Got a HR monitor... Now what?

[aussieluke]

Got a cheap Garmin chest strap to use with my PM4 - thankfully it connected straight away and worked perfectly.

Tried a 30r20 session tonight but kept it very easy to see how slow I needed to go to keep my HR in what I've always considered to be the 'aerobic' or Maffetone zone of 130-150. At around 2:09/2:10 my HR crept up to 140 and pretty much stayed there. Highest I saw was 143 at this pace.



Well until now most of my rowing has been at r20 and around 2:00 pace or faster when possible (1:58-1:59) which is an absolute slog-fest, sweaty, huffing mess after the first 10 minutes and then keep pounding away, and usually going all out in the last 500m or so (still at r20 but trying to pull the most watts possible.)

Been doing most of my longer (10k) pieces at around 4-5 seconds slower than this. Still fairly hard work most of the time. No doubt my HR would be much higher on a piece like that.

So I feel like I should try and shift the bulk of my rowing to this sort of pace and try to keep my HR below 150. I am also running 8k three days a week but I don't really want to start geeking out and monitoring HR on runs too.

Should I do a MHR test somehow to get a more accurate idea of the ideal aerobic zone?

[harrythehamster]

Should I do a MHR test somehow to get a more accurate idea of the ideal aerobic zone?

Definitely yes.

Though I don't know if that gives you any accuracy of the ideal aerobic zone. I just want you to suffer. 30/60 minutes (free stoke rate) full effort trial might not be sufficient enough. I got my highest HR "max" at/in/with (<-- sorry, don't know which preposition to use, we don't have them in Finnish) HM (186) and only 182 bpm both with 30 and 60 minutes trials. 60 minutes trial would give you an rough estimate of your pace at lactate threshold (about 4mmol/l), so you could kill two birds with one stone.

[Carl Watts]

Okay you have pretty much the same results as me for the 30min at this pace.

I have been doing 30 minutes at 17-18spm at 2:08.6 pace because this gives you exactly 7000m to aim for.

This is VERY aerobic only, you can tell from the very slow HR drift. Mine goes to about 134 after 4 min and gradually drifts to about 143-145 maximum.

This is still a great workout and repeatable, I did a couple of "Doubles" earlier in the week with another 30 min directly after this with no rest and the max HR hardly changed, less than 150.

So basically this is a great UT2 workout for you using the training bands.Great for increasing your annual season meters without it being "Junk Meters"

Don't be fooled by the slow pace, the lower rating will have sweat running down the slide in the second session.


http://www.freespiritsrowing.com/forum/ ... calculator

[aussieluke]

Should I do a MHR test somehow to get a more accurate idea of the ideal aerobic zone?

Definitely yes.

Though I don't know if that gives you any accuracy of the ideal aerobic zone. I just want you to suffer. 30/60 minutes (free stoke rate) full effort trial might not be sufficient enough. I got my highest HR "max" at/in/with (<-- sorry, don't know which preposition to use, we don't have them in Finnish) HM (186) and only 182 bpm both with 30 and 60 minutes trials. 60 minutes trial would give you an rough estimate of your pace at lactate threshold (about 4mmol/l), so you could kill two birds with one stone.

That sounds like fun. LOL

So something like a 5k free rate time trial wouldn't be long enough to get an idea of MHR without killing myself?

[aussieluke]

Okay you have pretty much the same results as me for the 30min at this pace.

I have been doing 30 minutes at 17-18spm at 2:08.6 pace because this gives you exactly 7000m to aim for.

This is VERY aerobic only, you can tell from the very slow HR drift. Mine goes to about 134 after 4 min and gradually drifts to about 143-145 maximum.

This is still a great workout and repeatable, I did a couple of "Doubles" earlier in the week with another 30 min directly after this with no rest and the max HR hardly changed, less than 150.

So basically this is a great UT2 workout for you using the training bands.Great for increasing your annual season meters without it being "Junk Meters"

Don't be fooled by the slow pace, the lower rating will have sweat running down the slide in the second session.


http://www.freespiritsrowing.com/forum/ ... calculator

Yes my current thinking is to try and do 2 x 10k sessions at this pace (or this HR band at least) per week, one AT 30r20 session and one 8x500m/2:00 rest free-rate interval session.

[lindsayh]

So something like a 5k free rate time trial wouldn't be long enough to get an idea of MHR without killing myself?

Whatever you have to do to get to max Luke but 5 k may not be enough
The AIS people set a stepped down interval piece 4'/1'r with each faster until you have to stop.

[Carl Watts]

5Km will get your max HR no problem, you can get it doing a 2Km if you go out fast enough at the start and have to all but handle handle down on the finish line or after 5 to 6 minutes. Worked for me, its really unpleasant to say the least and a HR spike to 196 was a bit frightening.

[hjs]

5Km will get your max HR no problem, you can get it doing a 2Km if you go out fast enough at the start and have to all but handle handle down on the finish line or after 5 to 6 minutes. Worked for me, its really unpleasant to say the least and a HR spike to 196 was a bit frightening.

Indeed, 2k proberly not though, the row needs to be long enough that your aerobic system fully works, 10/15 min is enough, at this point get a max sprint in for a few min. This will give you a very good reading. Plus a very rough feeling and wanting to drop down. If not, you did not try hard enough.
Most important is though, your aerobic system should be fully warmed up, so a gradual increese in pace is best, start to strong and you anaerobic system will kick in righr away. That could limit your hf reading.

[teddyDK]

I reach my all time max at 191 on a 4x2k. Before that i thought my max was 183. It was tough.

[aussieluke]

For what I plan to do at the moment, which is to ensure the bulk of my easy distance work really is easy, and to track improvement on that, do I NEED to know my actual max HR?

[hjs]

For what I plan to do at the moment, which is to ensure the bulk of my easy distance work really is easy, and to track improvement on that, do I NEED to know my actual max HR?

No, hf is just a rough guide. But certainly not needed. Don,t think the Kenians use it a lot.....

[EFMAX]

Before I had access to proper recording equipment, this is how I did mine..

READ: http://www.runningforfitness.org/?s=max ... rch=Search


My max HR is 205bpm in 2002.
My aerobic rate (70% - 80% of max) is 143bpm – 164bpm.
My anaerobic rate (81% - 90% of max) is 165bpm – 185bpm.
My VO2 max (91% - 99%) 186bpm – 203bpm.


1: Warm up: 1000m at 2.30/500 = 120bpm- 135bpm: This is outside of my aerobic zone but is good preparation as it is nice and slow and gently prepares the body.

With no rest -
2: 5km steady state rowing at around 2.00/500m: HR is usually around 165bpm: This is the upper end of my aerobic zone.

With a max of 20-30sec rest between sets -
3: 5x 1000mt, gradually increasing the splits by dropping 5secs per 1000mts: This will see my HR rise to between 165bpm – 185bpm.

With no rest from the last set of 1000mts -
4: In that last 250mts I will try and drop my splits to around 1.30/500 and this will take me up to around 200bpm.


I KNOW AND YOU MUST KNOW YOUR LIMITS.. DO NOT EXCEED.


There is so much info written about HR Training that all I can do is rewrite what has already been said, but I have found sites like this one http://www.twrc.rowing.org.uk/coach/heartrate.htm VERY Helpful.

[aussieluke]

Just tested, in a fairly random way, my max HR as best I could manage and peaked at 183 ...at age 35

Started out a normal 10k row aiming to limit my HR to 145, but rated up to 24 instead of my usual 20. Oce was around 2:04 but my HR just kept climbing up to above 150-155. Started getting frustrated after 5k mark and decided just to keep pushing and see where my limit was. Rated up to 26 for a while then 28, 30 and 32, then just tried to hit maximum pace which at that stage was only 1:45ish but after holding that for as long as possible my HR peaked at 181. I eased down and cruised for a while then at 2000m to go started climbing back up again to a steady 32 then pushed it to around 36 until the pace was 1:45 again for as long as possible and my HR peaked to 183 then I paddled the last 1000m

Not the most scientific way I'm sure but gave it all I had.

Guess that is a good enough figure to work on for now? 220- age would be 185 so not far off there either.

Think I have some (long, slow) work to do.

[G-dub]

You are doing fine Luke! It takes a while to make progress on the aerobic front - at least I hope it does! You are wanting to go faster at aerobic effort level and that will come with time and patience. Easy for me to say, but don't sweat the pace - it is what it is. One thing that can be helpful is to test against a HR cap every month to see if you are making progress. So do a 30' piece at 145 HR cap at the same time of day (and same activities the night before!) and compare pace to last month... That way you don't get too wrapped up in trying to improve every day and getting frustrated. 30' is nice because cardiac creep is kept lower. For me anyway, once I get past 30' and toward 40' my HR creeps up a bit.

[aussieluke]

Good idea, thanks. It's fair to say every row I've done lately has been in different circumstances - different times of day, hydration, calorie intake, sometimes different machines...

Just frustrating when you don't see any improvement - or worse seem to go backwards. My numbers were improving daily when I wasn't monitoring heart rate!