This Is What I Record My Stats With
I had another of my 8km runs today, once again the time I finished it in was pretty similar to my others over this course, 50 minutes, 40 seconds. Remember, I’m really running within myself, trying to keep the heart rate down. This time my average heart rate was 161 beats per minute, this is another 2 beats per minute less than my previous best recording over 50 minutes, which you can see on my running results page.
I use the Polar brand of Heart Rate Monitors to record my info. I’ve only had it for about 6 weeks and found it has added a completely new dimension to my training. For example, in my last 3 runs over the 8km trail, my times were 50:43, 50:17 and 50:40. I’ve gradually felt better each time, however previously I’d have nothing to go by to measure this improvement. Without the monitor, I may even have gotten frustrated that I was feeling better, yet I was not improving on my times.
Now however, I can see that my heart fitness is improving with every run. I can actually quantify what “I felt much better on my run today” means, as I have stats to back it up. I can see quantifiable encouraging improvements in my fitness, which keeps me motivated to get back out on the track tomorrow.
Update: You can get Polar heart rate monitors on sale today, through this link at Amazon
Here is some more info about the Polar brand of monitors:
- As you can monitor your intensity level, you can ensure you achieve the desired goal for each workout. I.e. You increase and decrease intensity to ensure your session goals are met, while you train.
- It calculates the amount of total exercise time you’ve spent in your personal target zone, along with maximum and average heart rate and KCals.
- It comes with a Polar T31 coded transmitter. This is crucial as it prevents interference from other nearby monitors (I.e. as you overtake other runners
)
- It is backed by a 2-year warranty
- It records your training results with its own file system for later review
- If you are considering one of these, you can get a big discount today through this link on Amazon
After today’s run, I feel like I am ready to attack the next challenge. The next challenge is about 10kms. It is basically the same course as the 8km run except, rather than run up the Gold Coast Highway to get to Burleigh, I run through the National Park at the Burleigh Heads bluff. There is an additional challenge with this run as the part through the National Park is actually about a 1km hill climb. It feels like it never ends. I look forward to reporting on this later this week.
PS. Here is another review I found on the Polar Heart Rate Monitor if you are interested:
K A Teets “Cub Fan”
“I’ve had no problems with the receiver picking up my heart rate, or interference from power lines or cars. So, all in all, highly recommended. I think it’s got just the right level of functionality for me, someone who wants to train with a monitor to get a little faster running 5k’s and 10k’s”
I paraphrased this review for size. If you want to read all of it (and others)
click through here
