Running heart rate monitor
 

I wanted to focus on one health concern I have discussed in http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ion-26830.html and elsewhere. I have run four times in the last six days and have not yet run two miles without walking. My third heart rate monitor finally measures my heart rate when I am running.

For my route, I run 0.8 miles south, turn around, run one mile north, turn around, and run 0.2 miles back to my starting point. My runs improved Monday and Tuesday, but today when I hit my turnaround point, my heart rate was at 99%, and while I could continue to push myself, I could not push myself for half again further than I just ran, so I walked until my heart rate dropped to 90%, and I guess that you can say I pulsed and glided.

ACE Fit | Heart Rate Zone Calculator

156 - 172 bpm is 85 - 93%

BMI Calculator: Measure Metabolism, Target Heart Rate and Belly Fat says that my high-intensity target heart rate is 148-157, 80-85%.

So, never ever ever run again, just walk, because that is my walking rate!

How do you know your heart rate was 99% and 90%?

What are your maximum and minimum heart rates?

John, my heart rate monitor gives me my rate and percentage. Maximum and minimum heart rates? My target ranges? As far as I know, that is what I included in my first post.

You need to know your maximum and minimum heart rates, to calculate your heart rate reserve, then you can calculate the various percentages of effort. I seriously doubt you have been running at maximum, and 90% is a serious effort, not a recovery rate.

Maximum is what you get after warming up well, then running at increasing effort up a hill for 20 minutes or so. Minimum is the lowest rate that you get at rest, for example at night or the first thing in the morning. The heart rate reserve is the distance between them.

If your maximum is 180 and your minimum is 40, then your heart rate reserve is 140. A moderate effort is 70% of this, i.e. [ .70 x 140 ] + 40 = 98 + 40 = 138 = 70%. An easy effort is 50 to 60%, a heart rate of 110 to 124, depending on your max and minimum rates.

Most useful training for the heart is done at a 50 to 70% rate.

Heart rates depend on a lot of factors, most notably physical ability and age. Im pretty far out of shape and I just started exercising regularly. My heart rate resting is 60bpm, 140-165 while exercising, and max would be about 175-180 before I feel like im going to pass out or get sick.

Well, when I exceed 190, I soon slow to a walk. I just climbed into bed, counted to sixty, and looked at my monitor, about 70 bpm, 38%.

When I push myself as hard as I can, I definitely feel sick, but I only threw up once, and the chocolate cake deserved it!

Based on your range of 60 to 180, 140-165 is 67 to 88 percent.

190 is quite high but not unusual. Your minimum is probably lower. I usually zombie out when checking my minimum, barely breathing a few minutes, checking, then repeating. My lowest was 34 a few times in college, and 44 when running marathons later on, in the latter case with much better endurance.

P.S. I also think of P&Ging when running. :)

I signed up at a gym yesterday. It was $29 for the startup and $15 for the first month. It will be another $29 to cancel, which I think is absurd. Hopefully, I can get them to suspend my account, so I could return without paying too much, but I doubt it.

It was a 1.9-mile bike ride there. Running on a treadmill is demotivating, but still easier than running for real. I do not listen to music when I run because I will not on my PT test, but I never run as fast on my own.

My second heart rate monitor came with a chest belt. The third came with a belt and a watch that displays my heart rate and time, but the second had an .mp3 player, and was supposed to periodically say my heart rate over my music.

Except, it did not come with the belt, just the sensor. I planned on using it when I found it, but the gym plays music. The treadmill also picks up my heart rate monitor, so I put my watch and glasses in the cup holder.

I have read that setting the incline to about 2.5% is comparable to real running. I just left it level, but planned on setting it to 1% today, 2% on Monday, etc. I need to run two miles in 17:42, about 6.78 MPH. I think that I set the treadmill for 6.8. I hit 100% maximum heart rate at 1.3 miles and was at 101% when I finished.

It does not count because it was on a treadmill, but I finally ran fast enough.

Hopefully most of my difficulties were from the heat and humidity, but I finally have a primary care provider through the VA, so hopefully I can finally figure out if I have medical issues.

Is your plan to just run two miles at a time while training, or is that just your starting point because of how far the PT test is? I personally feel that it is better to run more than 2 miles for workouts so the PT test feels easy in comparison. It may be helpful to do sprints and longer, slower runs some days to build up different areas.

Vskid, I was running 4.4 miles up and down hills at 6,000 feet, but I focused on the first two miles. I stayed down here due to some bad drama and did not run for a few weeks. Somehow, I ran the two miles faster up and down hills at 6,000 feet than I could at 1,200 feet, even when I was able to run at 7am, when the weather was reasonable.

I tend to focus on running the few months before a PT test and then slack off afterward, but before I started at two miles, and increased by a quarter mile a week. Once I run fast enough, I want to run further, but I do not want to slow down very much at any part, because the slower that I jog, the more that my knees hurt.

The other day, I set my alarm for 6am, but could not fall asleep until 3am, so I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. When I woke up, I thought it was too warm to go running, so I decided to walk. My heart rate hit 76% (141) at 0.8 miles and was at 88% (163) at two miles. I decided to walk two more, and it hit 96% (178) just before I completed the fourth mile.

I walked four miles in about fifty minutes.

As I mentioned, I ran two miles in 17:39 on a treadmill; my heartrate hit 100% (185) at 1.3 miles and was at 101% (187) when I finished. I rode my bike 1.9 miles each way.

A little cooler, but higher humidity causing an issue? Not that I was ever that much of a runner, but I always hated the swampy days. soak your shirt, and get none of the cooling, seems like those days left me huffin n puffin a lot more than hotter dry days

I definitely feel like I have difficulty breathing in humidity. Sometimes even in particularly-steamy showers. I tried looking into it, but everything says "hot and humid." No, I can breathe when it is hot, just when it is humid.

Hopefully soon I can talk to a doctor about Pectus excavatum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which cannot help.

I agree to go faster (target pace) some days, and easier/longer the other days. This is pulsing and gliding (recovering). Otherwise you're going WOT every day and not having any time for recovery.

That doesn't make any sense, because slower running should be easier on your legs. Knee problems in runners are caused 99% of the time by either crowned roads or motion control shoes, i.e. shoes with rigid shapes and bottoms that don't allow your feet and knees to rotate with the surface. Many shoes have wide flares and built up heels, that cause havoc with the knees. I grind them off of my shoes and make them streamlined, like aeroshoes.

Your heart rate is not a big deal, but it's not going to 101% and you're not calculating the percentages correctly. Personally I'd go as long as possible one day, at up to 90%, then 50 to 70% for a couple of days (pulse and glide), then repeat. The longer and harder the pulse, the longer the glide (more recovery days). For example doing a marathon full out at max, would take about 3 weeks to recover, (with suitable gradually increasing pulses in between). You're only training for 2 miles though, so the pulses can be more frequent. The key is to balance the faster (target speed) running with recovery (at 50% to no more than 70% effort). At least make them half and half.

Let's say your maximum HR is 190 and your minimum is 70. I doubt that 190 is your maximum though, because you're running full out every day, and not running that far.
141 = [ 141 - 70 ] / [ 190 / 70 ] = 59%
163 = [ 163 - 70 ] / [ 190 / 70 ] = 78%
187 = [ 187 - 70 ] / [ 190 / 70 ] = 98%

The minimum HR is at 0% of your heart rate reserve.

70 = [ 70 - 70 ] [ 190 / 70 ] = 0 / 120 = 0%

You mentioned not falling asleep until 3am and having to get up at 6. How much sleep do you get regularly? How's your diet? These two factors influence athletic performance as much as training. In order to respond to stress (which is all exercise is, albeit carefully applied stress), you must have adequate recovery.

Vman, I turned off my alarm and slept until at least ten. I had a similar difficulty last night, even though I took Zzzquil and melatonin, but it seemed to be partially because I have had a sore throat. I drank a quart of orange juice last night and my throat felt better, but I think that I had additional difficulty sleeping because of my sore throat, and I could not get any good sleep until I dehydrated somewhat.

I usually eat half a box of Kashi for breakfast with skim milk and then eat chicken and vegetables for lunch and dinner. It is probably at least half a pound of chicken that I cook in my Foreman-style grill, and then cook in a crock pot with an equal amount of vegetables. I put some steak seasoning and 2% cheese on it and call it delicious.

I understand this says "Average," but this is the best information available.
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1411342688
Target Heart Rates, American Heart Association

The radio was out when I went to the gym. I decided to do one of the treadmill's programs, so it would not be the monotony of me running at the same speed the entire time. Fitness test sounded interesting, but it was the VO2 sub-max, because apparently the VO2 max can lead to unfit people dying, so they have a weaker version that is not supposed to kill anyone.

I scored 53.8. The treadmill told me that it was "superior," which was small consolation. It maintained the same pace, but increased the inclination from zero to twelve degrees, and said that it would end the test when I sustained 150 bpm for sixty seconds.

That is 80% of my maximum heart rate, what I consider to be barely warming up.

I think that I finished at 145, so presumably a real athlete could complete it at 130 or something.

According to Wikipedia:
and VO2 max - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, 53.8 is 34.3% between 37.5 and 85.

So, I am 34.3% trained?

The world record two-mile run is 7:58.61 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_miles]

You are starting with bad information. Maximum heart rate cannot be calculated from a formula because everybody is different. There is no such thing as a heart rate over 100%.

The most popular formula for estimating maximum heart rate is 220 - age. That formula would predict my maximum heart rate to be 220 - 62 = 158. My actual maximum heart rate is about 180. I hit 166 this morning during a tempo run. A tempo run is hard, but nowhere near flat out. I hit a peak heart rate of 177 at the end of a 5k a few years ago.

If you need to pass a PT test by running two miles at a certain speed, you should be training at a speed about two minutes per mile slower than that. Your goal is two miles at 8:51 minutes per mile, so your training runs should be at about 11 minutes per mile. Get your training run distance up to at least three miles, and do that at least five days per week. Six days per week is even better. Then gradually speed up to ten minutes per mile.

Get rid of the heart rate monitor and run by effort. Hard enough to work up a sweat and easy enough to talk in full sentences.

No, JRMichler, I definitely give 110%, and the majority of drivers drive better than average.

So, train a longer distance at a slower speed? How does that help?

The reason that I bought a heart rate monitor is because I have been struggling with running since I came home from Active Duty and I have been trying to figure out why. Even when I run a few times a week for a couple of months, I do not see improvement. We always talk about instrumentation with fuel economy, I wanted to see what is going on.

I often feel like I have difficulty maintaining energy levels and maybe I do, but it seems like I am working my heart as hard as I can, and perhaps it is my limiting factor.

Training for running is very counterintuitive.

Greatly oversimplifying: Running fast builds strength and teaches your body to burn glycogen. Running slow builds endurance and teaches your body to burn fat. Running slow builds capillaries and mitochondria.

Racing distances less than about 400 meters requires speed. Racing distances over about 400 meters requires more endurance than speed.

If you run with a good (cheap ones are worthless) pulse oximeter, you will find that your blood oxygen stays about the same no matter how hard you run. Your blood will have the same oxygen level even when you are running as hard as possible, gasping for breath, and feeling like you are strangling for lack of air. That's because your lungs are fully doing their job of getting oxygen into your blood, and CO2 out. But your capillaries and mitochondria are not up to getting that oxygen into your muscles. And it's your muscles that are screaming for oxygen.

Running slow, defined as being able to speak full sentences without straining, builds capillaries and mitochondria. Running fast does not.

A good forum for running is: www.runningahead.com/forums. You will find it worthwhile to surf there.

Of course, the only proper way to run is while calling cadence.

I will be back after annoying the good people of a foreign forum.

How was your diet when you were active duty? I know that the healthiest I ever ate was in basic and AIT. Your current diet doesn't sound bad, but you could use more variety if that's what you eat every day.

I feel like you're over-complicating the issue with using the heart rate monitor. I made pretty good gains in my run time while in basic and I don't remember any of the drill sergeants having us check our heart rates. ;)

I probably made the best gains of my life while in Basic. Running used to feel like it was going to kill me, but I got past that in boot camp.

I do not believe that anyone really talked about heart rate outside of Combat Life Saver, and that was just whether you had one or not.

However, the more that I ran, the more improvement that I saw, which has not seemed to be the case since I came home.

Diet while Active Duty? MREs? :)

Actually, I might eat more healthy now. I was hungry throughout Basic, but I needed to lose weight, and I put on some good muscle. At Advanced Individual Training, I still could not get enough food, but there was a large supply of desserts, so I quickly gained weight. In Germany, I would get omelets with ham, cheese, green peppers, and mushrooms every single morning. I know that some people say that it is actually more healthy to eat whole eggs, but I always asked for egg whites when they were available. People say they eat bacon and sausage for the protein, but they have so much fat that I do not eat them.

Then I ate French toast, if available, without syrup, but with fruit, if they had it. Then I would have a couple of glasses of milk or juice.

Lunch and dinner were more frustrating, though. There were days where everything was fried and everybody was excited about it but me. Our vegetarian Soldier at Church complained about the cooks putting bacon in our green beans. I did not like it, either, or fried vegetables, it just seemed counterintuitive. I often asked for two servings of vegetables and sometimes they acted like I was attempting treason.

Everything was different while I was deployed. At Kandahar Air Field, before I left, chow was bad for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I hated eating. What should have been a highlight of my day was just something else that was depressing. Then they sent me to F.O.B. Lagman and food was good, when I was there for it. Also, they usually served me whatever I wanted, so if I wanted two meat or three vegetables, they complied, although they still catered to the masses, so sometimes I did not feel that I had healthy options.

No, I do not have much variety in my diet.

Something my daughter is learning right now at Parris Island.

I wish her luck!

Okay, I know everyone has been dying to know how my PT test went!
 

Or completely forgot and never cared in the first place. You know, one of the two!

I just followed up with http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...r-d-30277.html, but if you have not read it, please do not worry about it, which I really do not consider to be in the realm of possibilities.

I set a personal record of fifty-six push-ups, scoring 81/100, did 79 sit-ups, 76 was 100/100, the other three did not count, and I barely passed the run. I was still tired from the push-ups when I did my sit-ups and I was exhausted when I started running!

They changed Army standards just before our last PT test, so our two female Warrant Officers showed up with pony tails. I guess they changed more than that, the last time that I saw one female Soldier she had short hair, but now she has full dreadlocks, so long that she folds them over and they look huge behind her head.

I do not know where the younger Chief was (they were both recently promoted), but the older one tried to keep up with me. I think that she was the slowest runner, but she also may have been the oldest. Everybody wants to start out as far forward as possible, as if it gave them some advantage worth mentioning. Then they take off like in "Hidalgo," faster than they can maintain, and I spend the entire run passing Soldiers. The one with dreadlocks was ahead of me for a very long time. She tried keeping up, but just couldn't. Yay, she still probably had a much better score because men and women are held to different standards for push-ups and running.

It was weird, before the last test our Lieutenant told us that she ran in 16:30 or something and I just wanted to keep her in sight. However, we both ran much faster than that. She also did more push-ups, fifty-five to my forty-seven, but I do not think that she did very well this time. I passed her before too long.

It was weird because I felt so tired after push-ups that I sat down until sit-ups and again until the run. When I finished the two miles, I felt like I was going to collapse and vomit, but I turned around and found our mouthy Private that apparently had an asthma attack. I brought him in, went back, found one of our female Soldiers that probably resented me running with her, and then I went and found our walking Sergeant. That was nice, he needed to walk 2.5 miles in thirty-five minutes or something, that is a little faster than I normally walk, but I was able to keep up without too much effort.

I doubt they appreciated that, either.

I debated wearing my heart rate monitor. If I wore it and failed by a small margin I would feel that the constrictive band had impaired me, but I wanted data. I hit 100% maximum heart rate after about two-thirds of a mile. I did not run very quickly, but it was interesting to look at my watch and think "I am giving 103%!"

I gave myself a week off to eat normal food and not exercise. Unfortunately, I have not exercised this week, either.

When I start up, I think that I will just run intervals.

You are a fast walker! But your heart rate is very high for that walking speed. If you truly want to do well on the running portion of your PFT, you need to build your aerobic base. A good way to do this is to do more walking and slow running. Do most of your training at less than 140 BPM, and keep your peak heart rate under 150, at least for the next several months. Try to get out and walk or run 3 or 4 miles every day, or at least 5 or 6 days per week.

I have not done a PFT run since I was in the Air Force in the mid 1970's. I did run a 5k 2 or 3 years ago. Went out too fast and did the first 2 miles in 13:30. Not too bad for 60 years old. All of my training before that race was at 9:30 to 11:00 minutes per mile, with most runs at about 10 minutes per mile.

Under 140 BPM?! I want a second opinion!

No sprints or faster running at all? I do the 2 mile on my PT test in about 14:30. Most of my training is usually done at a 7:30 to 8:00 mile pace for 3-5 miles and some sprinting. Would I likely benefit from running slower during training? That goes against my logic and the Army's logic, but we all know how good the Army's logic can be. ;)

Don't you dare try to criticize Army logic to Army leadership, you are going to have a bad time!

I agree with this.

Impressive!

The military, all branches, is very much about pushing yourself. That, and sleep deprivation. Pushing yourself to physical exhaustion works well for strength training. It does not work for endurance training.

Running any distance longer than 400 meters or so is endurance running. Professional running coaches normally recommend that most training be done at 2 to 3 minutes per mile slower than 5K race pace. Your recommended normal training pace would thus be about 10 minutes per mile.

This training is best done about six days per week, and 3 to 5 miles each time. It's good to go longer on one day, say about 6 to 10 miles. It's good to go faster on ONE day, say do the last 2 to 3 miles at a hard pace. Hard means breathing hard, but well short of flat out. This is training, not racing.

I normally run six days per week from January through September. Most days are 4 to 5 miles, one day is 12 to 20 miles, one day is 11.5 miles with the last 3 miles hard. Those last 3 miles are usually 8:00 to 8:20 minutes per mile.

A flat out, holding nothing back, run once a month does not hurt. 5K races are good for this.

My concern was that if I did not pass the run, telling my Sergeant that some guy on the Internet told me to train slower would not go very well.

I am going to walk to the dollar store for another pool noodle for my air dam. We will see if I can keep my heart rate below 140 BPM. I am going to stop at the library to see if I can get some audiobooks for my cell phone. Actually, I think that I will take a magazine...

In a 10 mile race about 15 years ago, my heart rate was 152 after a mile, gradually increasing to a maximum of 174 the entire last mile, running flat out all the way. I would imagine it hardly gets above 120 when walking and hiking a good pace.

Allowing for individual differences, that your heart rate is so high just from walking shows that you greatly need that type of exercise. The more you walk, the lower your rate at a given pace, and the greater the reserve you will have for running much faster.

This is not training for your race, but support for your race. You can still do your regular race type of training once or twice a week, and can benefit from having the greater support for your speed.

Well, the dollar store did not have pool noodles and neither did Walmart next door. The temperatures have still been in the nineties, but people seem to think that is cold, so pool noodles must be seasonal, although that is a smaller Walmart. I think that my nephews have more toys. It was 2.8 miles each way, which I walked in about forty minutes, continually slowing down because my heart rate exceeded 140 BPM.

However, I would not say the trip was a total loss:http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1415064702

That's a little over 14 minutes per mile. I walk the same speed at a heart rate about 90. Do that every day for a month or three, and your heart rate will drop noticeably.

A healthy young man in his 20's or 30's should be able to run two miles in 12 minutes. That's with moderate training, the time would be faster if he was serious about it.

We do not have many Soldiers of any age running two miles in twelve minutes.