I’d lent Marie my heart rate monitor over the summer, particularly so we could monitor how hard she was working during cycling workouts in an effort to match what she did when she ran. I’d picked it up when she returned to Purdue and had thrown it on the front seat of my car. I saw it there as I climbed out to do my run and decided to strap it on to see how hard I was working. I was under the impression that while running, my heart rate stayed in the 140’s, which for me was a medium hard effort. On a bike, it seems to hover in the low 130’s. I have always had a lower exercising heart rate and don’t know what to attribute that to. I tend to think that I’m not pushing as hard as I’m capable of, but it could just be a genetic tendency. My age predicted maximum is 163 (220 minus my age) and I should exercise aerobically at about 85% of that number during a medium hard workout. That would equate to a heart rate around 140 bpm.
I started my run on my favorite 30-minute loop course. It’s almost entirely on hiking paths, some rather obscure and seldom used and teeming with wildlife. It’s rolling, scenic and challenging…the best kind of course you can pick. I paid close attention to the heart rate monitor…my watch receiving a signal from a strap wrapped around my chest…and watched it climb from rest at 52 to 140 in a matter of 3 minutes. I was running pretty easily, so I was surprised it went up that high so quickly. It was reacting like an unconditioned runner’s might, and since I’ve run so little since the knee surgery over two months ago, that would be me.
The first mile of the course is a gradual uphill and my heart rate reflected the effort, rising to 150 after 7 minutes. I didn’t feel uncomfortable…the most important gauge any experienced runner has, heart monitor be damned…so I continued at that pace.
I have multiple check points on this run and found that I was running a very good pace for what I considered to be poor conditioning. As I neared the end however, I found that my heart rate had topped 160…supposedly my maximum but since I was not in any distress, clearly not. I finished the course in 27 minutes, close to my pr for it, and ran 3 minutes further to make my 30 minutes.
My knee felt normal throughout the run and the run itself felt how I would have expect it to…pretty hard for being close to my fastest. Two things surprised me. First, I was running at a higher heart rate than I’d thought and second, I hadn’t lost much speed during the two months of almost zero running. The second is strange except that I may have been working harder to do it, thus the higher heart rate.
Heart rate monitors are fun and I kept it on afterwards to get a gauge on how high it went as I cooled down and during activities I was performing around the house later. At rest, I’m around 50 bpm, so anything higher is an indicator that I’m burning extra calories. After cleaning up, I worked on my shed doors and did some painting on the shed and windows. My heart rate was in the 70’s for most of this time. Later that night I walked for an hour in the park with Holly during which it went up into the 90’s when we were climbing hills and dropped back to the low 80’s on the level sections. Interestingly, if I would do the same pace in the neighborhood on the sidewalks, I find that I’m working considerably easier with a heart rate in the mid to high 70’s. The park offers terrain changes and irregular walking surfaces and both contribute to more effort and more calories burned for the same distance as covered on sidewalks.
You don’t need a heart rate monitor to check on your progress. This information can be gathered pretty easily if you wear a watch and check your pulse for ten seconds during your exercise routine. Multiply that number by 6, and you have your heart rate. It certainly helps though, and they aren’t that expensive. I know they get me to work harder…kind of like having a coach or a conscience with you every step of the way making sure you’re doing what you should. Consider it, at least.
Run Duration: 30 minutes. Hike Duration: 65 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 155 running and 80 hiking.
Calories burned during workout: 550 running and 350 hiking.
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