The Benefits of Heart Rate Monitor Training for Beginners
I had the chance to run with a beginning runner recently-my wife. Although she is otherwise in good shape, she finds it difficult to run for distances much longer than about a half mile. She gets winded and feels she has to walk.
I decided to lend her my Garmin 305 and see what her heart rate was during the run. To my surprise, when she ran, her heart rate was quickly shooting up to over 160 beats per minute. Even though her running pace is only a little bit faster than her walking pace, the impact on her heart rate was dramatic.
To get better at running, you need to be able to run continuously for longer and longer periods of time. The run-walk training programs like the Couch to 5K program or Jeff Galloway’s training programs assume that you can run for at least one minute at a time and alternate running and walking for 20-30 minutes.
If you are a beginning runner and are having trouble finding a comfortable pace, a heart rate monitor may give you some valuable feedback about your level of effort and help you to adjust your pace to one that you can sustain for longer periods of time.
With some experience using the heart rate monitor, you can establish a training range for your heart rate when you are running and a recovery heart rate at which you can resume running after walking.
How have heart rate monitors helped your training? Tell me in the comments.
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