LondonSkaters Speed Team - Speed Skating & Rollerblading Club in London

malspeedster · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 251 Location: Crossharbour

I am a novice when it come to heart rate monitor.
Would like to get some opinion about what is suitable for a novice, that want to start using HR monitor.

The reason I want to use HR monitor, is to try to pace myself during training/ races, so that I dont burn myself too early (which has happened in a few cases Confused

)

Since this is my first time, hence would prefer to start with something simple, and if it is helpful, then will move up to a better one.
Saying that, I have look at a few popular brands (Garmin, Suunto, Polar), mainly on the internet only.

As I know most of the LSST skaters has used them at some point, can I hear your recommendation/ comments about this subject??

Thx in advance

Barrie · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 1338 Location: Putney

HRM watches with a chest strap are about £15 upwards at decathlon...

I must start putting mine to good use...

ed! · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:53 pm Subject:

As mentioned via PM, be careful when choosing HRM for skating...in so much as that some won't work with your hands behind your back (Garmin, for example).

Good luck in your search. I'm afraid I haven't the patience to pay close enough attention to my HR. It's more a case of "Christ! This is a bit tough, I had better slow down..."

Fred_Paris · Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:20 pm Subject:

There is quite a few brands around, I only used polar HRM so I can't speak of the entire market.

The one thing you must have is an encrypted transmission, otherwise you won't be able to use it around other HRM users which exclude races.

dan_b · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 2417

My cheap decathlon one was unreliable: it had a tendency to climb to 240bpm and stay there. I got a garmin forerunner 50 after that, which has been perfectly OK so far.

I can't say first-hand if it will have a hands-behind-back problem because the only time I ever use it is on the turbo trainer, but it doesn't have sticky-out buttons like the x05 series do so I don't foresee any problem

In races I wouldn't bother: if I have time to look at the HRM and I can still focus on the screen, I'm probably not about to die anyway.

Christophe · Joined: 26 Feb 2004 Posts: 1621

I have a Polar 610 or something which is great, lots of functions. Only negative for me being that to transfer data to the pc I had to get a USB infra-red reader. Other than that it was fine to use and, I hope, rather reliable. Paid £160 second-hand IIRC (at least 5-6 years ago).

Barrie · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 1338 Location: Putney

Fred_Paris · Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:23 am Subject:

I actually have a HRM I don't use anymore it's a Polar S625X, you're more than welcome to try it.

It includes the infrared reader, belt, podometer module, and I am sure I have the CD with the software somewhere.

ed! · Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:05 pm Subject:

So do people actively use HRMs then? If so, how do use it for:
- Training
- Racing (if at all)

All this talk is getting me thinking that maybe I should get back into the habit of using mine to ensure that I'm maximising my efforts when training / racing.

Barrie · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 1338 Location: Putney

I used mine mostly for pacing on my rowing and cycling machines ( basically motivation to keep the cadence up... too easy to tail off when tiring or concentration lapses ).

ed! · Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 12:27 pm Subject:

Hmmm...but looking into a bit more detail, am I right in thinking that based on your max heart rate (something you need to calculate), you can then workout "zones"?

These "zones" could then be used to identify:
- the working rate where you are being lazy
- the optimum working rate for a prolonged period of time
- the rate whereby you are about to collapse if you carry on any longer

Lastly, presumably the more you train, the more you find you can actually push harder whilst maintaining the same HR as per your "zones"?

Sorry, this info is on the net, but I'm lazy and I'm sure there are people on here that love to talk about this sort of thing Smile

dan_b · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 2417

That's about right. But you can't accurately calculate your max hr, you need to measure it, and the only reliable way to do that is by finding out.

(You will see "220-age in years" quoted. I've seen 201 on my hrm before now, and I can assure you I'm not 19 or dead)

Wrt zones, http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm is a good place to start

diego · Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 405 Location: W2

one way to measure your maximum HR is the Conconi test on a bike, but that is difficult to realize unless you have the perfect environmental conditions and accurate measuring systems.

some (usually pretty expensive) turbo trainers would have that and would offer you a realistically precise way to make the test repeatable.

WRT how to use the zones in your training, you can decide to "stay" in a different zone depending on what you are trying to train in that specific session.
that doesn't always mean being lazy if you stay in a lower zone, but you need to carefully plan your training and mix them a bit depending on where your weaknesses are and what you're working on.

it's a vast subject and I don't feel like I've got a good enough understanding to explain it, but you'll find a huge amount of (sometimes contradicting) information on the Web.

Ed, it can be probably adapted to skating, WRT cycling in general the more you train the more your body adapts and the lower your heart rate is going to be whilst you're delivering the same watts (or, the other way around, you can produce more watts at the same HR).
Limits apply due to human nature, of course... Wink

Barrie · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 1338 Location: Putney

From what I've read before, max HR various depending on what you're doing.

e.g. cycling max hr will be lower than running max hr ( which is usually the highest I believe ), I'd guess skating is somewhere in between...

Something to do with amount of muscle/muscles you're using.

So due to both individual and activity variations, any 220-age type generalisations are often not very useful.

You might also want to google recovery heart rate ( as a guide to fitness level, etc. ). Can be mangled in to interval training to do reps when you're recovered sufficiently, rather than after a relatively arbitrary time period.

* by the way the BrianMac website says about "217 - ( age × 0.85 ) [Miller et al (1993)]", assuming this it the report that I read about two years ago, even within their sample they had some quite large individual variations, i.e. this works out the population mean, but the standard deviation was quite large. It looks like both myself and Dan around 7% or more above this.

Fred_Paris · Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 2:53 pm Subject:

HR monitoring is very useful if not critical in measuring the effect of your training and wether you are training too much or too litle, burnout for example can be noticed if you have regular measurements of your trainings,, rest HR etc..

As Barrie mentioned it varies from one sport to another, coming from an athletic background, I can reach my max HR running anytime any day pretty much just because I have the muscles to support that sort of exercise.

Skating I am always strugling reaching my "zones", partly because of my ability to go fast on skates is limited by my technique and muscle structure.