any thoughts on hr during my next 1/2 im in lubbock. does anyone even care during a race. do people mostly go by feel? i don,t know if i could hold back even if my hr monitor told me to. any help?
nobody out there can help ? The reason i ask is lately i have been doing some bricks in the heat and i can,t get my hr below 165-ish and i am concerned i,ll die in the lubbock heat.
During any time trial sort of effort I don’t look at heart rate but download the heart rate data. Usually the only things I can tell from heart rate are: a.) if I was overtrained (unable to raise heart rate much) b.) if I was able to go at my max sustainable effort. Sometimes you just have to ignore it in order to go fast when it’s hard like into the wind or up a steep hill.
An HRM will almost never make you go faster in a race but it can be a very usefull tool to keep you from going too fast.
If you are concerned about pushing yourself too hard, wear it.
I am racing Buffalo Springs next weekend and I will definitely be wearing my HR monitor. I use power for caps of effort on the bike, but during the run the HR monitor definitely allows me to maintain a sustainable level for the entire run. It is pretty easy to get off of the bike, feel great, and then blowup after running 6 miles too fast. Like it was said before, I would only wear it in a sprint to down load the data later, but in a HIM I would wear it for pace.
I always wear an HRM during a race…I tend to ride/run a HR rather than a pace to keep from blowing up, especially in the heat. Once I see the rate starting to edge up, I back off the rage a bit.
Spot
I wear a monitor for 2 reasons:
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It allows me to bike and run at a constant pace in long distances races
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In sprint racing it tells me when I’m loafing!!
No HR monitor in a race. No governors on golf carts either!
Only if you have problems pacing yourself. Otherwise leave it home and race your ass off!
HR monitor on the bike simply because I know approx what HR I can sustain for various distances. It’s good to give you an approximation of your pacing but if I’m feeling it, I just go. It’s great for shorter races though as sometimes you just can’t get it going on the bike and the monitor makes me kick it up a notch when I need to. Tuck it into my shorts for the run though. Only use it on the bike.
A HRM WILL make you go faster in a race because it will help you to stop or at least delay blowing up.
At places like IMNZ where the first 1/4 of the bike is downhill, generally freezing cold, and no wind, it’s waaaaay to easy to go fast because you are cold (and trying to generate heat) and fresh and seeing fast numbers on your computer.
A HRM keeps you slow so that on the final 1/4, uphill, in the heat and building wind, you can actually ride at a reasonable pace rather than suffering through a blowup, leading to a wobble instead of a run.
A HRM not only speeds up your overall bike split, it speeds up your finish time overall (IMHO)
On hillier courses a HRM might not be quite so much help but it’s better to know than not to know, what your engine is doing. Later in the race you can turn the beeper off because by then you will be so tired (it IS a race afterall) that you pretty much have to go by feel and just do what you can do.
I used mine at an olympic distance today. First time in years I’ve used it in a race. Very flat course, and I’ve been having pace issues lately, blowing up on the run. Worked great, nice even pace throught the whole bike and run.
like spot, I use mine in a race to keep a lid on things…especially at the beginning of the bike and run legs. other times I find it particularly useful: on the bike when climbing a lot AND on the run for those times when your legs and body feel like crap–it helps you sort out when your pace is good but you just feel crappy from times when your pace actually is about the same as your body feels.