Heart rate monitor?

[Daren L]

I've been thinking of getting a good heart rate monitor for a while; and now have the royal seal of approval.
If I get one I think I'll buy the Polar S720I, but I've been having second and third thoughts. I can see the benifits: smarter and more efficient training, but is there a danger of losing sight of what cycling was in the first place?
I started cycling because it was a very enjoyable way of keeping fit. Since then I have discovered the murky world of racing bikes. I thoroughly enjoy training and racing but wonder if there I might get tied to training to heart rate and zones and miss some of the enjoyment of riding.
What benefit do people who use heart rate monitors find? And is it worth gaining an exttra few percent in performance at the expense of being more tied into a fixed training regime?

[Marek]

Hi Daren,

I think with all these things it depends on how serious you want to take things. I have got the 710 model and I must admit that I probably do not use it to its full capability.

I use it as a way of keeping a training diary, more than using it to tell me what heart rate zones to train in. On my racing bike I have got the speedo set up and that is quite useful as well as records kms etc. I have not gone all out and bought the cadence and power sensors, although I think the cadence is probably worth while.

You can see quite easily how much you have been training in each zone when you download onto the computer, so if you were really serious you could use that as a guide to areas you are keen to increase in. I don't really take it too serious. The things that I have noticed is that if I go over a certain amount of training in a week I tend to get ill the week after, I suppose if I monitored my heart rate every morning I should be able to assess overtraining and therefore calm down a bit. Getting up every morning and measuring you heart beat ain't that easy with a young daughter going bonkers for her brekkie at 6am and then having to rush off to work.

I get the impression that you are pretty serious about your racing, so you may find it useful to keep to a specific zone training regime, although as you rightly point out, it could push you into doing training that you are not that interested in.

If you think the training calendar idea is good then there is free software on the web, I posted a link to it on the training pages on the forum, maybe it is best to start off here, if that is not enough and you really want to monitor those heart rate zones then go for the hrm.

Most serious riders seem to swear blind by them, so if you use it properly it is probably really useful.

Cheers

Marek....

[JayneToyne]

Daren,

HR monitors are a good way of keeping focussed and also a good way of getting the most out of your existing rides/training.

You dont really need to go for the all singing all dancing HR monitor, unless you are a techno lover.

The pros of using a HR monitor:
*You can see when you have over-trained fairly quickly by an unusual readin on the monitor
*You can see if you are recovered or maybe suffering from illness when otherwise you might be feeling alright.
*You can target your training more specifically using the recognised %max zones
*You can avoid riding at a pace that might feel good, but in reality isnt hard enough to do any benefit and isnt easy enough to aid recovery.( see zones above)
*you can use it keep you more disciplined in your general training/fitness regime

The cons:
*You can spend a lot of time watching the pulse and not enjoying the ride.
*You can get carried away with science ad technology and forget that you do the training, not the gizmo with the numbers.
* it can be a negative distraction in any competitive ride/race. it might scare you when you see how high your heartrate goes in a breakaway/ chase.

as long as you use it wisely, then anyone, competitive or non competitive can really benefit from using a HR monitor.

I use the most bog standard monitor available, it tells me what my HR is, and I can set an upper and lower limit beeper if i want to.
I never use the beeper, and I only have to glance down occasionally to keep a check on my rate if im working to specific zones.

Dont be blinded by science, think "what am I going to do with the data I download from my HR monitor?" if you dont have a coach or someone who will analyse your readouts and be able to incorporate that into your training programme then its pretty much useless. ok it might be intersting to see, but other than that its a very expensive way to satisfy a curiosity.
You really dont need an alarm to let you know when you are working outside of a zone, you should be perfectly able to notice that yourself(unles its dark and you cant actually see it)

Simplicity is the way to start out, think of it as a rev counter and nothing more.

If you want to work to training zones, you need to know your resting HR and Max HR. ideally obtained from a ramp test but can be very roughly worked out via a 220 minus age formula.

if anyone wants their zones setting , just drop me a line with your max and resting rates and I can email you back with the zones and a chart of what each zone does for your training.

Jayne