Learning to Love the Heart Monitorby Kirt West I thought it might be helpful to share my personal introduction to heart monitor training. In my years of coaching, I have found that many runners have a similar experience. All of us started running personal bests in distances from the 5K to the marathon once we started using a heart monitor. Frank Shorter's gold medal performance in the 1972 Olympics inspired me to take up running. Back then, I had no idea how to train so I used the only model that I knew-what my high school football and basketball coaches put me through. Every workout had to be intense and painful. I always timed my training runs and recorded them in my running log. Each day I tried to run faster. When I went to the track for speed work, I ran each interval all out, often to a state of exhaustion where I could not complete the workout. During training for my first few marathons, I ran all long runs as hard as possible. I often collapsed on my couch in the afternoon and was usually so stiff and sore that I could not run for the next day or two. Needless to say, I was disappointed to discover that when I raced, runners who were always behind me in club training runs finished ahead of me. Junking the No Pain No Gain Approach Fortunately, unlike old dogs, old runners can learn new tricks. After two decades of relatively poor race times, I needed to alter my training approach of hammering every workout. It was about 10 years ago that I first encountered the effort-based training philosophy of Coach Roy Benson. It is a deceptively simple concept. Most training runs should be at a very easy effort to allow for recovery from the one or two days a week of hard anaerobic threshold training. Fortunately for me, at about the time I decided to try effort-based training, I won a heart monitor and an hour's consultation with Coach Benson at an RRCA Convention auction. I had made the decision to strap on a heart monitor, but I did not fully appreciate that a new world of running was about to open up for me. At first, it was hard to train with a monitor. I complained to Coach Benson, just as the runners I now coach do with me, that my training pace was too slow-I was running nearly a minute per mile slower on my easy days. It felt awkward at first to run at this pace. My training partners made fun of me because of this newfangled device strapped on my chest. They questioned how I could get faster by slowing down. However, I kept the faith and honored the beeper on the monitor by slowing down when I exceeded my target heart rate. When they picked up the pace, I had to drop back and run with other folks. But after a few weeks I began to notice a curious thing happening. I started feeling a lot better. I had more spring in my legs. I stopped worrying about the pace of my training runs and, instead, concentrated on staying in my training zones. This helped me to get in tune with my body. I trained slower in the summer because I no longer felt compelled to run at a certain pace. A 12-mile training run had become a piece of cake and I could even do yard work later in the day. Amazingly, I could run the next day even after an 18-20 mile marathon training run. I no longer hammered my track workouts. Instead, I ran my mile repeats at 80-85% effort instead of by pace. While my mile times were slower, I was able to jog after running a mile on the track instead of doubling over out of breath with hands on hips. I also completed my workouts with regularity. Through my coach, I learned that controlled speed workouts are far more productive than running at reckless abandon. Keeping the Faith Results in Personal Bests Within months, I was rewarded for putting my faith in Benson's heart monitor training philosophy. That year, while in my mid-40s, I ran personal bests in the 5K, 10K, 10 miler and marathon, beating my pb that I had run some 8-10 years before. I knocked a minute off my 10K time, finally running sub-40 minutes. My marathon time dropped more than 5 minutes to 3:11. Running became fun again. Since that encounter with Coach Benson, I continue to train with a heart monitor and was still able to run a sub-40 10K at the age of 50. Next year, when I turn 55, I plan to pick up my training and expect that my trusty heart monitor will help me zero in on another sub-40 effort. The positive experience I received from training with a heart monitor led me to coaching. I wanted to share the secret of effort-based training. In the past several years, I have helped many runners duplicate this experience. At first they have doubts about the monitor. They complain about running too slow. Their friends question why they are doing it. But once the results start to show, their friends are the next ones to sign up for their own heart rate monitor. Perhaps now is the time for you to try one. ______________________
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