HEART RATE HACK - WHO NEEDS THE LATEST GADGETS?
Do you really need to buy a heart rate monitor to help you train more efficiently?
Nah, I don’t think so. Let’s bring it back to the old school days where these things weren’t even invented and Australia’s top marathon runners were running times that are unbeaten to this day.
It’s important to be able to tell how hard you’re working during a run and if we have got a well structured running program, we would be balancing easy, moderate and hard running.
But, I’ve got a hack which doesn’t see you spending hundreds on the latest heart rate monitor. If you can get to know your body and judge your effort based on things other than statistics on a watch, you’ll be a much better runner for it.
What’s that? You’ve got a wrist heart rate monitor built into your watch? That’s fancy, but that’s also known to have some variance in readings. It’s quite a good guide, but using the watch heart rate along with the below talk test chart is going to help your training to be more efficient.
The below chart has 5 levels, ranging from very easy to a maximal effort. These levels fairly accurately align to heart rate zones mentioned in the ‘what is a good heart rate when running blog’
Very easy effort being 50-60% maximum heart rate which is pretty much walking around.
Max effort being 90-100% max heart rate where you cannot talk, breathing is very heavy and can’t hold the pace for long.
The biggest piece of advice I give running on a Run Rabbit program is that easy jogs should be at a pace where you could have a conversation and yes, running at this pace is going to be more beneficial than always running at a moderate pace, where you could only manage short sentences.
What if you can’t have a conversation jogging at any pace?
Well I’d ask you if you could have a conversation whilst walking… maybe latte in hand, dog by your side?
I’m sure you’d agree that running is just walking where we pick up our knees and swing our arms a little more.
If very slow running still isn’t allowing you to chat, break it up with walking breaks and build fitness that way. It’s better than struggling through every jog at a high heart rate.
Next time you go out for an easy jog, I hope you think to yourself ‘could I have a chat right now?’.
