Running by Heartrate or Perceived Exertion ? (Read 993 times)

IMHO, if one has sufficient training experience, then HR and perceived effort should correlate reasonably well under any conditions for a desired physiological training benefit, especially since training stimuli occur over intensity ranges, not at specific points. Novices often don't have a "feel" for appropriate levels of perceived effort and are more likely to benefit more from HR training.

What should vary with conditions is pace....and that's the problem with inflexible pace-based training. Basing training paces on race result is simply a convenient way to approximate target training intensities, which can be expressed as a percent of VO2max, a percent of HR max or HRreserve, or perceived effort. (Actually, percent of HRmax or HRreserve is a means to reasonably approximate percent of VO2max, which is the underlying principle of training targets, but cannot be monitored while running.) However, it is important that the baseline race reflect training conditions. In other words, a race result from February should not be used to force training paces in August, even if fitness level has not changed. Just as race paces in August are slower, so should be training paces. The same with a fatigued state vs. a well rested one, or a period of high emotional stress vs. one of serenity.