Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all enjoy­ing your weekend!

Today I would like to chat about trai­ing within spe­cific heart rate zones. I recently pur­chased a mon­tior and have found it be a fan­tas­tic train­ing tool. I never really paid much atten­tion to my heart rate unless it seemed unusu­ally high or low, at which time I would typ­i­cally slow down or speed up accord­ingly. But with a mon­i­tor, you will learn how to train in a more dis­ci­plined, effi­cient manner.

Dur­ing the win­ter sea­son, I focus on base build­ing or build­ing my aer­o­bic capac­ity. For the most part, this means train­ing in zone 3 or at medium inten­sity. I like to think of this train­ing zone as “sus­tain­able dis­com­fort” or “com­fort­ably hard”. In terms of your heart rate, zone 3 is typ­i­cally betweem 75%-85% MHR.

I think the hard­est part about train­ing with a mon­i­tor is main­tain­ing the dis­ci­pline to stay within the zone and not go over/​under. Remem­ber, this is the time of year when we need to work on our endurance, not focus on anaer­o­bic or inter­val work. I like to throw in a few short sprints every now and again but for the most part, I like to keep my heart rate consistent.

Here’s a good link for those of you who aren’t sure what your MHR is. Keep me in mind, these are approx­i­mate cal­cu­la­tions, and there are vari­ances. I think equa­tion 6 is the most accurate.

Here’s to trai­ing smart!

http://​www​.digi​fit​.com/​h​e​a​r​t​r​a​t​e​z​o​n​e​s​/​m​a​x​i​m​u​m​-​h​e​a​r​t​-​r​a​t​e​.​a​s​p​?​A​g​e​=​4​6​#​t​a​b​l​e