Why is Heart Rate Training important?

Your efforts must be individualized and they are based on your current fitness level, general ability/skills, and your goals. Consideration of your mode of exercise and your age are part of the equation, and defining the correct intensity for your aerobic and anaerobic system will be an effective evaluation of your adaptations to training programs. HR data can help indicate signs of overtraining, energy depletion and can give a race pace strategy for longer events.

However, the crux is determining your HR Max. Maximum heart rate doesn't really change as a result of training, but all your training zones are calculated from that number. Therefore, it's important to determine an accurate HR Max. The gold standard is to have a test with an exercise physiologist, but not everyone has the access and resources to test in a lab. there are a few ways to test in the field to get an estimate. There are also many ways to approximate. About 65% of the population can use the 220-age formula, and have a reasonably accurate Max HR. However, since this distribution is on a bell curve, depending on where you fall on that curve, your HR Max may be as high as 36 bpm above or below what the formula predicts.

In summary, if you are interested in defining your heart rate zones I offer that service as a consultation. It will require owning a HR monitor (with a chest strap), a willingness to test and re-test in the field, and an open ness to learning!

Next Blog Post I will go over the differences and importances of each Zone and how it relates to training.

Analysis of Zones after an Event

Here is an example of using HR Zones for an event. Depending on the goals of the athlete, it is useful to see that this person spent the majority of time in Zone 4. As a person gets more fitness and adapted to the training loads, the goal is to move the ratio of time spent in Zone 2 & 3 to be greater for a 5 hour event.