Training for a half marathon, week 3

This was supposed to be an easy week for me. I dropped my mileage and ran a 5K race on Saturday.

Monday: easy; 3 miles @ 11:00; average HR 120

Tuesday: fartlek; 5 miles @ 10:00, average HR

Wednesday: 3 miles @ 11:47, average HR 143

Thursday: 5.5 miles @ 11:15, average HR 145

Friday: day off

Saturday: 5K race (plus warm up and cool down) = 4.5 miles. Course was hilly. 5K in 28:49, average HR 170.

***warning***: this heart rate is too high for me and should be lower. It reflects how stressed I felt and that fact that I reached the race late (Tad had a soccer game that went over) and did not have adequate warm-up time.

Total: 21 miles

I am always amazed when I see other runners running without a heart rate monitor. Polar first came out with heart rate monitors in 1977 and the technology has only improved since then. I have been using a heart rate monitor in one form or another since 1990 and it has only improved my confidence in how my training is going.

What are some of the good things about having a heart rate monitor?

1. The ability to measure fitness. Now remember, this is only an approximate measure. I have a Polar heart rate monitor does a fitness test. It is so easy. When you get your monitor, you customize it for yourself, usually entering data about your gender, age, height and body weight. During the Polar fitness test, you lie down for five minutes, the device measures your heart rate and pops up with a number that is similar to VO2 max. You can use this to compare your fitness to the general population as well measure your improvement with time.
2. The ability to measure what is happening at any given moment. For example, when I am warming up, my heart rate sometimes climbs rapidly in response to stress, especially if it is cold, rainy or windy. Or if you've ever been to Seattle, you know that the weather could be cold, rainy and windy, all at the same time. When my heart rate climbs above a certain point, it isn't doing me any good, so I walk until it drops again. Sometimes when I am doing interval training or very intense speedwork, my coach tells me to walk until my heart rate is less than 100 beats per minute. It is so strange to do this, but it really works.
3. The ability to know if you are running with the right intensity. For example, the race above was really slow for me but my heart rate was elevated, partly due to stress, and it showed I was working hard, even if I wasn't getting the results I had hoped for.
4. Know how fast and far you are running: Some heart rate monitors--the Garmin Forerunner 305--have GPS units that tell you your pace and distance, which can be really helpful if you have to run 7 miles and don't want to guess at your mileage.
5. The ability to back off when you need to. Sometimes you're stressed. Sometimes you're tired. Sometimes you're sick or injured. Any one of these variables can raise your heart rate. If you're running, and you can't get your heart rate into the right zone, which usually means your heart rate is too high, you might consider slowing down or backing off and getting some rest, instead of running yourself into the ground. Look at the big picture--one missed day vs. a really big injury that wipes you out for the next six months (and involves multiple trips to your orthopod or sports medicine doc or physical therapist or biking & swimming because you wiped out your back/hip/knee/ankle/foot big time).

I have two: a Polar heart rate monitor and a Garmin 305 Forerunner.

My Polar heart rate monitor is old and basic. It does not transfer data to my computer or to my Training Peaks website. I love the fitness test feature and the Polar HRM is very reliable. This is my backup monitor.

The Garmin 305 Forerunner is quirkier.

Advantages include:

• heart rate
• pace
• calories burned
• laps
• distance
• navigation to start--helpful if you get lost and need to find your way back

Disadvantages:

• size: it's huge--big enough that I can't get my sleeves over it
• weight: it is uncomfortable to wear, so I frequently just hold it in one hand (and my cell phone in the other)
• quirk # 1: not currently working with the Training Peaks website
• quirk #2: odd habit of freezing so screen looks like it's dead
• quirk #3a: GPS--Sometimes there are no satellites available, so I don't get data for how fast I am running
• quirk #3b: GPS--If I am on hilly terrain, sometimes the unit does not record the distance accurately. It underrecords.