Heart rate for training - Triathlon Week

05-20-2008, 09:15 AM

Please can I have some advice about training on a heart rate. Several
triathlon books say you should do about 80% of your training at 60-70% of
maximum heart rate. However that seems very low to me - in the past I have
done most training at 80% of max or even higher. Take my figures as an
example

I am 50 giving maximum 220-50 = 170 roughly. 60-70% gives 100-120.

My resting rate is below 50 so you would think I am reasonably fit - I think
I am for my age anyway. However if I do a gentle jog at around 6mph my
heart rate increases to above 120. To keep it below 120 I have to jog or
fast walk at about 5.8 mph. If I run at about 8mph I end up with heart rate
over 140 or about 80% plus.

Does this happen to others and is it reasonable to train at such a low rate.
Perhaps the maximum heart rate is higher if you are fitter or perhaps I am
less fit than I thought?

05-20-2008, 09:15 AM

wrong...
it is 170-50=120
70% of 120 = 84
84+50=134

the end

05-20-2008, 09:15 AM

Here's a site that explains it all:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

05-20-2008, 09:15 AM

"BoulderScubaGuy" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]...
> Here's a site that explains it all:
> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Thanks for the suggestion. It is helpful in explaining why my maximum rate
is higher than I thought. The revised 70-80% is actually aerobic.

Do triathletes generally do 80% of their training in the 60-70% of heart
rate zone? For me this seems too slow even on the revised calculation?

05-28-2008, 10:54 PM

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:51:02 +0000, Broooz wrote:

> "BoulderScubaGuy" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
> news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]...
>> Here's a site that explains it all:
>> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
>
> Thanks for the suggestion. It is helpful in explaining why my maximum
> rate is higher than I thought. The revised 70-80% is actually aerobic.
>
> Do triathletes generally do 80% of their training in the 60-70% of heart
> rate zone? For me this seems too slow even on the revised calculation?

I didn't check out the website, so maybe some of this is redundant
information:

- Measure your maximal heart rate. Formulas are extremely unreliable. My
maximum heart rate is 20 bpm above what the formulas would calculate.
Training and age will both affect you MHR, so you should measure it from
year to year.

- Guidelines for training via heart rate are just guidelines. Human
beings can have huge variations from individual to individual. If your
body performs reasonably close to the average, then you will do okay
following guidelines. If not, you have to figure things out for yourself,
or seek the advice of a competent expert who can look at your individual
performance. A sports performance doctor could be useful. There are for
example "high heart rate" runners, who run at a high heart rate even when
training lightly. They are however the exception.

- Another good guideline for your aerobic training is to train at a level
at which you can still maintain a comfortable conversation. Compare this
to your heart rate and it will give you a good estimate of the range you
want to work out in.

- All that said, I find that most people (including myself) want to train
at too high a level. For endurance events, a primary goal is increasing
your body's store of muscle glycogen. This means teaching your body it
need to store huge amounts of energy, because you are going to need huge
amounts of energy each week. The aerobic workouts also train your heart
and lungs, and the longer ones teach your body to use fat efficiently for
enegy. The high pace work outs teach your body to go faster. I started
training seriously again about 6 months ago, keeping my girlfriend company
for her Marathon training (she finished a hilly marathon in 4:02). I am
of the opinion we routinely trained too hard, and I had to constantly
remind us to slow down on the easy days. I blame this tendency on the
crappy quality of high school sports coaches/teachers, who routinely tell
you to just "go hard" all the time, or people who say "no pain no gain".
These philosophies will lead to sub-optimal training, and probably injury.

Note that if you train well, your 70% speed will increase. 6 months ago,
my 70% pace was about 8km/hr, now my 70% pace is close to 9.5 km/hr, so it
has increased significantly.

How much of your training you do in what range depends a lot on how often
you train, how long your training event is, and how fit you are. If your
body can handle it, you can do 2 to 3 hard workout days a week. and 3 - 4
easy days (this is quite hard, and you have to watch out for
overtraining). An easier schedule would be 1 or 2 hard and 3-4. The easy
days let your body recover from the hard workouts, while at the same time
telling your body "hey, I'm gonna need hella levels of muscle glycogen".
Remember, the workout prompts the adaptation, but you get faster during
the recovery, so don't neglect recovery.

Finally, you have to listen to your body. It'll tell you if you're
pushing it too hard, or too easy.

Hope that helps.

Glen

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

--

06-27-2008, 10:12 PM

Thanks Glen - that was useful

--

"glen stark" <mail> wrote in message news:[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]...
> On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:51:02 +0000, Broooz wrote:
>
> - All that said, I find that most people (including myself) want to train
> at too high a level. For endurance events, a primary goal is increasing
> your body's store of muscle glycogen. This means teaching your body it
> need to store huge amounts of energy, because you are going to need huge
> amounts of energy each week. The aerobic workouts also train your heart
> and lungs, and the longer ones teach your body to use fat efficiently for
> enegy. The high pace work outs teach your body to go faster. I started
> training seriously again about 6 months ago, keeping my girlfriend company
> for her Marathon training (she finished a hilly marathon in 4:02). I am
> of the opinion we routinely trained too hard, and I had to constantly
> remind us to slow down on the easy days. I blame this tendency on the
> crappy quality of high school sports coaches/teachers, who routinely tell
> you to just "go hard" all the time, or people who say "no pain no gain".
> These philosophies will lead to sub-optimal training, and probably injury.
>
> Note that if you train well, your 70% speed will increase. 6 months ago,
> my 70% pace was about 8km/hr, now my 70% pace is close to 9.5 km/hr, so it
> has increased significantly.
>
> How much of your training you do in what range depends a lot on how often
> you train, how long your training event is, and how fit you are. If your
> body can handle it, you can do 2 to 3 hard workout days a week. and 3 - 4
> easy days (this is quite hard, and you have to watch out for
> overtraining). An easier schedule would be 1 or 2 hard and 3-4. The easy
> days let your body recover from the hard workouts, while at the same time
> telling your body "hey, I'm gonna need hella levels of muscle glycogen".
> Remember, the workout prompts the adaptation, but you get faster during
> the recovery, so don't neglect recovery.
>
> Finally, you have to listen to your body. It'll tell you if you're
> pushing it too hard, or too easy.
>
> Hope that helps.