure out what that flashing number means you only have a couple more ounces of plastic, glass & gadgetry strapped to your body. Like I said before, the data is only as good as what you do with it, & what decisions you make because of it.

For A Few Dollars More

This past week, my loving wife closed our membership to the local YMCA & opened an account with the local World Gym franchise. Our reasons for the change-over were more for practical reasons and less for economic ones, despite the nearly-equivalent charges. Well, we got a good deal because she's marketing-savvy & I'm willing to provide coaching services to runners. When you take away my wife's tanning it was only a few dollars more than the Y.We gained 24-hour, seven-day access to the facility; definitely outweighing any economic disadvantage. While it's been a solid decade or more since I felt the irrational desire to work out at 1:30 in the morning, there are stretches when my wife would rather put her infrequent insomnia to good use. It also takes away any of the weather-related excuses I could use (to quote my coach, one excuse is as good as another...) on those recovery run or track workout days. Even the beat-up days, when I'd be better off working on the elliptical trainer or the stairmaster, are easier to fit in the schedule...even more so when you live four blocks from the joint.

Okay, I do miss the spectator aspect of working out at the Y near my home; mamas & chitlins playing around on the weight equipment or pedaling at slow/no speed on the exercise bikes. The unattended kids were more of a hassle. I do not miss the little booger whose father was watching the other kiddo wrestle...decided to have a little Eddie Murphy-esque Let's See What We Can (Mess) With Next moment with the weight-assisted pull-up machine. The crash of metal parts summoned the father back into the room, where he proceeded to give my wife & me the stink-eye. Hey, buddy, not my d*mned kid, but yours. If he was mine his @$$ would be sitting down on the floor, or whooped on by now.Of course, at WG I have the privilege of working out on good quality equipment. Well, most of the time. I've learned which exercise machines are useless as breasts on a boar hog in the past week...which would include nearly anything aerobic in nature built by Cybex. There are certain bells & whistles every athlete or fitness enthusiast loves, there are others which are nice to have. Sometimes there's too many bells & whistles, which invariably ring/honk every time you turn around. Not so good. And, regrettably, there is a right way & a wrong way to display exercise data for the enthusiast. Scrolling through data is never a good thing. And the Cybex treadmill I used last night had that particular function. Worse yet, it would not allow me to hold the scrolling on the total distance, but kept jumping back to my heart rate, calories, METs, etc., etc., & so forth. As I mentioned to my running friends in my daily missive to them: Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Oscar?
So everything works itself out, or seems to. I'm certain to rave about how nice it is to have all that equipment once the rainy season kicks into full force.

iBummed

I guess it was as inevitable - Marx would say 'as the collapse of capitalism' - my iPod ate the big one. It's probably a battery issue, which means Apple will take care of it, but not without a price. Who knew it would die, conveniently, over a year after it was purchased by my loving wife?

(In order to show my appreciation, I bought her a white iPod with twice the storage - she doesn't use it too often, but...it was a better deal than my Softride, hindsight being not only perfect but magnified. But that's another story.)

I'm not particularly addicted to my iPod, except immediately before a race or if I'm on the road between point A and point B. I can't use it safely on a long bike ride; swimming is definitely out of the question (although Finis makes a waterproof headphone for those who want to carry their tunes while in the lap pool), and there aren't too many opportunities for me to listen on a solo run, since I don't do that many solo runs. I do like it for those occasional trip to the Y, when I don't want to listen to the early-1980's pop/rock/disco stuff being played over the muzak...okay, it is much better than having to listen to Fox News.

Of course, with the battery dying, I have one of several choices:

1. I can send it to Apple, who will put a new battery in and send it back. Not as easy as it seems. Have you ever tried to get a RMA slip through their on-line customer service link? I'd rather shove a sharp stick in my eye. I used to think Nike was monolithic and uncaring...not any longer.


2. I can buy a new one. I think Apple's customer service mentality lends itself to this response. They'd rather have you buy a newer, flashier, sexier and more expensive unit with larger memory and more functions that can go wrong in the course of a year. While I'm jealous of my friend Christian's 20GB iPod, with all the videos he has on there, I can't see having...let's see, 1GB equals 133 tunes, so multiply that by 20 and...well, it's close to my entire music collection, and I do NOT need my entire music collection. Come on, why would anyone in their right mind WANT to run to "Sister Mary Elephant" by Cheech and Chong!?

I've complained about my poor relationship with techno-gadgetry...it lets me down by dying at the worst possible time. This is the only time a music player has died without being in the middle of one of my long runs. Thank God. More comments on long runs follow...another Rundown reject. Enjoy!

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THE LONG RUN:

“I used to hurry a lot; I used to worry a lot...” – Randy Meisner (songwriter, member of the Eagles)

If you want to get better at swimming, writing a business letter, or drinking beer, you have to spend time doing the act. No one starts to run and is immediately able to complete a marathon or run a fast 5-kilometer race without the ill-effects of beat-up muscles, sore joints and a pounding heart. We all start at the same point, adapt to the physiological responses and eventually learn to love this activity. The persons who cannot adapt stop running.

IF I WERE YOUR COACH: I would recommend, as part of your training, to run long one day a week. It proves to me an individual really wants to improve as a runner. During a long run, your heart adapts to the work and becomes stronger; strong hearts pump more blood to your other muscles. The small blood vessels (capillaries) increase and become denser, taking the blood to more areas of your body, especially the muscles. The muscles get more oxygen-rich blood, and also develop more and bigger mitochondria, which produce energy. This means the muscles can keep more of the glycogen it has stored, providing you with a ‘larger gas tank.’ Your mind also learns how to work around the discomfort of running over an extended period of time. Believe me, this helps when you begin to have (and you will!) those bad running days.

“…Who can go the distance? We’ll find out in the long run...”

So, what is the ideal distance? Instead, let’s look at time. Remember we all are an experiment of one; what works for the local running stud might put the mid-life, entry-level runner with spouse, corporate job and two children into a mid-life crisis. Some coaches recommend to their athletes that the long run should be no more than 20 percent of a weeks’ workload: If you have eight hours a week for running, then the long run should last around 90 minutes. That’s probably a good rule of thumb for races up to 10 kilometers. If you plan to run longer distances, your percentage might need to be closer to 25 percent. If you’re a new runner thinking about marathons, look into the Hanson’s training program…better yet, start with shorter distance races first.

The marathon is a completely different animal; it feeds on the flesh of the foolish. Trust me. I have the marks (tattoo) to prove it.

“…You know I don't understand why you don't treat yourself better; do the crazy things that you do...”

If you are fortunate, there’ll be someone close to your pace (hopefully an experienced runner) to run with you. That will help with both motivation and pacing. I’ve been on wonderful morning runs where the topic went from how beat up we were at the beginning of the run to all those other things that only can be discussed among the closest friends.

My wife and I do not run together on Sunday morning; we do the same loop, and then discuss training specifics and gossip over breakfast. We don’t run together because our paces are too dissimilar; I injured myself while on vacation in Hawai’i trying to run at her pace. She wonders why her running partners don’t run with her as frequently as they once did. As she started to recall the pace of the run, I noted something she completely overlooked. Lately, she has run with older men who want to take a fast pace early, turning in when she’s in the mood to tack on two more miles. While not always true, the ego and competitive nature of men can turn the most laid-back of runs into a hammer-fest.

I have hammered my Sunday morning runs; I have also run them at a comfortable pace. Quite frankly, I like the comfortably-paced long run a lot more. Some coaches recommend doing your long runs at a minute per mile slower than your marathon (or goal race) pace. My coach, Dale Fox, used to call the necessary pace of the Sunday long run “kinder and gentler.” If I am going out with a friend, we’ll work out the pacing within the first 15 or 20 minutes. If by myself I will take the iPod in order to keep entertained. Running with the iPod presents its own share of challenges.

A couple of Sundays’ back, I was by myself and plugged in to the iPod. I landed on a particular track that I couldn’t help but repeat over and over and over. I ended up running about 30 seconds faster than my marathon goal pace, a personal best time for the loop. However, I was beat up for the remainder of the week. After that, I decided to set up a playlist specifically for the “kinder and gentler” morning runs, saving my 80’s and 90’s rock for the treadmill or the days nearer the end of the training cycle when intensity is the order of the day.

Regardless of whether you choose to run your long run at a more relaxed pace or decide to “scald dogs,” the benefits are the same. When you are thinking about the pace of your long runs, keep in mind that long, slow distance leads to long, slow runners. A little variety in your pace is a good thing every so often; let your later-season long runs be closer to the pace you intend to race and your earlier season runs be “debate club” conversational pace, where you can hold a good conversation with a running partner.

As always, what works for the local running stud might not work for you.