Why HR is Good, but not Great
Friday, January 18, 2008 at 7:39PM One important thing I learned last year is that HR is not an ideal method for measuring performance. Many things can mess up your HR. Here's a short list of the usual suspects:
- Dehydration - usually lowers it
- Caffeine - raises it
- Lack of sleep
- Food
- Anxiety
- Time of day
- Weather
- Unexplained
I decided to write this post specifically because of today's run. Instead of starting at 5:30 AM, I started at 3:45 PM in the freezing rain and after drinking a 16 oz diet Coke. Check this craziness out. (You can click on it to get the full size image)
After running for 15 minutes with my HR more than 30 BPM higher than it should be, I said "F-this!" and walked for about 30 seconds and adjusted my shoes. Look what happened afterwards. The short break dropped my HR by a massive amount and let me settle into my run.
I've got an email into Suunto to try to figure out how view just the data after I took a split at 30 minutes. It was in the low 120s again, but I can't figure out how to calculate exactly how much. My watch seems to be taking splits at random intervals along with the one I did by hand. Weird.
Just for kicks, I thought I'd include a picture I found of my bike at mile 56 when I did my second self-supported Ironman in 2005. Look for the MP3 player stuck to the Bento box along with heavy gloves resting on the handlebars. I recall that the temperature was between 33 and 42 degrees that whole day. That was living life on the edge!
For an extra special treat, BIKE PORN! Check out this photo stream in flickr of a guy that takes pix of women riding around in everyday clothes in Amsterdam. I suggest checking it out in Slideshow Mode.
Reader Comments (3)
Yeah... well what if I'm an anxious, sleep-deprived, bullimic on a 6 day coffee bend er running in a human-sized oven at 4:53 pm on the 3rd Tuesday of the month?
That oughta REALLY jack my HR monitor up!
Breathe...
I have been keeping much better track of my heartrate this year as I am building up the endurance. It seems to me that HR is a good way to monitor if you look at the big picture but can sort of fall apart if you depend on it alone. I find that the freezing cold (sub zero) temps around here lately tend to increase my effort/HR. I guess that is good news for spring!
Rob, you find me a human sized oven and I'll find you a human sized cake to put in it.
KT - an interesting thing is that you also burn extra calories when working out in the cold. Because your body is trying to keep warm. I wonder if HR increases because of that.