Forums >Running 101>"Beginner" Runner: Help figuring out HRM training
A little background: . It's been about four years since I ran regularly, which shows in my weight. I topped out at ~205 lbs in April at which point I started a "lifestyle change", since then I'm down to about 190. I'm a 30-year-old male, I ran in high school and played soccer, and stayed physically active until 25ish.
All that to say I recently purchased a Forerunner 305 + HRM strap on ebay for a song to use with my return to running. In most training plans they ask you what your max heart rate is to calculate the training zone to shoot for, so I went out on a run today to figure that out. I ran for about 2.5 miles on a trail, then got on the track and did a quick lap which I ended in a 100m sprint. I saw 213 flash on the hrm and slowed down because it was 23 beats faster than the calculated estimate I'd found online. I definitely felt like I've gone harder sprinting and could have gotten my heart rate up a bit more, but got nervous seeing such a high number.
So, I'm looking at training plans now and trying to decide where to train regarding my heart rate. My 60-80% seems to be about 127-170. I ran the majority of my run today at 145 - 150 and could breathe through my nose the whole time without feeling out of breath. My goal right now is just to stay consistent with running, continue to lose weight (more diet related), and increase that threshold thing that makes you really tired when you go past it. Any advice?
Personally, leave the heart rate monitor at home.
But you will get a ton of advise contrary.
My goal right now is just to stay consistent with running, continue to lose weight (more diet related), and increase that threshold thing that makes you really tired when you go past it. Any advice?
Just keep running, mostly easy.
A HRM is really is not needed for this. You've already picked up on one cue--breathing rate--that you can use to keep the pace mostly easy.
Runners run
If you can breathe through your nose, you're not running too fast IMO.
I'm barely an intermediate runner ( been running for a little less than two years) and I don't use my HRM anymore. Stopped using it after around one year. I liked it when I started though. To me it's like a RPM gage in your car. You don't need it to drive but it gives you extra info on how the engine ( the heart ) is revving. But since there is no user manual for your body, you can't really know how your body reacts to different HRs before you try running at those HRs. It was like that for me. First couple of months I figured out at what HR I could run for an hour, at what other HR I would crash after 2-3 minutes, and so on. Then, I could use my HRM to pace myself. The % maxHR never really worked for me.
I ran the majority of my run today at 145 - 150 and could breathe through my nose the whole time without feeling out of breath. My goal right now is just to stay consistent with running, continue to lose weight (more diet related), and increase that threshold thing that makes you really tired when you go past it. Any advice?
My advice:
"could breathe through my nose the whole time without feeling out of breath" is an easy aerobic recovery pace. Run like this most of the time. If you run like this all the time, you will get the health benefits from running with near zero chance of injury.
Fast running, where you breathe hard and end feeling like you had a real workout, is for those who want to run the fastest possible races. Keep that sort of running to a minimum.
I use my HRM mostly to record pace vs heart rate as an indicator of fitness, plus to help motivate myself to keep the speed up doing tempo runs. Without something to give me a nudge, I would run all my runs easy.
Gang Name "Pound Cake"
HR calculators for maxHR based on age are ALWAYS wrong. It's an aggregate average of the population. The bell curve thingy. The chances of it being correct for you are a crap shoot. If you must train by HR, then use your 213 or test again. But the risk of injury can be high with max effort running, especially for a new and overweight runner.
Better advice is to do what Mickeymike says - just run easy. Slowly increase the distance you run. Then hold that level for a bit. Then increase again. Don't worry too much about TRAINING or going fast, or intervals, or hills, or progression runs, etc., for a good long while. Just run easy, easier than you think you should, and let your body relearn to do what it did naturally as a 5 year old. Let your bones, and tendons, and joints get stronger as they will take much much longer than the heart/lung machine to get fit. A heart rate monitor can't monitor those mechanical parts of your body that are likely to blow up if you get too aggressive with training just because your heart is getter fitter a lot faster than they are.
Play with the HRM for a while if you want to. But likely you will get tired of it and ditch it like the vast majority of us have done. Breathing is your best guide. Later, as you get more fit - do a 5K. Race times are great to set training paces, at such time that you're ready to do other paces than just easy. But easy does it for several months is your best bet.
- Scott
2014 Goals: First Marathon - BQ2016 <3:40 (3:25:18) - 1/2M <1:45 - 5K <22:00
2014 Marathons: 05/04 Flying Pig (3:49:02) - 09/20 Air Force (BQ 3:25:18) - 11/01 Indianapolis Monumental
Thanks everyone for the replies. This was exactly the advice I was looking for. I recorded a few workouts to figure out where I was with my heart rate vs speed then loaned the strap to a friend who is trying to speed up her marathon time. She's on number four or five and hasn't improved her speed much since number two. I think I'll check it again in a few months to see if there's any change with hr vs speed. I really enjoy breathing through my nose when I run because I feel more meditative. Good stuff. Thanks again everyone.
Latent Runner
Personally, leave the heart rate monitor at home. But you will get a ton of advise contrary.
You won't get any argument from me; I was going to recommend the same thing, basically lose the HRM.
Fat old man PRs:
I've heard 60-70% of your HRmax and also 180 minus Your Age.
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