Should I wear my women’s heart rate monitor while racing?

April 21st, 2010 -- Posted in Running Program, Womens Heart Rate Monitor | Comments Off

The glib answer to the question would be “Sure, if you want to!“. It is certainly not against any rules to wear your heart rate monitor during a race. I’ve heard some people describe it as “cheating“, but frankly this is ridiculous view. A heart rate monitor cannot and does not enhance your performance, it simply monitors your heart rate. If it really was an unfair advantage, then you would surely have to extend the argument and ban the advantage from training too?

So, given that there is no reason why you cannot wear the monitor, let’s consider the pro’s and con’s of wearing it during a race.

Advantages

  • Monitoring your heart rate can ensure that you do not start off at an excessively fast pace. Running just ten percent too fast can destroy a marathon attempt. How would you know that you are working a little too hard without some form of monitoring?

  • During the race it can help you to maintain an even effort. You could adjust your pace on uphills and downhills to maintain a consistent heart rate.

  • You can improve your chances of finishing a long race by controlling your effort, rather than trusting your instincts on the day.

  • You can review what went right/wrong in the race afterwards, which can help improve future training plans. Did you finish strongly? Did you really maintain an even effort throughout the race?

  • Your pace will be adjusted to compensate for environmental factors and the topography of an unknown course. The weather and temperature can have a profound effect on your heart rate.

Disadvantages

  • While the monitor strap may be comfortable enough for a short race, it could lead to chafing and soreness during longer runs. It would be wise to wear the chest strap during your training runs to ensure that you will not have any surprises in your target race.

  • You could become a slave to the monitor. You could spend more time looking at your watch than enjoying the experience of racing.

  • Your heart rate during competition will be affected by race-day nerves and excitement. This should settle more in a longer race.

Assuming you decide to wear your heart rate monitor in a race, then what heart rate should you be aiming for? If you have been following my other articles on heart rate monitor training, then you will run your recovery runs under 70% MHR. This is so that you can run daily and maintain your glycogen levels for harder training, and of course to be prepared for a target race. Now that you are about to run the race, then you will run at a faster pace. The maximum target heart rate would depend on the race distance and your running experience.

A very short race of up to a mile could be run at 98% MHR. However, a more realistic marathon target would be 75% MHR – just a little faster than your typical recovery run. In fact, for a first time marathon it would probably be wise to keep to your recovery rate (70% MHR) until you have covered around 20 miles, then consider increasing pace for the end of the marathon. This way you would be more likely to finish the race with a smile! For races of other distances, the heart rate should unsurprisingly fall between these extremes. Say 80% MHR for a half-marathon, 85% MHR for a 10K and 90% MHR for a 5K.

In spite of wearing a monitor, it is easy to make the mistake of believing that you can run at a higher heart rate than you have planned. You may feel great during the early miles and convince yourself that a “few beats” faster heart rate will not matter. Unfortunately, I know from experience that payback is likely in the latter stages of the race. I have struggled during the last miles of a number of races where I have simply set out too fast because I felt good. Believe me, it is more enjoyable to finish strongly than to finish slowly! It is no coincidence that I subsequently run a course faster overall when I consciously slow down in the early miles. It is fun to sprint past people who are crawling to the finish line, it is not so much fun to end a race like a zombie.

Having finished the race, you can use the experience to adjust what you do in a future race. For example, if you finished a marathon feeling great having maintained a 70% MHR, then perhaps you could consider running closer to 75%MHR in your next effort.

 

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