Heart Rate Monitor Meltdown

Diabetes has taught me a lot of things. Some good, some bad, some really kinda gross and some really quite useful.

One of the more useful things I have learned is this: technology that helps me analyze what is happening in my body is wonderful but, when the technology is telling me one thing and my body is telling me another, listen to my body. Always.

On Sunday morning, Doug and I went cycling. We picked a route that had some flat stretches with some hills thrown in every few kilometres. I had my Garmin watch on my bike and it was set to show me my speed, the distance covered and my heart rate.

For the first few kilometres, my heart rate was fine. It was doing what it typically does which is climb a bit and then hang out between 120-130 beats per minute.

Then we climbed the first hill...and my heart rate spiked up to 240 beats per minute.

Two-hundred and forty beats per minute!?!

That, my friends, is a surefire sign that I was about to keel over and die.

Or it's a surefire sign that my heart rate monitor was screwed up.

Seeing 240 beats per minute on a heart rate monitor that, until Sunday, had never shown my heart rate above 180, is pretty horrifying. For one brief moment, I did think that I was about to keel over and I actually wondered if I should have updated the will I did a few years ago. Then I took stock and recognized that I felt no different that I do whenever I climb a hill. I was out of breath but nothing out of the ordinary.

To be sure I wasn't seconds from the end, I took one hand off my handbar and took my pulse for ten seconds. Twenty-two beats in ten seconds. That means 132 beats per minute if my math is correct. Nowhere near 240.

I relaxed and crested the top of the hill.

I figured my heart rate would drop again once we were back on the flats. It didn't.

I readjusted the heart rate monitor but my heart rate refused to budge. Only when we stopped for a quick drink did it drop back down to normal. It stayed there until we climbed the next hill and I spiked right back up to 240 again where it stayed until we got home again.

"I have no idea what is happening" said Doug "but it's sure going to make for a crazy heart rate graph".

No kidding.

(De)hydration experiments

Last Saturday I did my 18k training run for the Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon I'm doing in June.

After the 16k run the week before, when my ears plugged and my blood pressure tanked, I decided to be a little more focused on hydration.

Usually I don't bring any water with me when I'm running 12 or 14k. Once I hit 16k, I still don't usually bring water but Doug often comes out to meet me two thirds of the way through my run and I drink then. In fact, no matter how far I'm running, I only tend to bring water with me when it's a) really hot out or b) Doug isn't meeting me en route with water and snacks.

This time I wore a water belt with a full bottle of water and a full bottle of Nuun (electrolyte mix without any sugar in it).

My watch beeps every kilometre and the plan was to take a sip of water or a sip of Nuun every time it beeped.

I stuck to the plan and, by the time Doug met me at 13k, I was completely out of Nuun and just about out of water. I refilled my water, had two edisks (electrolytes with a bit of sugar) and continued home still drinking every kilometre.

Guess what happened?

I ran 18k without my ears plugging.

My pre-run blood pressure was 112/78 and it was 104/56 when I got home.

Still a drop but much better than the 112/80 to 78/52 drop of the week before.

Also, my heart rate was much easier to keep in check. Instead of struggling to keep it under 170 like I did last week, I was able to keep it under 160 for most of it, only reaching 170 in the last 2 kilometres.

This Saturday I'm slated for 20k so I'll do the experiment again and see how it goes.

The Weekend in all of its Colours

What an interesting weekend. What a lovely weekend. What a tough, tiring, peaceful and inspiring weekend.

We drove to Fergus and spent a lovely evening with friends, chatting about health, house renovations and our favourite iPhone apps.

I got up before the sun on Saturday and drove to Listowel where I had the honour of speaking to a roomful of ladies with type 1 diabetes. I met some wonderful people, made a few people cry, and discovered how many people share similar diabetes journeys.

I headed home after my talk via a slight detour that allowed me to enjoy a 2 1/2 hour coffee with a lovely lady that I met at a presentation I did a few months ago. She's relatively new to the world of type 1 and is adjusting to its ups and downs with grace and humour.

I ran 16k on Sunday morning. Due to several factors beyond my control, I didn't do any short runs last week and had not done any exercise for three days. So running 16k was tougher than it should have been. Toss in some warm temperatures, mild dehydration from the day before and 16k took me longer to run than 18k usually does. My heart rate was higher than I liked throughout the run and my blood pressure dropped pretty significantly from start to finish. Happily, my blood sugar held steadily and, with only one date and a clementine, my numbers were stable the entire time.

After my chores were done, I managed to sneak in a bit of colouring time and got to try out the new markers I got the weekend before. Wow! Markers leave less options when it comes to shading and depth but they sure do boost the colour saturation. It incredibly rewarding to watch the colours take over the page and bring the picture to life.

Colouring with pencil crayons for those days when I feel like taking my time and finessing the shades.

Markers - for the days when I don't want to think too much and I want to be rewarded with rich, gorgeous colours in exchange for very little work. 

And through it all, we watched the Masters. We watched hours of incredible golf and we got to know this year's winner, Jordan Spieth. He's an old soul - a 21-year old with wisdom and composure way way beyond his years. I'd love to be able to channel his focus and his ability to manage nerves under incredible pressure. Not that I have terrible nerves or incredible pressure but I am joining a ladies' league and the thought of playing in front of ladies I don't know does make me a little bit jittery.

Happy Monday. Here's to another great week!

Heart Rate Update

I think it's about time for a heart rate update. Seeing as how I track it pretty religiously these days, I might as well report back in case anyone out there is thinking about training using your heart rate.

Since running is the sport that I do the most (3 times per week rather than just 1 or 2) it's the activity that I am getting the most practice with in terms of figuring out heart rate.

What I've been trying to do is to keep my long runs under 160 beats per minute while keeping my shorter runs under 165. Last week I started doing speed work again and I'm planning to get back into hill workouts this week. For those I just go full speed ahead and then check what my heart rate is at the end. For the speed work I peaked at 174 beats per minute and for hills I'm guessing I'll max out at 180 since that was my max last fall.

Here is an example of how things have been going:
Saturday I ran 14k. I tried very hard to keep my heart rate between 155-160 and it stayed there easily for most of it but kept creeping over 160 during the last few kilometres. That being said, I ran 14k without too much effort and I did not stop once. Not even for 15 seconds at a red light. I just started running at the end of my driveway, ran 7k, turned around and ran back to my driveway. Best part was that I didn't want to stop. It felt easy enough that I knew I could do it so I did.

The tradeoff is that I'm slower than I used to be. Not by a lot but still slower.

That being said, I'll take 15 seconds per kilometre slower if the tradeoff is that I can run for 90 minutes with no great difficulty and feel completely fine for the rest of the day.

I'll be ramping up the mileage over the next few weeks as I train for my spring half marathon. I'm running 16k next week, 18k not long after and then I'm in the 20s for a few weeks in a row. If I can keep my heart rate down and glide through those distances too, I'll be completely sold on this new way of running.

On to other activities!

I have used the erg (aka rowing machine) four times now at my new fitness centre. I've tracked my heart rate each time as well as my distance. During my first two 30-minute workouts it was a struggle to get 6000m done. On the third one I did 6400m and just this past Sunday I was able to do 6650m. So I'm obviously getting the hang of this thing.

My heart rate numbers are pretty similar to my running ones. Once I get going I'm hovering in the high 150s, up to 160, for the rest of the workout. Strangely, that heart rate makes for a pretty easy run but it makes for a pretty intense erg session. At the end of 30 minutes I'm dripping wet, panting and exhausted.

For cycling, I can't seem to get my heart rate up to 150, never mind above it. Even when the dude on the video is yelling at us to climb faster or spin faster or push harder, I tend to hover around 145bpm. I feel like I'm working pretty darn hard but it's not reflected in my heart rate.

Tracking my heart rate during a swim is not an option at this point because I don't have the waterproof watch to do it.

Lessons learned so far?

1. Running using heart rate works very well for me. It might not work for the speed demons out there who like to give it their all during every run but it works for me as I try to find a way to run long distance races feeling strong from start to finish.

2. A given heart rate (say 155bpm) is easy to reach during some activities, hard in others and seeming impossible in others still. Yet the effort I'm putting out is different for each activity.
- 155bpm = pretty easy running
- 155bpm = pretty tough erg'ing
- 155bpm = I've never reached that on the bike so I'm guessing it might kill me if I do

Heart rate training may not be for everyone but it's definitely a tool I'm keeping in my fitness toolbox.

No More Excuses

The piles of snow are (almost) melted and the streets are clear and dry. The temperatures spend more time hovering above the freezing mark than they spend below it and I've dropped two layers of running clothes already.

So basically I have no more excuses.

It's time to get back into hill and speed training again.

I tend to avoid it during the cold winter months because a) the freezing air wreaks havoc on my lungs when I'm gasping for breath and b) the roads around our home always have some degree of snow or ice cover and it feels a little too dangerous to be tearing around a corner at breakneck speed in the dark over unpredictably slippery roads.

So I don't do it and, to be honest, it's a nice break.

Like most cyclical activities though, after a bit of time away from them, I'm ready to get back at it.

Yesterday morning I got up early, pulled on my running clothes and filled a water bottle. I strolled to the end of my driveway, put the water bottle on the top of my car, and headed out for an easy 1.5k warmup around the neighbourhood. At exactly 1.5k I was back at my car. I hit 'lap' on my watch, stretched my calves and sipped water for two minutes and then hit lap again as I headed off for an 800m sprint.

I love the fact that one time around my block is exactly 800m. I start at my car and end at my car and don't have to do much thinking other than to remember to turn the corners.

I usually do 6 or 8 times 800m when I do this workout but I figured I'd start with 5 since it has been months since I've run this hard.

It went something like this.

Sprint 800m. Hit lap on the watch. Check out my time and my heart rate. Try to get my breathing back under control while I stretch my calves. Do it again once my two minute rest was up. After the 5th one I turned off my watch and headed inside for breakfast, feeling energized and strong.

My 800m times were:
4:29
4:33
4:36
4:37
4:39

My heart rate at the end of each interval was 174 beats per minute. Since my max heart rate (based on my hill running experiment last fall) is 180bpm, I was running at just under 97% of my max before I dropped back down to 115 or so during the rest break.

Each 800m felt pretty tough and I don't think I could have gone much faster but they didn't kill me. I spent the day feeling energized rather than exhausted and nothing felt tight or sore afterwards.

Next week - hill training!

Winter Heart Rate

Sometimes, in hindsight, we end up looking pretty smart.

I decided a few weeks ago to start running using my heart rate as my guide rather than my pace.

In hindsight, deciding to slow down my running speed smack dab in the middle of yet another Canadian winter was a pretty smart idea.

I would have had to slow my pace anyway. Depending on the day, the damn streets are covered in snow, ice, slush or, lately, all three. For the past few weeks I couldn't have sprinted even if I had wanted to. It's just too treacherous to do anything but run at a steady, sure-footed pace, always scanning for icy patches and keeping away from the painted lines on the road.

Deciding to slow down in May, when the air is warm, the birds are singing and I'm finally running in shorts again would have been pretty tough. I'm hoping by May that I'll be back to running at my usual pace again...with a lower heart rate.

These days, I head out on cold February mornings, take one look at the slippery streets, and have no problem convincing myself to just settle into an easy pace and run for an hour or more.

Two Saturday's ago I ran 13k easily, without stopping, at a very comfortable pace.

This past Saturday, I did the exact same thing. I changed my route up a bit but, otherwise, it looked pretty much the same. My heart rate stayed fairly steady in the zone that I've been trying to keep it in. My energy held up the entire time. My legs didn't complain.

The strangest pattern I've noticed to date is that my pace goes up and down by about 1 minute per kilometre even while my heart rate holds steady.

Guess we'll have to wait until the snow melts and the roads are clear before we can know whether the unsteady terrain has anything to do with the fluctuations.

In the meantime, I'm liking my new running routine. I'm enjoying the fact that I can run for 90 minutes, eat, shower and feel like I could do it all over again.

Also, even though I don't think this has much to do with heart rate, I just want to mention that I woke up on Saturday morning with a blood sugar of 4.4. I ate two dates and two clementines. I ran for 90ish minutes and was 4.4 at the end. I love runs like that.

I Forgot to Stop

On Saturday morning I headed out for a run. Time was tight. I had to be home by 10am so I could eat, shower and be in the car on time to meet an old friend from my university days.

I went out with no expectations of distance. I figured I had time to run 90 minutes so I would run for 45 minutes, turn around and come home again.

Just like last Saturday's run, this run was all about heart rate. This time I was ready. I was ready for the fact that I would have to run slowly and I was ready for the fact that I would have to keep slowing down even when I thought I was already running slowly.

For long runs, my heart rate should ideally be between 149-153 beats per minute. After last week's experience, I figured I'd be happy if I could keep it under 160.

Imagine my surprise when, for the first few kilometres, I actually found my heart rate to be too low. I kept having to pick it up a bit because I would look down and see 145 bpm on my watch.

By the third kilometre I was settled into a zone that seemed to hold steady between 153-157 bpm. It felt easy and yet not painfully slow. I was grateful for the snow-covered roads that helped temper my pace without making me feel like I was crawling along.

Two things happened on the run.

First of all, my body has already adjusted enough to the lower heart rate that I could feel without looking when I creeped up above 160 bpm. My breathing would suddenly become audible when before it was quiet and easy. I'd look down to confirm what I felt and then slow just enough to bring my breathing and my heart rate back to the 158 zone.

The second thing was most impressive...at least in my books.

I ran 6.5k before it was time to turn around. I ran 6.5k back. The light at every intersection turned green just as I got there and there were so few cars that I never needed to slow down and let them pass before I darted across the street.

I ran 13k and never once stopped. Not even for a second. Not to blow my nose or fix my hat or let a car go by.

I

Ran

13k

Without

Stopping.

The most amazing thing about it was that I didn't realize that I had done that until I was telling my friend about my run later that day. I told her that I ran 13k....without stopping. We both looked at each other with our eyes wide. We both realized how big a deal that was.

Usually on runs that go longer than an hour I have to play games with myself in order to finish the run without stopping. My body and my brain fight it out as my body comes up with any number of reasons to convince me to stop. Often it's just stopping at a red light but it's enough to catch my breath and lower my damn heart rate.

On Saturday morning I never once thought about stopping. I never felt the need to. I just ran. Because I never once felt the need to catch my breath and lower my damn heart rate.

It was lovely at the time and, in hindsight, it was pretty amazing.

When I did the math afterwards, I realized that I had run 13k in 90 minutes. There are only 8 more kilometres to bring that to a half marathon. I can run 8k in 50ish minutes while still keeping my heart rate in check. That would give me a half marathon time of 140 minutes which is just about the time it currently takes me to run a half marathon. The difference is that I usually run a half marathon much faster and then crash by about 15k which means that the last 6k are usually a nausea-filled walk run.

This heart rate logic is starting to make sense.

Wouldn't it be lovely if I could run a half marathon at a slower, easy pace, and still finish in the same amount of time?

Long Slow Distance

On Saturday morning I headed out for a run. 

My goal: run for an hour and keep my heart rate at 80-85% of my max. That, based on my calculations, was 144-153 beats per minute. 

I would not pay any attention to my pace. I would not care how far, or how not far, I made it in those 60 minutes. 

I was sensible enough to pick a route that did not have hills of any kind. I may one day be able to climb a hill with a heart rate under 153 beats per minute but I didn't think I'd be up to the task on the first try. So a flat route it was. 

I headed out and it took a grand total of 400m to reach 150 beats per minute. 

So I slowed right down and resolutely refused to care about how slowly I was running. 

The rest of the run went something like this: 

Look down and see a heart rate of 160 beats per minute and a pace around 6:50 minutes per kilometre. 

Slow down until my heart rate went down to 155 bpm. My pace, by that point, was about 7:50 minutes per k. 

Then, over a few minutes, I would find that my pace sped up to about 7:00 min/k with my heart rate holding steady at about 157 bpm. 

A few minutes after that I would find my heart rate back up to 160 bpm and a pace faster than 7:00 min/k. 

Slow down. 

Repeat process. 

It was a subtle game of ups and downs but, what I did notice most of all was how easy it was to run. 

I ran for an hour and felt like I had hardly run at all. I honestly believe that I could have run another hour at that pace with no issues. I also believe that I could have held a conversation the entire time which, for anyone who has run with me in the past, is pretty impressive. I'm usually limited to one or two words between gasps. 

So I did not set any land speed records but I am inspired by how much easier it was to run. 

From what I understand, if I keep doing this, I will slowly increase the pace that I can run while keeping my heart rate down. One day I should be able to run at my usual pace with a lower heart rate and, fingers crossed, I may be able to run at a faster pace with less effort. 

The numbers: 

- I ran 9k and every single one of them took over 7 minutes to run. Normally that would only happen in strong winds or when the streets are snow-covered. 

- I was technically supposed to keep my heart rate under 153 beats per minute but that proved to be really difficult so I focused on keeping it under 158 bpm. I have no idea if those 5 extra beats are problematic but it made it much easier to do so I did it. It still a big drop from my usual 170+ bpm on Saturday morning runs. 

I'm already looking forward to next weekend to see how it goes when I add another 20-30 minutes to my run. 

Early Morning Hills and Max HR

I think I figured out my max heart rate.

I first did it by using the standard calculation of 220 minus my age which gave me 180. I'll let you do the reverse math if you want to figure out x (x being my age of course).

Having done that, I had read enough literature in the last week about how inaccurate this formula can be that I decided to figure it out the ol'fashioned way. Don't worry, I didn't do anything rash. I simply followed a suggestion that I read on several running sites. They all suggested that I strap on my heart rate monitor and head out for a good ol' hill workout.

So that's exactly what I did on Thursday morning.

As instructed, I ran 2k first to warm up. The instructions were then to run a big hill three times. Check my heart rate at the top of the first two climbs. On the third, go all out as hard as I could to the top. Check heart rate and that should be my max (or pretty close to it anyway).

After my 2k, I ran partway up the hill twice just to make sure I was warmed up enough. Once back at the bottom, I let my heart rate drop back down to below 120 beats per minute (bpm) and then I headed up to the top. At the top, I checked my watch and saw 170 bpm on the screen.

I trotted back down again.

The second time up I pushed harder. At the top, I saw 175 bpm.

The third time I pushed so hard that I didn't actually manage to run right to the top. I was so out of breath and shaky that I stopped two telephone poles from the top for fear of collapse.

My heart rate?

180 on the dot.

Exactly the same number that the heart rate formula spit out.

When I uploaded the run from my watch later that day, it confirmed that my max heart rate during that hill workout was exactly 180 bpm.

What have I learned so far?

- I've learned my max heart rate.
- I've learned that, for once, I am exactly as the textbook says I should be.
- I've learned that I'm not actually all the pleased about being exactly as I am supposed to be - I much prefer to be a little more interesting than that.
- I've learned that I have been doing my long runs at a heart rate that is way too high (172-175 bpm).

What am I going to do about that?

Well, since I'm not training for anything specific right now, I'm going to spend the next few weeks running in my heart rate zones. I'm going to do my Saturday long run at a slower heart rate (80-85% of my max) rather than what I've been doing it as which, as it turns out, is about 95% of my max.

I'm guessing that it's going to feel really really slow. I'm guessing I'm going to be annoyed at the fact that I'll have to keep slowing down to keep my heart rate in the zone (especially considering that I already feel rather slow). But I have enough friends who have had great success using their heart rate as a guide that I'm willing to give it a try.

Not a half-hearted try where I do one slower Saturday run and then resume my normal running pace but a real try. The kind where I pretend to forget everything I know about running and start over.

Because if using this technique can help me become a stronger running and allow me to run a half marathon at a pace that I can sustain from start to finish, I'll take it in a heart beat.

(Get it?)

Finding My Heart Rate in the Fog

I'm slowly figuring out this whole heart rate thing. It feels like I'm walking around in a fog, getting quick glimpses of things but still not seeing the whole picture. The good news is that the fog seems to be thinning a bit. The bad news is that the fog horn is still audible in the distance.

My friend Jeff was kind enough to write his own blog yesterday in response to my meandering questions. It's here if you want to check it out.

It certainly helped clarify a few things for me:

1. Once I figure out my heart rate 'zones', they should be the same for all of my aerobic activities (running, cycling and swimming).

I don't measure my heart rate in the pool but I have been measuring it when I'm running and when I'm on the indoor trainer (which is quite often actually as I seem to be turning into a cyclist who spends more time on her bike in the winter than in the summer months).

From what I can see so far, my typical runs (7-12k) hold pretty steady between 160-170 beats per minute. My heart rate while pushing hard on the trainer (climbing a mountain or sprinting) are usually 145-155 beats per minute.

So either I should be working harder on the bike than I currently am or perhaps my level of fitness on the bike isn't quite at the level of my running fitness.

2. I really should be a little more deliberate when planning my activities. I typically go for two 7-8k morning runs during the week and then a long run on the weekend (between 10-15k unless I'm training for a half marathon). I don't schedule easy runs and I don't often schedule hill or interval training except when I'm training for a half marathon because it just feels like the thing to do. If I did add easy runs and really hard runs to my regular routine, I would be running in various heart rate zones rather than always running in the same one. I'm guessing that would be a good idea.

I do the same for cycling. I hop on the bike and pop in a video based on a) which one I'm in the mood for and b) whether I'm sore from having done too many squats in CrossFit the night before. Too sore and I do a video that has more fast spinning. Not sore and I tend to do videos that have me climbing mountains or doing off-the-bike squats.

3. Finally, I really should figure out my maximum heart rate since it seems that most of the calculations and zones are figured out using that number. I can choose a generic formula to figure that out. I can use a more specific one that is apparently more accurate. Or I can do a few hills sprints. Jeff explained that the maximum heart rate really is just the fastest that my heart can beat. Several running websites have said that one way to figure that out is to a) warm up for a few kilometres and then b) do hill work. I'm supposed to watch my heart rate the first two times I run up and then, on the third, run it as fast as I can. The highest my heart rate gets is my maximum heart rate (or pretty close anyway).

So, on Thursday morning, before this post even goes up, I will sacrifice my beloved 7k Thursday morning run for a hill training session. It will be good for my legs and my lungs and will help me figure out my max heart rate at the same time.

Stay tuned.

I didn't expect to turn my Tuesday heart rate blog into a week's worth of stories but this does take a bit of time to figure out and I thought I might as well take you along for the ride in case you were interested.

Wading Through the Heart Rate Literature

I sat down the other night to do a bit of research into heart rates to see if I could make sense of any of it.

I've done this before. Every 18 months or so I get interested in heart rates and I try to find a way to incorporate heart rate monitoring into my workouts. From what I hear from my friends who are in the know, running based on heart rate is the thing to do.

I understand the concept and it does make sense. Running based on pace only works if you run in similar conditions all the time. I cannot maintain the same running pace while running up the Niagara escarpment or while running into a headwind or on slippery roads as I can running down a long straight country road on a windless day. Trying to do so would only lead to frustration.

Running based on heart rate on the other hand would mean that I was maintaining the same level of exertion whether or not I was running up a hill, down a hill, into the wind or with it. Run faster when it's easier, slow down when it's harder but the heart rate should ideally remain pretty constant.

At least that's what I understand.

The problems begin to arise when I try to wade through all the literature about maximum heart rate, threshold heart rates, recovery run heart rates, tempo heart rates, interval heart rates and suddenly it gets rather confusing.

Oh, and don't forget the fact that all of these numbers apparently change depending on the sport I'm doing.  So my maximum heart rate while running is not the same as my max heart rate while cycling. I don't think anyway.

On top of all that, I can't quite wrap my head around what I should be aiming for. Do I want to be able to lower my heart rate so that, over time, I can run a faster run at a lower heart rate? Do I want to be able to increase the heart rate that I can sustain over a long run? If so, why? If not, why not?

I can find plenty of literature on how to calculate all of my different heart rate ranges but I can't find very much (yet) on what I should be trying to do once I figure out those ranges. The message seems to be to figure out my ranges (for easy runs, tempo runs, half marathons etc) and then stay in them.

It can't be that simple can it?

Threshold Heart Rate

I have been using Training Peaks for 13 months now.

Training Peaks is an online site that allows me to upload my cycling and running workouts from my Garmin watch and pour over the data (pace, elevation, distance etc).

It also allows me to enter workouts manually (like CoreFit and swimming) and keeps track of time spent doing each one, total distance and calories burned among other things.

I have not signed up for the full version yet because the free one has been meeting my needs so far. and I really like it.

A few weeks ago I started getting interested in measuring my heart rate during workouts (something I tend to do every few years until I stop caring and go back to just looking at pace and distance).

Two Saturdays ago I ran 10k with my heart rate monitor on. I uploaded it, checked out all the data, noted my heart rate and then hopped in the shower. I came out of the shower to find an email from Training Peaks in my inbox congratulating me on my new threshold heart rate of 162.

My what?!

The email told me to log into Training Peaks and change my threshold heart rate to 162. It also explained what a threshold heart rate is. They used a bit too much jargon but I think I understood it to mean that it was the heart rate that I could sustain for long periods of activity such as running. The idea seems to be that increasing my threshold heart rate is a good thing because it means that I am able to sustain a higher (harder) level of activity than I used to be able to sustain.

Does that make sense?

So I dutifully logged in and changed my number to 162.

This past Saturday, I headed out to run 10-11k but ended up running 13k because it was so lovely out. Again, I wore my heart rate monitor. Again, I uploaded the data, checked it out and then hopped in the shower. And again I received an email from Training Peaks congratulating me on my new threshold heart rate of 167.

So now I'm extra curious. I have not been using my heart rate monitor with Training Peaks until now so I had no idea about any of this.

My next research will be to figure out if there is a threshold heart rate that I should be aiming for. Because, let's face it, for all I know a number of 167 is completely laughable. I have nothing to compare it to and only know that increasing the number is positive because the emails I'm getting from Training Peaks include the word "congratulations!" at the beginning.

My questions:
- is there a threshold heart rate I should be aiming for or is it different for everyone?
- are there different threshold heart rates for different sports? Because my heart rate on the bike never gets as high as my heart rate on a run and it's even lower during CoreFit and Tabata classes. There doesn't seem to be a distinction in Training Peaks - there is just one threshold heart rate.

Calories Burned and Other Witchcraft and Wizardry

I've learned a lot in the 2 weeks that I've been using My Fitness Pal.

I've learned that I was eating way too much food and that what I thought was a serving is actually enough to feed both Doug and I.

I learned that, if I eat healthy balanced meals and snacks, I can eat a more reasonable amount without feeling any more hungry. In fact the only difference is that I don't feel that heavy full feeling that I felt after most meals.

I've learned that eating 3 squares of chocolate as a treat after dinner tastes more delicious than eating 6 of them. I think our taste buds turn down a notch or two after the first few bites of food so I'm learning to take a bit of something, eat it, enjoy it, and then decided if I need a bit more.

In the last two days, I've also learned that calculating the amount of calories burned during exercise is less of a science and more of a combination of witchcraft and ruby-slippered heel clicking.

+ 

= 

Calories burned

Since day one, I had been entering my runs and my bike rides into My Fitness Pal and it would immediately spit out a number of calories burned which it then added to my daily calorie total. All I had to do was pick the activity from their list, enter the time I spent doing it and voilà!

But then I tried to enter my CoreFit class on Tuesday night and the wheels fell off the cart. CoreFit is not a cardio exercise and it's not a strength exercise. It's both. And it's not on the list of activities that My Fitness Pal has for us to pick from. So I started looking at how calories burned are actually calculated and one website brought me to another one and soon enough I realized that it's just plain overwhelming to try to do anything other than estimate.

I learned that having a sense of my average heart rate over the course of the activity is helpful so, for research purposes, I put on my heart rate monitor for my Thursday morning bike ride. My average heart rate over the 51-minute ride turned out to be 121 beats per minute (bpm).

I entered the workout into My Fitness Pal (without the heart rate because you can't actually put that in) and it said I burned 498 calories.

I uploaded the workout into Training Peaks (with heart rate) and it said that I burned 602 calories.

I then tried plugging my age, weight, heart rate and time spent cycling into a formula that I found referenced at a variety of online sources and it said that I burned 333 calories.

One workout, three very different numbers.

For fun, I decided to wear my heart rate monitor to Tabata class on Thursday night. It's another workout that isn't easily plugged into My Fitness Pal. After class I uploaded the data into Training Peaks and learned that my max heart rate was 152bpm and my average was 116bpm.

Training Peaks said that my calorie burn over the 42 minute class was 319.
My formula said that it was 252.

Those two were a little closer this time.

I'll be wearing my heart rate monitor on Saturday's run and am very interested to see what that tells me.

My guess is that I will have to take any number given with a grain of salt, eat more food on days when I exercise more but not worry too much about the details.
______________________
P.S. the formula I was using for anyone who is interested is:

C = [(A x 0.074) - (W x 0.05741) + (H x 0.4472) - 20.4022)} x T / 4.184

C = calories burned
A = age
W = weight (in pounds)
H = average heart rate in beats per minute
T = time in minutes

Note: this formula was for females. There is a slightly different one for males that you can easily find by Googling if you want it.

P.P.S. I also learned that I apparently have a crazy low resting heart rate. I was walking around the house and my heart rate hovered around 65-75. I sat down and, within 15 seconds, was down to 48 beats per minute. I Googled that too and discovered that I'm supposed to tell my doctor if my heart rate is consistently below 60. So I sighed, stopped Googling and went to Tabata.

Heart Rate and GPS Watches = Cell Division

Today's blog started off as one thing but has become two things.

Kinda like cell division I guess.

My original plan for this blog was to talk about heart rate. See I've been tracking my heart rate on and off when I run for almost a year. I track it enough that I have a sense of what the numbers mean and I know when I'm pushing too hard or not hard enough.

It occurred to me that I've never once worn my heart rate monitor while cycling. So, on Sunday, I put it on. I changed my Garmin Forerunner 305 display to show heart rate when in cycling mode and I watched what happened.

Our bike ride was just under 30k and fairly flat. There was a pretty tough headwind at times as well as some short but steepish hills. I watched my heart rate like a hawk and tried to see how high I could push it.

When I run, I have learned that my heart rate goes up to 160 bpm pretty quickly and then it hovers between 160-170 unless I'm doing hills. Anything over 170 really doesn't feel good and I run into breathing issues and ear plugging annoyances. So I keep it under 170 as much as possible.

The cell division part of this blog occurred when I went to upload my workout so I could see what my heart rate did. For the first time ever, my Garmin failed to upload a workout. I restarted the laptop. I restarted the Garmin. I disconnected and reconnected everything. I downloaded the latest driver. I read online forums looking for solutions.

No luck.

So I'm now writing a blog about my cycling heart rate (as I remember it from looking at my watch) and a blog about GPS watches.

Back to my heart rate on the bike. What I found was that, when cycling at a steady state (28-30 km/hour), my heart rate stayed right around 135 bpm. When I was pushing harder into a head wind, it climbed but never to more than 150 bpm. On the toughest hill, it spiked to 153 but dropped right back down again.

Even when I was pushing as hard as I could, it didn't climb anywhere near where it climbs when I'm running.  

Running and cycling are obviously very different sports but it was interesting to see how a hard bout of cycling doesn't compare to a typical bout of running - at least heart rate-wise.

So my cycling friends, is that perfectly normal or does it mean that I am not pushing as hard as I think I'm pushing on the bike? Should my cycling and running heart rates be similar? Is 80% of max different with different activities?

On to GPS watches. I have had my refurbished Garmin Forerunner 305 for almost two years now. I know it is nearing the end of its life so I need to start figuring out what I want to buy next. I've used Forerunners for years and have had several 305s which I've loved. I like the big screen and the heart rate monitor. I like that it beeps at every kilometre and tells me how long it took me to run it. I like that it lights up so I can see the display in the early morning hours.

Of course, since I purchased my current one, I became a swimmer. This watch is not meant for swimming. I also cycle more and this watch doesn't measure cadence which I desperately want to measure.

Here is what I want. I want a watch that I will primarily use for running. It needs to be easy to read and needs to show me several things at once (pace, distance run, and time run). A heart rate monitor is also important.

I would also like this watch to be usable in the pool and in open water swims to measure distance and speed.

Finally, I want it to have a cycling mode and, I don't know if this is possible, measure cadence among other things. If this is not possible, I am willing to entertain the possibility of buying a separate GPS device that stays on my bike and shows me my cadence.

Ideally, I want a 'triathlon' watch that switches easily between sports somehow rather than needing me to hold down buttons for a few seconds or scroll through a menu because, really, who has time for that during a triathlon?

Any swimmers, runners, cyclists or triathletes out there have any great GPS devices that they recommend?  Tell me what you've tried and what you've discovered. I need to do my own research too but we all know that it's always better to learn from people who have gone before.

Getting Stronger...Step by Step

"Running doesn't get easier. We just get stronger."

A friend of mine posted that on Facebook recently and it really resonated with me.

I've been running long enough to know that I can usually push through when I don't feel like I can. That I can usually complete the long run no matter how bad it feels in the first few kilometres. That the last two kilometres of a long run are always hard, no matter how long the run is. I've learned that 14k is hard when I have to run 14k. When I have to run 18k, the first 14k is not that much of the problem.

It's about getting strong mentally and physically.

The Niagara Falls half marathon training continues. My original plan was to train up to 18k and then sign up if I felt that I could do the distance and do it well. Well, the race is more than 85% sold out (up from 75% a few days ago) so I needed to decide and quickly.

I was scheduled to run 16k on Saturday morning so I decided that would be the make or break run. I had run 14k at the cottage last weekend and it was tough and exhausting but I did it.

So I figured I'd be ok running 14k this time but that the last few kilometres would be tough.

It was.

I was tired before I started and I didn't warm up and find my groove as easily as I would have had I been running long runs all summer. I decided to ignore my pace and stick with keeping my heart rate between 165-168. I've found that, as soon as I hit 170 bpm, my ears start to plug up and I start having trouble catching my breath. So I hovered just under that in order to be able to do the distance.

I decided to break the run up into 4x4k sections. The first 4k were laboured but I forced myself to keep going until my watch beeped 4k and then I was allowed to stop for a quick drink. The next 4k were better. I never really found my groove but I felt better. At 8k I had another quick drink break and carried on. Because I've run this route before, I knew that the 12k point was on a busy road and not a good place to stop so I convinced my legs to run 5k instead of 4.  This would allow me to stop at 13k for a quick drink. It was a good psychological move because I'd be down to 3k left which would seem short after running 5k.

Running is a big mind game for me.

Sometimes I win. Sometimes I don't.

With 13k down and 3k to go, I started flagging. Fast.

I resumed my run and my ears immediately started plugging up and my breathing came in gasps. I checked and my heart rate was only 160 bpm. I walked for 20 seconds until things settled. I resumed and made it to the stop light with 1.8k to go. When the light turned green I headed off again and made it another kilometre before I walked again. I never walk in the last kilometre - it just seems ridiculous to walk when I can see the finish. But I felt so 'off' that I walked for 20 seconds and then managed to run the last few hundred metres to the end.

Running doesn't get easier. We just get stronger.

I have been running and racing all summer but 10k was the longest I have run since March. Building up the running mileage is always hard after a break. I know that and I expect it to be. By the time I reach 20k in a few weeks, 16k will be no big deal. I know that.

It used to freak me out when I had tough runs when I was training. It used to demoralize me when I struggled to do the distance.

Not anymore.

Now I know that I just need to get the mileage in. To push through without pushing beyond my limits and to slowly build my strength and my confidence. I know that I'll be fine by race day.

Trust the training. Do the work.

It will all come together.

I struggled home. I collapsed on my yoga mat with my chocolate milk and I stretched my exhausted legs. I showered and pulled on my recovery tights. I ate lunch. I sat on the couch with my coffee.

And then I signed up for the Niagara Falls half marathon.

12k Heart Rate Experiment

I'm not exactly known for playing by the rules so it isn't really a surprise that I'm already ignoring bending the heart rate 'rules' I wrote about last week.

Saturday I had twelve kilometres to run and I wasn't really in the mood to run at 7+ minutes per kilometre just to keep my heart rate in the 70-75% zone that I was supposed to stay in. Instead, I decided to run at whatever pace felt right and then analyze my heart rate afterwards to see if I could learn anything from it.

The route I chose was an out and back - literally. I ran down one road for six kilometres, turned around and ran all the way back. The way out was into the wind and (with a sigh of relief) the wind pushed me all the way home.

Does anyone want to guess what happened?

On the way out (into the wind) my average pace was 10 to 15 seconds per kilometre slower than it was on the way back. My heart rate on the way out was about 5 beats per minute faster than on the way back home.

So I ran more slowly with a faster heart on the way out and ran faster with a slower heart rate on the way home.

I now know that numbers - what to do with them?

My thinking is that, if I were racing today, I would have looked at my watch on the second half of the run and, even though my pace was faster, I would have realized I wasn't working as hard as I was working before and I would have pushed myself to speed up until my heart rate reflected the effort I wanted to have.

I guess what I'm going to need to figure out is what heart rate reflects an effort level that I can sustain on a long run. On Saturday I had an average heart rate of 161 and a max of 168. If I followed the rules of 70-75%, I should have stayed between 146-152 but the rate I ran at was comfortable, didn't feel too difficult and left me with lots of energy for the entire run. Could I have run a half marathon at that rate?

I think so.

Could I run it at a faster rate than that? I don't know but the research I did tells me that I should run a half marathon at 166-170 which might be possible.

I have 10 more weeks of training and heart rate experimentation to find out.

By the way, did I mention I booked my ticket for Tel Aviv? Woohoo!

Heart Rate - Part II

By 9:30am on January 3rd, I already had two runs under my belt for 2013. This isn't any more or any less than I would normally do but I still felt rather virtuous about it.

Anyway, on to the heart rate report. 

Tuesday morning I went for an 8k easy run. Easy runs, according to my heart rate research, are supposed to be run at 70-75% of my max heart rate (which is 186). Using the magic Karnoven formula, 70-75% of my MHR is 146-152. 

So I hit the road with two goals. Run 8k and don't let my heart rate go above 152. I met one of my goals and failed rather miserably at the second one. 

I started off at my usual 6:15 min/k pace but realized pretty quickly that I was going to need to slow down. I slowed, my heart rate dropped to, oh, 160 beats per minute. I slowed some more and it hovered around 158. 

I was now running 7:00 min/k and felt like I was hardly working. Part of me felt ridiculous running so slowly that I wasn't even out of breath. Part of me couldn't believe that, according to my heart rate, I was still running too fast. 

It took me just over 54 minutes to run 8k. Normally it would take between 48 and 50. My average heart rate for the entire run was 159 beats per minutes which was, apparently, still too fast. I just couldn't seem to get it down to the magic 70-75% zone. On a positive note, I finished the run full of energy and ready to do it again. 

Here is a little look at my heart rate during the run. Beats per minute on the y axis and distance on the x. 

(The drops in HR were when I had to stop at traffic lights and, at 4k, when I stopped for a good ol'fashioned nose blowing). 

Perhaps that's part of it? Easy runs shouldn't be tiring - they are just about moving the body and getting it ready for, say, a Thursday morning hill workout.

Thursday morning, I woke up, strapped on my heart rate monitor, bundled up and headed for the hills with Doug. We are lucky as we have a perfect training hill two minutes from our house. We trotted over and started the workout. He does a different workout than I do. My technique is to run the distance of three telephone poles and then head back down. Then I add one telephone pole each time until I eventually reach the top of the hill. It takes nine trips up and down to do that and each one is more exhausting than the next. The entire workout is just under 5k and takes about 40 minutes (including rest breaks). 

For hills and other interval workouts, I am supposed to keep my heart rate at 90-95% which is 172-179 beats per minute. 

I am happy to report that I was much more successful with this than I was with Tuesday's easy run. The first hill, I peaked at 169 but it wasn't very high so I wasn't too worried. The next one I hit 172 and then climbed steadily up with each repeat. My highest was 178 and that was when I was pushing it at the top of the last climb. Every repeat, other than the first easy one, was exactly on target. 

Not bad. Although I have no idea what it would take to get me to my max heart rate of 186 considering how hard I was working on those hills...

Saturday I am scheduled to run 12k which I think qualifies as a long run...which I think means I have to keep my heart rate at 70-75%. Based on the pace I was running on Tuesday, it means it will take me about three hours. 

If anyone out there (Jeff?) can confirm whether or not I really do need to run that slowly, I'd appreciate your insight before I pull on my shoes on Saturday morning. 

Heart Rate - Part I

I've taken advantage of my time off to do several things - one of them being to learn about heart rate and how to use it to get the most out of individual workouts as well as my overall exercise routine.

Apparently the key to heart rate monitoring is that it teaches you how to do a hard workout hard enough and how to do an easy workout easy enough.

This is probably a good point in the story to point out that I am not a doctor, I don't pretend to be a doctor and I get most of my medical information from the internet so please take the rest of what I've written with a certain degree of skepticism. This is also a good time to point out that I am interested in learning all that I can so if you know more than I do, please share your knowledge.

Anyhoo....

So I read up on heart rate and learned several things.

1. You won't get far until you get a sense of what your resting heart rate (RHR) and your maximum heart rate (MHR) are.

a) Resting heart rate can be figured out by counting how many beats per minute your heart beats when you are at rest. This is ideally done first thing in the morning before you get out of bed. I checked mine and found it that I have a RHR of 52 beats per minute.

b) Maximum heart rate is a little trickier. There are workouts designed to help you figure it out (ex. run for 15 minutes to warm up, gradually increase your pace over the next ten minutes and then go all out for two minutes. Whatever your heart rate peaks at is your MHR). There are also calculations that you can use to figure it out. The formula that was referred to most often in my internet travels was:

205 - (0.5 x age) 

I did it and got 186. 

2. The next thing you need to do is figure out percentages of your MHR. I thought it would be as easy as 75% of MHR = MHR x 0.75 but it's not. There is apparently some dude named Karvonen who developed a formula that all the cool kids use. It is: 

% (MHR - RHR) + RHR

For example, if I want to figure out 75% of my MHR, I would do: 0.75 (186 - 52) + 52 = 152.5

Following so far? 

The next step was to use the Karnoven formula to figure out different percentages. I crunched some numbers and got the following results: 

Effort        Heart rate

100%        186

95%          179

90%          172

85%          166

80%          159

75%          152

70%          146

65%          139

60%          132

55%          126

50%          119

Finally, I wrote down the heart rate zones I should stay in depending on the type of run I am doing: 

Easy and long runs (70-75% = 146 to 152)

Tempo runs (80-90% = 159 to 172) 

Interval repeats (90-95% = 172 to 179)

Race Distance

5k (95-97% = 179-182)

10k (92-94% = 175 to 178)

1/2 marathon (85-88% = 166 to 170)

marathon (80-85% = 159-166)

What I learned in my reading is that runners are notorious for running too hard on long training runs and on easy runs which makes it difficult to recover properly before the next hard run. Many runners are also not good at knowing if they are working hard enough on hard workouts such as hill repeats. So using heart rate helps you slow down the easy runs and helps you push the hard ones. Watching heart rate is apparently more effective than watching your pace because the amount of effort it takes to run a certain pace can change from day to day depending on a variety of factors (fatigue and hydration being two examples). 

All sites I read warned that it will take a while to get used to running easy runs at 70-75% MHR because we normally run them at a higher rate. So patience was strongly encouraged and, over time, one can apparently run a faster pace at a lower heart rate. 

I applied this logic to my Tuesday morning easy 8k run and my Thursday morning hill workout. 

Check back tomorrow for Heart Rate Part II to see how well it all worked out. 

Heart Rate Monitoring and Monster Midges

Long weekends are just wonderful.  It's amazing how having one extra day can make all three days seem longer.  We can certainly stuff a lot of friends, family, food and fitness into such a small window.   I also took a few days off blogging and other internet pursuits which was nice.  It made me realize the value of being unplugged every so often...

So I'm trying to figure out heart rate stuff so I can get a better handle on what the numbers mean.  Last week I reported my heart rate ups and downs during a hill training run.  This weekend, I wore the HR monitor during my Saturday morning 10k run and again during our Sunday morning 35k bike ride.

Saturday morning was, in my opinion at least, very hot and humid.  Not yet being used to that kind of weather, I started off strong but was really struggling by the end.  I mean really really struggling. Every kilometre took a little longer to run - the first was a 5:40 and by the last I was running a 6:40.  My heart rate climbed pretty quickly to 160 bpm and held steady.  In the last couple of kilometres, where I was wilting from the heat, it slowly climbed to 172 bpm despite my slower pace.   So heart rate is not only affected by pace and exertion but also by heat??

When we went cycling on Sunday, I expected to see huge spikes every time we climbed up a big hill and then rapid drops as we coasted down the hills.  My quads were really tired from the run the day before as well as the crazy sideways walk I've been doing across my house twice a day.  So it felt like I was working extra hard just to keep moving forward. We rode up several challenging hills and my heart rate max for the ride was 162.  Panting, legs burning, can hardly keep the bike moving = 162 bpm.  Pretty much the same rate I get during regular runs.  The rest of the ride I averaged about 120 bpm.  So cycling, no matter how hard it feels has less impact on heart rate than running??

What does it all mean?  I find cycling up a huge hill a lot more challenging than running down a flat road.  On the uphill, the blood is pounding in my ears and I can hardly catch my breath.  On a flat run, I'm just lopping along like the lone wolf - feeling strong but not struggling.  And yet my heart rate is pretty much the same.  I certainly couldn't cycle uphill for an hour but I can run for an hour, or two, or three...  So there is obviously more at play here than just heart rate.

Stay tuned for next time as I slowly try to figure this all out...

In the meantime, here are a few pics from our Saturday afternoon hike through Rockway.  It has been raining for weeks (it seems) and the river was swollen beyond its banks.  Pretty amazing.

The midges were also pretty amazing.  They attacked like a swarm of blood lusting sharks and had us high-tailing it back to the car.  Thank goodness for ice packs, three hour naps and Benadryl.  Two days later and my ear is almost back to normal size.  My neck still looks like I barely survived the plague but I'm sure it just adds to my nature girl mystique :)

Uphill, It All Evens Out

I don't know if you remember my run two weeks ago when I went out with two younger gentlemen for an 'easy' 5k. Well, one of those boys (Matt) and I are trying to fit in a weekly 30-40 minute run together.

The plan for this week was to leave from my house, run down the Rodman Hall hill and hit the trails. 

Anyone living in Southern Ontario knows that it has been raining non-stop for days now so the trail idea was quickly kiboshed. No need to come home completely soaked AND covered in mud.

So, I suggested a wee bit of hill training.  Matt, being gung ho for pretty much anything, quickly agreed.  We headed out in the rain and ran down down down to the bottom of the hill.  He's never really done hill training before so I did a quick review on how to swing his arms and to keep his eyes focused on the top of the hill. I explained that we typically run up the length of two telephone poles, turn around and run back down.  Then we run up three telephone poles, and back down.  This cycle continues until we get to the top which is eleven telephone poles away. 

Sounds easy non?

Absofrak'inlutely not!

But it is so rewarding when you're done.  We felt ambitious so we started out with three telephone poles and ran that hill 8 times, clocking 4.6k in total (uphill and downhill).  Pretty much the same distance as our regular 5k runs but a completely different workout. We felt exhausted and pumped at the same time and headed home looking like someone threw buckets of water on us. Man it was raining!  

The best part for me?  I struggle to keep up with Matt on flat ground.  Add a bit of an incline and suddenly things were a little more evenly balanced.  The longer the hill, the farther I inched ahead.  Nice!

Here's hoping it rains a lot this summer :)

For those of you interested in the little details - I decided to try my heart rate monitor during the run.  I rarely wear it and am trying to get a sense of my heart rate, target zones, max rate etc.  My sitting down on my ass heart rate is about 55 bpm.  Yesterday night, my average during the run was 156 and the peak (nearing the top of the last hill climb) was 177.  Not sure yet if that means I was seconds away from death or if I'm an athlete of olympic quality but those were the numbers.