Polar 720i HRM

[Alan M]

having gone for a state of the art HRM I find it a bit intimidating. I do not have cadence and power functions but I want to make best use of it in other ways. I am finding some of the basic functions hard to fathom so would be interested in observations from others who have one - how do you use it and to what effect?

Cheers

Alan

[Rob]

dont you have the top one just too look Uber cool>?

i had one which recorded data..told you this, that and this..but all i ever used was the actual heart rate monitor to tell me current rate.

although one thing i never had which yours has got and i always wanted was the altitude meter.....always good to know when altitude training starts in surrey

[Marek]

I use it mainly for speed and for the heart rate percentage zones when doing turbo sessions. HRMs are a bit useless if you are doing mainly group riding, what are you going to do, shout, slow down guys I have just reached my anearobic threshold and I need to get back into lactate mode. Oh, everyone has gone!!!

They are good for checking your Heart rate prior to a ride to see if you are well rested. I would also think they are quite good for time trials if you want to make sure you are working hard enough. So get it up to 90 odd percent and keep it there type of thing.

I have got the cadence monitor on my turbo bike and that is useful for checking your interval etc are being done at correct cadence.

Thats about it I reckon, except for the download function where you can see all the ups and downs and you can bore people with the acent of your last ride and the like.

Cheers

Marek...

[Ian A4size]

"having gone for a state of the art HRM I find it a bit intimidating"

Yes thats why i went for the forerunner, no calibration , no multiple button

presses- polar HRMs are great but are so complicated to use and that is

why most people only use the BPM display.


Gadget boy

[Andrew G]

I got an HRM recently (the F5). I've not really used it properly yet just left it BPM to try and get a guide of what nBPM feels like etc.

Plan to use it when solo riding so I can do an interval at x% etc, and also for when I do TTs. I think there is bound to be a learning curve of you/me learning your heart rate and how you react to certain efforts.

I think Monty has the same one as you so you might get some joy interogating the Cap on all the clever features of yours.

[higg]

I used to use a ciclosport HAC4 which was good when it worked. Apart for the obvious HRM etc. it was useful to download all the ride data and it would then calculate weekly/monthly milages etc. and print graphs. What this showed was the patterns of weekly mileage and when it dropped due to sickness etc. These days I am much more careful about increasing mileages/intensity too quickly. True, I could have done this with a pencil, a notebook and a calculator but it always seemed a chore so I never did it.

Aodan.

[huw williams]

Essential for me - mainly to echo what Marek and Toks say - staying in controled 'zones' for required amount of time is the best way to train, even more benefit if used in conjunction with cadence monitor and better again if used with a power meter.

I've found as I get older I can use the HRM to get the same training benefits on much less riding time (useful in winter)

In practical 'on the road' use - I never use it when racing because you need to react to what everyone else is doing rather than what your HRM is telling you its safe to do.

There's not much written research on this but I find it extremely useful for Sportives - used largely to stay within certain limits, because I know I'll fall apart well before the end if I got outside them.

So I'm pretty much using the basic functions of 'time in zones' and as a measure of how recovered I am after hard rides. I never got stuck in the 'downloading data' phase beacuase I found mself poring over so much info I didn't have time to ride the bike!

HRMs are particularly good at helping you counter the 'ageing curve.'
At this age I take until thursday to be completely recovered after a hard weekend riding. The HRM taught me this - I get on the turbo wednesday evening and it won't go anywhere nerar threshold so I get off it again. Get on the turbo Thursday and its comfortably up there and I feel great.
That's very useful as it stops me thrashing myself mercilessly like I used to when I was a puppy.

But don't become a slave to it or it'll rule your life like a nagging old fishwife. You'd be amazed at how liberating it can be after using one for ages to just leave it at home and go out on the club run free from its demanding bleeps.

Yesterday's RT was so frantic it was screaming at me to slow down after only 30 minutes. So I switched it off (something you can't do with fishwives).
That'll learn it

[Alan M]

[quote]That's very useful as it stops me thrashing myself mercilessly like I used to when I was a puppy.

[Toks]

[quote] Get on the turbo Thursday and its comfortably up there and I feel great.