Saturday, January 27, 2007

Heartrate Training

My coach has requested that I get a heartrate monitor. Since it's now my job to do everything my coach tells me to do, I got one. He didn't tell me that HR training sucks.

As IM Able put it, "Trying to run in Zone 1 is nearly impossible. Zone 2 should be reserved for inside, out of sight of neighbors or other friendly runners. Lock the doors, pull the shades, it's time for a recovery run. Backwards." Thank you, IM Able, for putting into words my exact thoughts.

I do a good portion of my running with Speedy. He is, as the name may imply, speedy. I am more along the lines of Pokey. Running with Speedy makes me run faster, but as I am discovering, running with Speedy and running in Zone 2 are mutually exclusive. It's one or the other. Unfortunately, I think if this coach thing is going to work out, I need to train properly. Which is to say, slowly.

In other news, working with a coach is interesting. My volume this week is way down from where it was with the online training plan, but I'm confident my coach has a plan. Not sure what it is, because he only gives me one week at a time, but it's there. I think.

3 comments:

shelek said...

My heart rate when I run is scary. I try not to look at it because it's depressing.

What HRM did you go with?

Cheaper Than Therapy said...

I use a Polar F6. I was going to go with one that had more bells and whistles, but this one does enough. The only negative is that I can't upload the data to my computer, but that's a 'nice to have,' not a 'have to have.'

shelek said...

That was my first HRM and I really liked it. The only reason I got a new one was because I left my chest strap in a Y shower and someone graciously picked it up for me. When I found out they were $45 I opted to just get a new fancypants Polar-- which, if you decide to upgrade one day, you can get connected to your Mac with an IR sensor and extra adapter.

Just wanted to share. I get excited sometimes.