Would You Wear HR Strap for IM Run?
During this IMCDA prep I decided not to wear an HR strap. I go by pace only and don't care much about HR. And the reason is kind of dumb - I simply hate having that strap on my chest. Strangely, I wear one on the bike for every ride.
Anyways...is there any point in wearing an HR strap during the IM run? The only reason I can think of is to slow down or (gasp) walk if it gets way high or out of control. But my sense of Perceived Exertion at X pace is pretty keen.
Thoughts?
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One can be feeling great but hr generally doesn't mislead, where pe might.
I like all the info I can get for long efforts where it is imperative to measure and conserve.
I would counter by saying that, at this point, it may only confuse you. That is, you haven't seen HR, pace, and RPE together in one place for a long time so you won't really have a full idea of what exactly you're seeing. I know this would screw me up, personally, because I haven't seen my HR since about '06. I will likely go back to wearing an HR strap soon but I know I will have to make some big adjustments because I'm sure my body has made a lot of changes in 6yrs and my HR now could have very little relation to what I saw back in the day.
Which is all to say that ^this^ would be a hullava thing to have going on in your head during and Ironman. Run what your brung, I sez.
For the past 5-6 years (10 + IMs), I've taken my HR strap off in T2 (if I remember - sometimes I've handed it to my wife out on the course). I'm not saying there's a cause and effect, but my IM run times started dropping once I did that. Data that I ignore during a race include: time, speed, and HR. I no longer have speed on my bike computer, and my last IM, I did not start my watch at the swim start. But then, after 20+ IMs, I trust my RPE and internal control mechanisms over any "objective" data, and YMMV.
I do still believe in watts on the bike, however! But maybe because I'm really only 2 years into using power for racing, which leads me to believe that Patrick's point is well taken - gather all the data you can, and review it after the fact. That speeds the learning process. Eventually, you may get to the point where the data during the race is no longer needed to push/rein in yourself.
I raced Rev3 Quassy HIM a couple of weeks ago. I went into the race not 100%, battling a bug and on antibiotics (probably should not have raced in retrospect). There are some serious uphills on the run course, making pace not ideal. In addition I was not really mentally into the race, and my RPE was totally out of whack - it all felt too hard! I decided to focus on heart rate - from training runs I knew what range I should be able to hold for the half marathon. So I modified my pace to hold that HR, and instantly felt better. My average pace probably even increased. I think it was partially mental - being in a zone I knew I could hold and not paying attention to RPE and self doubts - and physical, by eliminating surges in effort going up steep hills. In many ways pace is not at all like power - who tries to hold the same speed on a bike up and down hills???
Anyway, this worked great for a couple of miles, an then my HR strap died! Bummer! In the end a long, tough run for me, but I learned HR, for me, is still very useful on the run.
I can't stand the HR strap on the run; and I think that the answer mostly depends upon how you train and connect performance with RPE...ie. How well do you know your body....Al certainly knows it well enough...others need more or less external data points to differentiate/manage effort & rpe. I use both power and hr on the bike...still trying to connect the dots there...but on the run I only use pace.
If you have trained with HR & Pace and have good correlation between HR/Pace/RPE and results then you can probably dispense with the with one of the 3...you decide. But unless you really know yourself have RPE + one other validation point at a minimum is important.
For me monitoring both pace and hr would be more confusing than anything...and then on top of that the damned strap would drive me nuts.
Yes. Wear it for every bike and run workout, even on the trainer or dreadmill.
But I'm a Belt-and-Suspenders kind of guy, and like my pace-HR-RPE everywhere.