New to Training with a Heart Rate Monitor?
By Rich Strauss

This article was written in response to someone who was confused about what her heart rate monitor was telling her. In other words, she felt fine while running, but the hrm told her she was working too hard.

I think a heart rate monitor serves two good functions:

1. It can keep you from training too "hard." This is especially valuable in your easy, base building periods. The confusion you are having is probably with something telling you that "all along you have been training too hard." This may or may not be the case, but its disconcerting to have this little freakin' watch telling you have been screwed up all of this time. This has the side benefit of reducing the risk of injury.
   
2. It can help with pacing in long races, keeping you under a certain heart rate and preventing you from going out too hard.

But it also has the potential, when used alone, to keep you from working "hard enough." This is because your heart rate can be elevated by any number of factors. This is what you are doing right. You are comparing how hard your hrm "says" you are working with how hard you "feel" you are working.

In the short term, this is exactly what you should be doing. Combine the two methods (hrm and perceived exertion) and learn what feels right for you. In the long term, invest some time in learning how to train with the little beeping watch. Joe Friel's "Triathlete's Training Bible" offers some excellent discussions on heart rate training. I've written an article to supplement your reading: http://www.cruciblefitness.com/tips/zones.htm

BUT (and this is a big 44" BUTT), an HRM is not a magic tool. You still need to apply some commonsense by auditing what it is telling you with how you feel.

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