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Article Date: March 1, 2007
By: Ryan O'Brien
The intension of this article is to give you a quick snapshot of endurance training concepts by pooling information from multiple sources and providing a fairly comprehensive but concise training guide orientated towards training with a heart rate monitor (HRM). In no way is this article intended to outline a training schedule for you or to act as a fitness assessment. Please consult your doctor and or a professional fitness trainer to develop a training schedule for your specific needs. Please visit the complete articles for more details. Also note if you cross train regularly you will mostly likely find your HR will vary from one sport to the next. This is likely due to your conditioning to a particular sport versus others, but may also be as a direct result of your own physiology.
I have scoured the internet looking for information on training zones and have come to the conclusion everyone has their own idea of how many zones there are and at what percentage of effort you should do in each zone however, I am going with Wikipedia & Don Russell on this one. The basic concept here is you should break your training down into multiple effort zones and spend a certain amount of your training in each zone in order to gain the most reward for your training efforts.
Training Zones
- Zone 1: Active Recovery or Basic Conditioning
- Easy Conversational Level, advanced althletes use only for reovery
- 85% energy from fat
- 50-60% effort
- Zone 2: Endurance
- Conversational Level
- Long slow distance 1:15+ minutes per session
- 85% energy from fat
- 50% +- of your training time
- 60-70% effort
- Zone 3: Aerobic / Tempo
- Light & Shorter Conversation
- 1 - 1.5 hour sessions, fast tempo, stay in HR zone
- 50% energy from fat
- 25-35% of your training time
- 70-80% effort
- Zone 3.5: Avoid this zone, negative exercise benefit.
- Zone 4: Anaerobic / Lactic Acid Threshold
- Injury is likely without prior proper base training
- Long Intervals: Near Threashold, 10-20 min each, flat to moderate hill, partial recovery between
- 15% energy from fat
- 20-25% of your training time
- 85-90% effort
- Zone 5: Max Effort
- Injury is likely without prior proper base training
- Short Intervals: Max Effort, Sprints 15-30 seconds, VO2Max 2-5 min, full recovery between
- little to no energy from fat
- 1-2% of your training time
- 90-100% effort
Heart Rate
Now that we have the basics down about training zones, let's talk about how we can incorporate heart rate monitoring into our training.
Albeit easy enough to take your pulse before and after exercise, it can be much easier accomplished with the use of a heart rate monitor (HRM), especially during exercise. You can usually pick one of these up at your local bike, running, or general sports fitness store as well as online for anywhere from $30 up. Monitoring your heart is a great indicator of your physical conditioning. If your resting heart rate (see below) is elevated it' s a good indication you are either fatigued, dehydrated, or getting sick. If during exercise you can not get your heart rate up to the number of beats per minute you normally could this is also a good indication of fatigue. Additionally the responsiveness of your HR, or the quicker the response to physical stress like starting up a hill, the better in shape and rested you probably are. There are other factors but these are good indicators.
Ok, let's define a few terms:
- HRrest or resting heart rate
- Your number of heart beats per minute, usually taken just after you wake up in the morning but before any stress has been applied to you physically or mentally, while you are in a calm and relaxed state. This is easily calculated by simply holding your index and middle finger together and applying them to either your wrist or neck where you can feel your pulse and counting the beats or pulses for 15 seconds and then multiplying by 4 to get the number of beats per minute.
- HRmax or maximum heart rate
- The maximum number of heart beats per minute your body can perform. Short of measuring your HR with a HRM during extreme exercise which is not recommend unless performed by your doctor, the general rule of thumb is to calculate this by subtracting your age from 220 (HRmax = 220 - age). It is generally accepted that your HRmax drops 1 beat per minute for every year you get older as part of the aging process. Everyone is different so to really know you need to have this measured, but calculating it via the provided formula will get you in the ballpark.
- THR or target heart rate
- This is the HR range (50-85% intensity) from which your body is provided the most benefit. This forms the basis for the zoned training model.
- Karvonen Method
- The Karvonen Method uses your HRrest and HRmax to calculate your THR and is commonly considered one of the best methods for determining your proper HR exercise zones.
- THR = ((HRmax – HRrest) × %Intensity) + HRrest
Below I have provided a HR calculator to determine your corresponding HR for each of the 5 Training Zones. This calculator is based on the Karvonen Method. Your HR may and will most likely vary from one activity to another by 15 +- beats per minute. If you are tired, dehydrated, of short or tall stature, or otherwise these factors and more can all have an impact on your HR so these numbers are only to be used as a general guide and should be modified with experience to meet your unique physiology.
Source Articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate
http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/freeinfo/training_zones.html
http://www.marathonguide.com/training/articles/HeartMonitorTraining.cfm
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