HR Rant

I am so over these stupid things.  I have been trying Heart Rate training for almost a year now and you know what?  I think it sucks!  I have tried to give it time, be patient, tried a gazillion different ways of configuring my zones and you know what?  I am either doing it completely wrong or it just isn't what it is cracked up to be.  Both are highly possible.

Rant #1 - I hate the dang strap.  It is awkward, one more piece of gear to remember prior to work outs, if chafes, and I have a hard time believing that we can send a man to the moon, but this is really the best way we can monitor heart rate on an athlete?  I really would love for Garmin to find a way to do it without the strap. have sensors on the back of the watch for Pete's sake!

Rant #2 - HR is highly variable.  One day a "Zone 2" can feel comfy.  The next day is feels pathetically slow.  If it is really hot and humid, it feels hard.  Most days Zone 2 for me feels like a walk.  Literally.  Zone 2 for me is about a 14 minute mile.  That is a walk, folks!  But in trying to "give it a chance" I have tried to stay in Zone 2 and feel like I barely break a sweat.  I call them bag runs.  Because I want to put a giant bag over my head so no one recognizes me on the run!

Rant #3 - As much as I hate HR training, it does provide good data and I am all about the TSS scores and all in TP, so I feel the need to wear it for data sakes.  It literally provides no score with out a HR data.  Ugh!  So I feel tied to the dang thing!

That's my rant for the day.  I may try to meet with people in my tri club to more accurately nail this sucker down and maybe once and for all figure out this is supposed to work!

I much prefer to just go ride.  And run.  And swim.  Just go by feel!  If I am feeling good, I will push it that day.  If not, back off.  If I know I am doing a long run, I will settle in to whatever I feel I can maintain that day for that distance.  I am LOVING the fact that my marathon training plan doesn't even mention heart rate!  My IMTX plan was dictated entirely by HR!  This has been a nice break :)

Rant over.  Carry on.  Happy Training and racing all!