3 Reasones For Triathletes to Use a Heart Rate Monitor

Often I run in to triathletes or other endurance athletes seeking my guidance. One of the first questions I ask is, "are you training with a heart rate monitor?" 95% of the time the response is no.

Why do you want to train with a heart rate meter as a triathlete or endurance athlete?

1) A Heart monitor informs you how hard you are working. Why is this important? Often I hear people going off perceived exertion levels which are useful no doubt. However you need to train your self to know what you perceived exertion levels truly are and feel like.

Here is a little background info on heart rate training. I use a 7 zone heart rate system in monitoring my self and the triathletes I train. 1 being to easiest 7 being the hardest (I didn't invent the 7 heart rate zone system its been around). These zones are calculated based ones % of lactate threshold. Often I find when I begin to train an athlete with a heart rate monitor they don't realize how hard they are truly pushing it.

A zone 2 and 3 heart might feel similar in terms of exertion but on a biological level there is a difference to the extent of how much of a given energy system you are using. Each energy system in the body needs to be trained in a specific way so endurance athletes can get maximum benefit in the given phase they are training in order to peak there performance for a given time or event.

2) With a heart rate monitor you can tell when you are over trained or when to take time off. Often your hear rate will respond in ways which are out of the ordinary when over trained or may be coming down with a cold or various other diseases such as Ebola (JOKE).

All joking aside you can discover when you need a rest. As over training is just as harmful as under training.

3) Avoid the dreaded plateau.

Often I run into athletes who have not seen any speed gains or even got slower over time. Most of the time this is due to doing the same type of training and intensity over and over again. This often causes a plateau or over training. Variation is key and at different times through out the year one needs to initiate different types of training and intensity. The heart rate monitor will enable one to do this.

I'm not saying that a heart rate monitor is the end all be all as it has some down sides as it can vary due to other factors such as sleep, heat, cold and what you ate to name a few. In all it is a solid training tool that has assisted my self and the athletes I train in getting faster.

To some this may all seem over kill but to take things to the next level in your triathlon fitness one needs to examine the small things as often they add up to be big in the end of the day. Here is one example. Lets say you cut out 5 minutes of every work out for a week. As a triathlete you love to train so lets say you train 2 times a day 6 days a week. In doing the math that adds up to 72 minutes which is a whole other work out.

In not knowing your intensities via heart rate you could be pushing to hard or not hard enough or both thus you may find your self struggling to get the results you desire. The introduction of heart rate monitor may be able to solve what may be small detail, resulting in you becoming blazing fast.

Thats all for now. Happy training and racing