Heart Rate Monitoring?

[Kartelli]

Question for the exercise / cardio gurus.

Background - Been working out on and off for roughly 7 years now including martial arts / soccer / weight training.

This winter I've decided to train to run a 10k marathon in May... plenty of time to traing my cardio.

Purchased a heart rate monitor and been trying it for 2 weeks now doing cardio 3x a week.

Training regiment looks like this:
10 minutes brisk walk, at 3.5 mph = heart rate at 135-145 bpm

10 minutes jog at 5.5 mph = heart rate from 160-200 bpm

2 minute cool down, then 20 minutes cross trainer w/ random interval selection (varies resistance) = heart rate at 165-180 bpm

10 minutes of stairs (burn out) = 160-190 bpm


By all traditional standards... I should be in the hospital, running out of breathe, fatigued, etc etc at 200 bpm... yet I don't feel anything more than getting in the comfort zone. My heart rate drops 20+ bpm after 1 minute rest. Mind you I'm wearing a heart rate monitor (chest strap w/ watch).

Whats your thoughts training at this intensity?

[wintonyk]

How old are you... that would be a big question. Sounds like you are probably pretty young if you are getting up to that 190.

This all looks pretty good for boosting your cardio stength. I would do interval runs if I were you. Run 1 min, jog for 2.

I did crossfit for 8 months, and during each workout my heartrate would stay in the 160-180 range for 20-30 sometimes getting close to 200 as well. Kicked my heart into shape bringing my resting rate from 57 to 44.

[Kartelli]

Thanks for the input! I'm 25, 5'10 and 170 pounds. Ideally trying to cut to 160.

Using your regiment you lowered your resting heart rate from 57 to 44 in 8 months!

[wintonyk]

haha yeah... it kicked my ass 5 days per week. I was always in good shape but not to the crossfit extreme. Many days i through up during workouts. The big thing that helped was uncontrolled rests. So my only rest was when my heart rate hit nearly 200 and had to stop let it get to 150ish and then get going again. Breathing technique helps a lot for getting HR lower as well

[98type_r]

i would say shorten the duration of the brisk walk, and tack it onto jogging time. Maybe scale back the intensity of your jogging too, you don't really want to be hitting max HR and getting up around 200bpm.
Are you planning on getting some longer runs in before you do the 10k?

[Kartelli]

^ most definitely!

I'm in month 1 of training, this is the first time I've focused on cardio as primary and weights secondary. The brisk walk is my warmup to get the blood flowing and heart ready for the shit kicking from the rest of the workout haha.

Week 3 is coming up, I really like the idea of interval training, maybe 3 minutes jog to 1 minute cool down, or just monitoring the 150-200 bpm range for 30 minutes at a time.

[98type_r]

do some intervals and then make sure to get out for some longer runs at a lower HR (less than 160) to get accustomed to steady state cardio.