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How To Use A Heart Rate Monitor

Want to take the guesswork out of training? Then you need a heart-rate monitor. Here's how to use it.

There are two simple, compelling reasons to use a heart-rate monitor: to train and race at the best pace for you. The table below shows you how to find your perfect paces for: (1) the three most important workouts in any training program; and (2) the four most popular road-race distances.

Workout Percent of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)

Easy run and long run 65-75%

Tempo run 87-92%

Interval repeats 95-100%

Race Distance

5-K 95-97%

10-K 92-94%

Half-marathon 85-88%

Marathon 80-85%

Fern Oliner had been a runner for more than 25 years when she experienced a breakthrough in her performance. It happened at age 59, during a challenging half-marathon.

"For the very first time, I felt like a true runner," she recalls. "There I was on the uphill, passing people and feeling totally in control. I absolutely loved it."

Her secret? Oliner was wearing a heart-rate monitor.

"I was breathing heavily as I was going up the hills, but the monitor told me I was okay. So I sped up," she says. "If it weren't for the monitor, I would've kept running at the slower pace, as I'd always done."

Oliner's experience is a classic example of how runners can benefit from this relatively simple technology. Once considered the gadget du jour for hard-core professional athletes, heart-rate monitors have gone mainstream, their tell-tale chest straps peeking out from T-shirts on everyone from fitness runners to veteran marathoners.

All these people are wearing monitors for the same reason: Your heart rate provides an objective gauge of exertion, one that's usually more exact than your own perception of how hard you're working.

"While it's important to be aware of your effort so you're in touch with your body's subtle cues, this isn't always a very accurate feedback system," says George Parrott, Ph.D, who coaches a Sacramento, Calif., running club. "Whereas the monitor is such a precise index of effort."

The bottom line: No matter what type of runner you are--beginner, intermediate, or advanced--a heart-rate monitor will help you train more effectively. We'll show you how.

For years, everyone (including us) has been telling you that the best way to find your maximum heart rate (MHR) is to subtract your age from 220. Sorry about that.

Turns out that's not the most reliable method, at least not for healthy, fit individuals like the readers of Runner's World. For most of you, two newer formulas will prove far more accurate:

(A) MHR = 208 - (.7 x your age)

(B) MHR = 205 - (.5 x your age)

A small group of Runner's World staffers recently tested these two formulas, and reached the following conclusions. Both seem to work almost equally well for runners under 40. For runners over 40, formula (B) appears to be more accurate. We now believe that (B) is the single best formula for predicting maximum heart rate, and we're adopting it as our Runner's World standard.

Then there's option C: Of course, no predictive formula can ever be as accurate as an honest-to-goodness, all-out field test. You can conduct such a test on a track or a moderately steep hill, which may work better if you're not an experienced track runner. And by the way, since all the workouts in this article depend on an accurate MHR, it's worth the effort to take this test. You'll need to wear a heart-rate monitor for it.

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