What kind of training do I need to do to get my heart rate down during races? The last couple of races I’ve done have been an Oly and a sprint. Coming out of the water my HR was high and never really came down during the entire race. It ruined my Oly but I managed to do respectibly in the Sprint, but felt I could have gone faster. If I swim slow enough to keep my HR down I’ll be so far back coming out of the water I’ll never catch anyone.
I have the same problem… I don’t think there’s a simple answer. Well, maybe there’s 2 simple answers:
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increase your swim efficiency so that you can maintain a good speed with less effort
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increase your swimming lactate threshold so you can maintain the same power output at a lower percentage of LT
I’ll leave specifics for those more experienced than me.
Your HR will often spike as you come out of the water. Try taking it easy on the run to the bike and for the first mile or so on the bike. That might help set you up for a better race.
a third possibility is to leave the HRM at the house and race by feel.
It is mostly a feel thing, I just happen to have the HRM on to know exactly how high it is. My heart is pounding pretty hard when I get out of the water and I feel out of breath.
I used to be the same way out of the water. This is what I did.
I practice swimming up to the beach and getting out of the water and running for about 1/10th mile. I found that swimming as close to the beach as I can helps. This is because when I stand up, the water is only up to my knees this way. If I started to stand further out, the water would be up to my waist and makes it difficult for me to run, thus raising my heart rate. I swim untill my second hand touches the bottom, then I will start to run out of the water. I’m only 5’4" so I swim pretty close to shore. On the run to transition, I keep it pretty easy trying not to skyrocket my HR and take it easy on the bike for about 5 min to settle down.
Running out of the water is also pretty exciting and I think is adds 15 beats to my HR in race conditions.
Obviously with base training your HR will fall but remember that HR is only an indicator of intensity and is not an exact science. There could be several other reasons your HR is high during the race or training.
jaretj
The sprint I did on Saturday has a steep hill you have to run up to get to the transition area, so that didn’t help either.
I have the same problem. I am not a physiologist, but here is my theory:
When you are submerged in water, with your head level with your feet, the hydrostatic pressure and elevation of your head in relation to your feet keeps a lot of blood flowing to the head. When you stand up and start running, the loss of hydrostatic pressure and raised elevation of your heart/head cause a drop in BP. Your heart gets a signal to beat faster to keep blood going to the head. So, there is not a lot you can do to keep your HR from going up at this point. I think genetics and fitness can reduce this response but probably not eliminate it entirely just due to the physics.
Like Art says, you have to settle in on the bike for the first mile or so and get your HR and breathing back under control.
Allmost all of them seem that way don’t they. It would be great to have the transition area at the same level as the water then maybe bike uphill a little bit.
jaretj
That makes sense. But there has to be something I can do training-wise so I have a lower heart rate when racing.
This one was both. You ran about 50-60 yards up a steep hill to your bike and then had to climb about 200 yds. before you hit level ground. It’s a nice spike in heart rate at the beginning of your race.
The problem with transition areas that aren’t uphill from the water are at least these two: they usually denote shallow water near the shore which isn’t good for the swimmers, and the surface can be iffy…just a little extra rain could flood it.
Can you clarify: is your HR high during the swim, or does it only spike in transition?
By feel I would say it’s high during the swim. I have a tendency to go hard out of the gate, and then spend the rest of the swim trying to get into a nice rhythm. Do I need to do more sprints in the pool to get used to doing that?
"That makes sense. But there has to be something I can do training-wise so I have a lower heart rate when racing. "
Why do you care what your heart rate is during the race. The only thing that matters is how fast you cover the course. Shouldn’t the question be what training you can do to cover the course faster regardless of heart rate? Wouldn’t it be better to do the race 10 minutes faster at current heart rate + 10 bpm than 10 minutes slower at current heart rate - 20 bpm?
It’s more a matter of heart rate/oxygen debt. As far as I can tell they are directly related. If I feel like I’m breathing heavy I look down and My heart rate is high. When it’s not as high I am breathing more comfortably. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Do I need to do more sprints in the pool to get used to doing that?
Yes, more or less, assuming your form is already good. Here’s one article that might be helpful:
http://www.martygaal.com/words/odtraining.html (look at the S1 workouts)
In the “Swim Bike Run” book there’s a workout involving hard efforts initially, then an aerobic set, then another set of hard efforts in order to mimic race conditions (where you go out hard and then “settle in”) I don’t have the book in front of me though.
Obviously you’re perceptions are correct for you. What you describe sounds a lot like ventilatory threshold which is related to aerobic threshold or functional threshold or any of the many terms used to describe the related points. Basically, this is about the hardest workload you can maintain for a long period. But the point is heart rate is the dependent variable here with power being the independent variable. Heart rate follows from the power you’re puting out. Improvement comes from increasing the amount of power you can maintain over a long period by raising your threshold, not by training to have a lower heart rate at the same threshold.
Thanks for the info. I’m trying to get this all worked out before IMFLA.
Improvement comes from increasing the amount of power you can maintain over a long period by raising your threshold, not by training to have a lower heart rate at the same threshold.
Right, but I think he’s refering to being able to put out the same power/effort at a lower RPE/% of LT so as to not feel blown by T1.