Okay, let’s just see a quick show of hands… How many of you already own a heart rate monitor of some description? Okay, quite a few of you. Alright, keep your hands up if you know how to use your HRM?  Hmmm, okay, a few hands went down. Quizzical looks on a lot of faces are telling me that a lot of you sort of know how to use your HRM, but are not sure.

Okay, one more round of questions, then: How may of you know about heart rate training zones? Okay, quite a few of put your hands up. Now, keep your hands up if you know about your heart rate training zones, as in your Max HR, your Aerobic Endurance zone, your Tempo zone, and so forth.  A few hands went down, but some more quizzical looks on faces.

You see, the problem is that, before I go and recommend which heart rate monitor you should buy for your training, I have to acknowledge that there is a lot of confusion and margin for error in this whole area of training with heart rate zones, which is why most of us buy an HRM.  So, I am afraid I feel the need to bore you with some explanations, in an attempt to clear up some of that confusion and reduce some of that margin for error. Then, we’ll get to the gadget stuff in a few minutes.

Heart rate training zones
If you read some of the web sites, magazine articles, books or HRM owner’s manuals, it sounds like heart rate training zones can be calculated fairly quickly and then you can head off to do your exercise, confident that you are targeting a specific type of fitness. But, they’re not so easy to calculate accurately and most calculations that don’t involve a scientific test (usually something like a VO2max test) are going to be prone to a lot of error. Problem is that a VO2max test can be expensive ($100-200 or more), can be time consuming (about an hour in total), and require specialists to conduct them. It is sooooo much easier just to follow the “typical guidelines” and then get started than it is to find the time, money and appropriate specialist to do a VO2max test.

But, let me give you an example of how badly you can get it wrong if you follow some of the “typical guidelines”. Many will tell you to take the number 220 and subtract your age if you want to estimate your Maximum Heart Rate for running. So, a 45 year-old guy like myself should have a maximum heart rate of 175 beats per minute (bpm). Except, my Max HR was tested on a treadmill last year (need to get another test done this year, sorry for the old numbers) at 188 bpm. So, if I follow the “typical guideline” and decide I want to target a tougher training zone for intervals on the track, they tell me I should train at 80-85% of my Max HR, or a Tempo training zone of 140-149 bpm. Which would be completely wrong for me, because I found out last year that my Tempo training zone is 151-161 bpm (80-86% of Max HR). The 140-149 bpm zone would be totally counter-productive for me – not hard enough to be improving my speed or power, but too hard to develop aerobic endurance, and I would not see the kinds of fitness gains I had hoped for if I followed the “typical guidelines”.

So, if you want to take this stuff seriously, then get a VO2max test done by an experienced professional and get more out of your training and your HRM.

The other approach you could take would be much less expensive, much more time-consuming, require you to listen to your body, and won’t give you any useful numbers for a while. You could use a heart rate monitor and write down your heart rates at key points in your work-outs (you’ll have to talk to your coach about this for more specific details), and then after several months of regular recording of your numbers, alongside your pacing and Rates of Perceived Exertion, then it might be possible to estimate your personal heart rate training zones.

Heart Rate Monitors
Well, the good news is that you don’t need to go out and buy the latest and most expensive HRM on the market. Of course, the latest and most expensive HRM on the market might have all the features you’d really like to have in an HRM (GPS mapping for speed, distance and route maps, downloadable to your computer, totally waterproof, extended battery life up to 20 hours, perfect for iron-distance triathletes…), like the Garmin Forerunner 310xt pictured to the right there ($300-400). But, there are also plenty of lower priced heart rate monitors that do a great job and cost about 1/4 the price.

So, what would I say are the most useful minimum set of features that an HRM needs to have?

• Measuring heart rate reliably (well, duh!)
• Stopwatch with lap counter (total number of laps depends on what you’re doing, really, but the more the better for long-distance people who might want to know their mile splits on a marathon, or perhaps their lap splits for a long track session)
• Interval or count-down timer (useful if I say, want to do some fartlek with a burst of speed for 100 strides every 4 minutes, or something)
• Waterproof to 50m (for those of us who also like to time our swims in the pool, not necessarily with HR, but still handy to be able to use the stopwatch with lap counter fully submerged in the water)

My favorite heart rate monitor in the “entry-level” category, that fits all the criteria mentioned above, sadly, is not made any more. It is a Nike Triax C8, it cost me about $80 five years ago, and it still works brilliantly to this day. Sadly, Nike seems to be more focused on footwear and watches that make fashion statements and I could not find any new HRMs currently available that I would recommend.

However, Timex do make some HRMs that are very reasonably priced and seem to have all the features mentioned above. I owned an Ironman-branded Timex watch before I had the Nike Triax HRM and it was very good value for money (but it was not an HRM) and lasted through my first 3 years of triathlon training in all kinds of water, weather and conditions. The Ironman Race Trainer model, pictured to the left, seems to be a very good one with all the features you might need to get started (and it can cost a lot less if you buy it on Amazon).

Garmin also do some very good models that are not as expensive as the 310xt. For example, I own a Forerunner 305 (the one pictured at the top of the article on my wrist) that costs about half of what the 310xt costs and is great for long runs. It is not water-proof, so I can’t wear it when I swim, and the battery life is only estimated for 8 hours, so I can’t use it for iron-distance training or racing situations. But, it has been so useful to have GPS distance and speed measurements available for the lower price.

More information, advice and selection
There are still a lot of other factors you may want to consider when buying and HRM. Is the heart rate strap compatible with your turbo trainer? Your treadmill? Your cycle computer? Will it work with Nike+ and iPod accessories? Other gadgets you might use in your training?  How does it feel when you are wearing it (the Garmin HRMs shown here in this article are very bulky and uncomfortable)?  These are also important questions to think about, and don’t make your purchasing decision any quicker or easier, but can make your usage of the HRM a lot more beneficial in your training.

HeartRateMonitor.co.uk is an excellent resource for people in the UK, and HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com for people in the US, who want to learn more about heart rate monitors, features, and objective product reviews, alongside an impressive range of products for sale on their web sites.  So, check them out, too, and get as much information as you can handle before making your purchase.

Swimming

The sound of zipping up your wetsuit early in the morning.

The small ripples you make in the water when you get in. The splashes other people make when they get in.

They squeal and make high-pitched noises, but you have done this so many times before in much colder conditions, you just sink into it quietly and don’t make much noise. Warm up slowly, get the blood moving gradually.

The even steady rhythm of hands entering the water, good catch at the front, full stroke all the way through, relaxed hand and high elbow recovers to the front.

There is a tiny drip-drop sound that droplets of water make as they drip off your hand when it recovers back to the front and then you smoothly, purposefully place your hand back in the water.

Your legs don’t make much noise when you kick steadily and smoothly. It’s more like a percussive beat in the background.

The sound of your breathing, quick strong inhale, slow steady exhale.

Your ears might be covered by your swim cap(s) and you are cut off from the rest of the world.

Consistent breathing every 3 strokes, sometimes every 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 strokes.  At the very beginning and at the very end, maybe every 2 strokes.

Your heart beating in your ears. The hands, legs, breathing, heart all fall into synch with each other.

How is it that people get bored when they are swimming? How is it that they say they don’t have enough to occupy their minds and ears?  As cool a gadget as it seems, I can’t imagine wanting to get the Finis SwiMP3 player, myself.  There is more than enough for me to listen to. Maybe when I start swimming more than 5k I’ll think differently…

Cycling
Cycling shoes clicking into pedals. When you can do it without looking down, when you know the feel of the shoes and the pedals and you’ve done it 100 times before and all you need to do is listen for the right sort of click sound. (There is a wrong sort of click sound that sounds like the right sort of click, but isn’t exactly the same.)

The sound of fully inflated tires against smooth pavement. Whizzzzzzz along early in the morning, going off to meet some friends for a long ride, or maybe just head off on your own.

The clean, well-oiled chain as it zips around the rear cassette up towards the front chainring and back around through the rear derailleur.  Smooth and nearly silent. When the morning is quiet enough and the streets are empty enough, you can hear it.

The clacking-buzzing sound of the freewheel, when you stop pedaling and the back wheel keeps spinning and it makes that sound of freewheeling.

The steadier, slower rhythm of pedaling uphill. Move the bike, not the body, keep driving down and all the way around on the pedals. Steady, maybe slightly uneven rhythms. But it’s your rhythm, and when you feel good, you own that rhythm.

Up out of the seat and harder on the pedals, picking up the pace on the hills and pushing a little faster.

The sound of your breathing getting heavier on the hills. Most of the time you don’t notice the sound of your breathing, not like you do when swimming or running. But, on the hills you notice.

You don’t need to look at your heart rate monitor to know how hard you’re pushing, how much longer you can hold it like that. When you’ve done it 100 times before, you just know. And sometimes you push harder, sometimes you hold something back for later. It’s your rhythm, your choice.

When you go really fast downhill and stop pedaling, you probably can’t hear it any more. The wind is rushing through your ears, your helmet, your clothing so fast that all you hear is fast-moving air.

You take a drink on the downhill and re-fuel for whatever comes next. The sound of a bottle that is almost empty, liquid sloshing around audibly. Needs to be switched with another bottle you brought or one you’ll get at an aid station.

Brakes touching the rims. Slowing down slowly, steadily or abruptly.  Metal rims sound different than carbon rims.

You can hear when your brake pads are getting too worn out, feel when the cables need a little tightening.

You can hear when your wheels aren’t true and the spokes need tightening.

You can hear when the brakes aren’t in perfect alignment.

You can hear when the derailleur needs a little adjustment.

You can hear when cars are approaching from behind.

You can hear around corners, sometimes, approaching cars from the sides or up ahead.

Not always, but sometimes you can hear another cyclist come up behind you.

Those guys with the disk wheel on the back, you can hear them coming a mile away. It’s like a noise Darth Vader would make if he were riding a bike, like some hellish, basso profundo, voof-voof-voof sound that is coming to get you and you are helpless to escape.

Who on earth would want to listen to music on a bicycle?  There is so much to listen to, to listen out for.

Well, maybe on the turbo trainer. Yes, I will admit to making playlists and listening to music when stationary. But, never when I’m out on the road.

Running
Pulling on compression socks, for a longer run, strapping on a heart rate monitor or a GPS to tell you how far, how fast, how hard. Small sounds, maybe the occasional electronic beep to tell you something is activated or there’s an error message.

I can understand people wanting to listen to music while running. Most people seem to run because they feel they HAVE to run – maybe it’s the cheapest, easiest way they can think of to lose weight or stay in shape. But, if you LOVE running, then it’s different. There’s plenty to listen to without music in your ears.

The sound of your feet hitting the ground. You can tell a lot from the sound your feet make, if you listen out for it. Pronation, supination, heel strike, fore-foot strike, strong ankles, wobbly ankles, short stride, long stride.

The surface you run on makes a big difference, too. The relative flat sound of running on streets, up and down sidewalks. The gravelly sound of running on paths. The crinkling, crunching sound of leaves and twigs and grass on a trail.

Your breathing is much more pronounced when running. Your heart rate will probably be more elevated than in the other two sections.

You can hear it more in your ears, feel it more in your whole body, your breathing, your heart pounding.  It’s more like it was on the swim, but now the sounds from all around you are part of it, too.

Early in the morning, you can tell the changing of the seasons, predict the weather for the rest of the day by listening to the birds around you, even in the densest most crowded cities.

Need to listen out for cars, too. Hybrid cars have the unfortunate distinction of being the toughest to hear coming, so you need to be specially careful about them.

There’s always music playing in my head. Not full songs, but usually my favorite bits that I keep playing over and over again.

The bass intro to “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, up until “Very superstitious writing’s on the wall.”

The intro to “Back To Life” by Soul II Soul, up to “Back to life, back to reality.”

The chorus of “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon, as well as the line “Hot as a fever, rattling bones.”

Who knows what will play in my head next time. Something I heard on the radio this morning, something I heard 25 years ago at Danceteria (“A E A E I O U U, and sometimes Y-ii”? oh, no!), something my daughter played over and over again last week (“promise I made, promise I made, started to fade, started to fade”? hmm, okay…). I know I can’t sing worth a damn. But it always sounds great in my head.