Effective Heart Rate Training

Heart rate monitors were once a rare item reserved for triathletes and marathoners. Now they are everywhere. But what do you do with it? Simply knowing what your heart rate is doesn’t do much. This article breaks down some of my favorite ways to effectively perform heart rate based training.

Before you can jump into a program you’ll need to collect some baseline data: your maximum heart rate and your anaerobic threshold. Testing your maximum heart rate is pretty brutal but once you know it, it doesn’t really change much over time. You are simply raising your heart rate as high as you can. One way to test your max HR is by performing intervals of 2 minutes all out running or cycling followed by 1 minute of rest. After a thorough warmup perform 4-8 intervals and record the highest heart rate.

Your anaerobic threshold can improve and should be retested throughout the year. After a thorough warmup run at the fastest pace you can maintain for 12 minutes. If you are more of a cyclist then do a 20 minute time trial instead. The average heart rate is your anaerobic threshold. This is the highest pace you can sustain while using oxygen as your primary fuel source. Go higher and your body starts to use lactate anaerobically as fuel.

Cardiac Output

-Perform at 60-75% of your maximum heart rate nonstop for 20-90 minutes. You are burning up fat as your primary fuel for cardiac output which makes this method a great choice for fasted cardio first thing in the morning. You can handle a lot of volume at this pace, it doesn’t tax your CNS like sprints and hard intervals. When maintaining higher levels of fitness cardiac output can be used as a great active recovery method for 10-20 minutes after a hard session.

Threshold Runs

-There are 2 main ways to perform threshold runs: continuously or with intervals. An example of continuous threshold training would be a tempo run. For a tempo run start slowly and warmup for 15 minutes. After that pick up the pace until your heart rate is within 5 beats per minute of your anaerobic threshold for 15 minutes. Finish with 15 easy minutes at a lower pace. Threshold intervals really depend on your specific goals and abilities. One of my favorites for reasonably fit people is running 5 X 5 minute rounds with 1 minute rest between. The goal is to maintain within 5 beats per minute of your threshold most of the time. This takes experience and is a skill in and of itself. Track how low your heart rate drops in between intervals. An in shape athlete should see their heart rate drop more than 20 beats during the 1 minute rest period.

You can perform the cardiac output method daily. Anaerobic threshold training should be performed 1-3 times a week. Don’t waste your time with junk miles and guess work. Use a heart rate monitor and make the most out of your training.