The use of heart monitors by runners, bikers, and triathletes has exploded over the past few years. However, there has been precious little literature published recently on heart monitor training. Sally Edwards' book is dated. Polar's series of pamphlets on training various for events is quite difficult to find.

Fortunately, Human Kinetics, a name familiar to many of us in the running community, has just published a book Precision Heart Rate Training that provides new and updated information on how to train scientifically with a heart monitor. If you train with a heart monitor, you will find this book extremely helpful. If you do not train with a monitor, you probably will want to do so after reading it. It makes a great birthday or Christmas present.

Human Kinetics has assembled a panel of experts who wrote individual chapters in their area of specialty. The editor, Edmund Burke, has worked with USA Olympic cyclists. The chapter on running was written by Coach Roy Benson who is the unquestioned guru of heart monitor training for runners. The other contributors have similar credentials.

The book is divided by sports but begins with two chapters on the benefits of training with a heart monitor and a comprehensive discussion of training zones. These chapters contain nuggets of information that I have never seen compiled in a single publication, i.e., that maximum heart rate is training specific and the effects of heat and cold on training. These chapters also help to demystify what it means to train at anaerobic threshold. There are many more insights in these first couple of chapters that will help the reader understand how to use the heart monitor to train effectively.

The book then contains individual chapters on running, cycling, multi-sport training,(triathletes be sure to read this section), and circuit training. The book contains chapters on walking and group exercises, and a chapter on in-line skating! Finally, the book contains a chapter on using a computer to track your training. This chapter gives advice about what kind of software to look for and even on how to set up your own record-keeping system.

Running with a Heart Monitor

The Washington Running Report is, after all, a running publication so I would like to give readers more details about Coach Benson's chapter on running. Coach Benson tells you two different ways to figure out your maximum heart rate without having to shell out money for a treadmill stress test. The first is the Coach Benson Low-Rent, Low-Risk Minimal stress test and is based on a pace chart that equates race pace to effort. As an alternative, Coach Benson also provides you with a High-Risk Maximal stress test. I know that the tests work because Coach Benson taught them to me years ago and I have used them quite successfully with the runners I coach. The need to find out your maximum heart rate is important when using a heart monitor because Coach Benson points out that some runners have maximum heart rates as much as twenty-four beats above or below the predicted value for their age. The heart monitor is worthless for those runners unless they can determine what their maximum heart rate is.

This chapter also provides a graph so that you can decide the appropriate heart rates for various training efforts. This chart uses the Karvonen formula so that you can train closer to a percentage of VO2 Max and not simply a percentage of maximum heart rate. Benson and Burke tell you why this is important.

In addition, Coach Benson discusses some of the anomalies that those of us who have trained with heart monitors have probably experienced and do not quite understand. I will not spoil it for the reader by going into great detail. Coach Benson discusses the issues of cardiac creep (why an increase in heart rate does not always equate to an increase in speed), the Frank-Starling stall (why if you go too hard too soon your heart rate will not rise very high), and the reasons why sometimes your heart rate does not seem to correlate with efforts.

Finally, Coach Benson offers some training plans for the three major phases of training a runners need to go through to get into racing shape: Phase I of building a base, Phase II of anaerobic threshold training, and Phase III of speed work to sharpen for racing.

My only complaint with Coach Benson's chapter is that he is giving away many of the secrets and training tips that I use as a coach. However, if you want to be a self-coached runner or triathlete training with a heart monitor, this book is an absolute necessity.

Human Kinetics can be reached at 1-800-747-4457. Coach Kirt West is a private coach for motivated adult runners. Questions for him can be sent to Kirt West or c/o of the Washington Running Report.