TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2016

When I first started running 50+ years ago, my coaches talked about our level of effort, but did not reference heart rate as the key to this equation.

I first learned about and started training by heart rate at the Olympic Speed Skating camp in Marquette, Michigan, in 1988. Silver medalist Diane Holum, who coached multi gold medalist Eric Heiden and was head coach at the camp, taught us about aerobic and anaerobic heart-rate levels, the anaerobic threshold, lactate tolerance and other elements of heart rate training. We did running workouts to establish our heart rate levels and used these levels to adjust and adapt our aerobic, anaerobic, sprint and power speed skating and off-ice workouts.

In the 1990s at track workouts my coach, Jim Spivey, a three-time Olympian runner and former U.S. mile record holder, regularly referenced heart rate levels and routinely had us take our pulse immediately after hard intervals, to see how quickly our heart rate dropped. We learned that this recovery time was a good indicator of our fitness level.

For most of the last two decades, I rigorously trained and raced guided by a heart-rate monitor. And even though for the last few years I have been monitor-free, based on "feel" I have a pretty good idea of my heart rate at various paces.

So what does it mean to "train by heart rate?" There are books and articles that you can reference to learn all about heart rate training. But, to make it simple, here's my handy-dandy little guide to heart rate training that I use for my training and for coaching others:

You might ask, how do I find my maximum heart rate so I can compute my HR zones? Here are three ways:

Get a treadmill test administered by a professional. This will cost you but will be most accurate. A running friend was just tested in a university lab for his lactate threshold and maximum heart rate as well as his VO2 max. Here's what the kinesiologist told him before the test about what would happen for the $105 price: "Typically we would tell a participant that a VO2 max test will take in the range of 10-15 minutes of actual running time, however since we are doing yours combined with a lactate threshold it will extend the test slightly maybe by 5-10 minutes max. We have to make the stages long enough in the beginning to make sure we get a plateau in your physiological variables with each stage until you cross LT. You will start out with a brief warm-up and then the test will begin. Every so many minutes we will increase your work rate through a change in speed, grade or a combination of the two. The test termination will be determined by you. The goal for you is to go for as long as you physically can in an attempt to get a true VO2 max value. During the test we will be monitoring your respiratory values (you will be hooked up to a mouthpiece on a metabolic gas cart for this), Heart rate, taking blood samples (until you cross LT and at the very end), using a subjective measure called RPE, and potentially blood pressure (as long as it doesn't hinder your ability to run). Treating the test like a race is probably a good way of thinking of it, you will start out slower and then ramp up the the finish."

Use a short-cut formula, such as the most often quoted 220 minus your age or the seemingly more accurate 205 - (.5 x your age), which is used by Runner's World. However, if you are in good aerobic shape and especially if you are older like me, the results may be misleading. The first formula would give me a maximum heart rate of only 152 - which for me is patently ridiculous - and the second would give me an MHR of 171, again too low, at least in my case. Based on multiple measurements using the technique described below, my most recent estimate for my MHR is about 190.

Run a track workout. At a time when you are not fatigued and are feeling good, warm up, run a hard 400 meter lap, jog 200 meters, run a second 400 meter lap, jog for 200 meters, and then run an all-out 400 meter lap. What your heart rate monitor shows during and especially at the conclusion of the last lap will be a good approximation of your maximum heart rate. (If you are not wearing a heart rate monitor, right after you cross the finish line you will need to stop dead in your tracks and take your pulse at your neck or wrist - count the heart beats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4).

When you have your MHR, computing your heart rates zones is easy. Here are my zones, with an MHR of 190:

Z1 Up to 124

Z2 125-143

Z3 144-161 (which means my lactate threshold should be around 161)

Z4 162-181

Z5 182 and above

A final note: I track my "time in zone" for each workout (in my case now estimated because I am not wearing a monitor). This is useful both for assessing the results of each workout and also for monitoring how hard I am working over time and how my fitness is progressing.