I loosely train with an hrm primarily for long rides/runs and bike trainer rides. This weekend I am doing a sprint tri, it will be wetsuit legal, and was thinking about wearing my HRM just to see how high I can peg my HR during the race. I normally wear my hrm during 1/2 IM’s and IM’s more so as pace indicator for the bike, (ie do not exceed 150-155 bpm).
Has anyone done this and has their been a benefit to the information you obtained from wearing it in a sprint?
The only down side I can think of is I know I get way too curious and will be checking the HRM during the race and it may distract me, or have me over thinking versus just trying to go fast.
I’ve used one for a while in sprints and kept track of things during the race to keep myself in check.
Recently, I began covering up the hr display (now I just looks at splits) and have been racing on how I feel rather than what the monitor says. This seems to work well for me, and I still have comparison data which helps since I do mostly the same races each year. I’ve been a little faster using this method instead of being ruled by the monitor (which is very easy to do). I may do away with the whole display some day and just use recorded data for comparison.
I did a sprint tri last weekend and wore my HRM, I left it on time display not HR display so as to not get freaked out about my HR during the race. I found my HR was just below my anaerobic threshold for the bike (160) but well above it for the run, overall average of 169 for the race.
Is it useful info? Hmm… not sure. I think it is interesting info, but I’m not really surprised.
Umm, given that even a sprint tri lasts about 1:15:00, I find it hard to believe that you can keep your HR anywhere near max for that amount of time. I do, however, understand your sentiment.
I should rephrase my post: Try to go as fast as you can. No you won’t ‘hold’ your max but its worth trying to see what we are capable of sustaining for 1+ hour.
I wear my HRM for sprints…mostly for the data after the fact, but also to keep me hustling on the run. It seems I need a little ‘inspiration’ to push harder…like looking at the HRM and only seeing 170 and knowing that I can see higher numbers than that.
Hope this helps.
PS - I am a racing fan. 'dega this weekend. Go Jr.
I wouldn’t wear it. If you are hoping for podium finish, you will need to be very focused on fast transitions and maximum effort for the entire hour.
Depending on your fitness and experience, there really is no pacing in a sprint. Its maximum effort for the entire race. For me anyway…
My heartrate at any given time in a sprint would not be useful data. Being able to get through T2 in 25 to 30 seconds would be more important to focus on.
Everyone is different, but I would save the HRM for races that require HR pacing for an optimum finish time, like Half IM or IM. The sprint is max effort for the entire race if you’re hoping to podium finish.
If this is an ITU derived sprint tri (i.e. 750/20k/5k) or simialr you should be going full bore throughout. If you’re controlling pace through a HRM you won’t be going hard enough and to be honest your HR in a race of this length under race preasure won’t fit comapre to your zones anyway.
