Tom Has a New Toy!

Workout: 4 miles

Well my old Garmin finally started to die. I was thinking of buying a new one for my birthday next month but one of the important button on my Garmin 201 started to not work so I bought the new Garmin 305. This is the updated version and also includes a heart rate monitor.

I went to a seminar on Thursday that talked about Heart Rate Training. It seemed pretty interesting so I thought as long as I was buying a new Garmin I would try to incorporate the information. The basic gist of things is that when doing long runs I am suppose to keep my heart rate to 150 beats per minute. When I am doing speedwork I am suppose to be between 158 & 167 beats per minute.

Tonight I was suppose to do a 4 mile recovery run so I thought this would be a good chance to try it out. I pretty successfully kept my BPS (beats per minute) to 150 and it was really cool. I felt great the whole way. I slowed down on the up-hills and really picked it up on the down-hills. I was telling myself to slow down a lot, but when I got done I had averaged 9:14’s. I was really please. This could work out.

I’ve also emailed a company that does detailed heart rate analysis. They use an oxygen mask and the whole nine yards to determine your exact heart rate zones. The method I’ve used this far is pretty generic. I’ll keep you informed.

So another week in the books. I got all my runs in and I’m feeling really upbeat about my progress.

4.09 miles/37:48/9:14avg
Avg heart rate: 151 bpm