A Sticking Point

A memorable scene from Marathon Man

Parker has a section in his book that is a compilation of observations that "don't seem fit anywhere else," as he says, and the first one really rings true in my experience. He says when he first started using the heart rate monitor (HRM), "I discovered that I seemed to have a pace that felt 'grooved in.' It was several beats above my 70% recovery ceiling, so it was annoying to have to back off from this very natural feeling pace." He calls this a sticking point. It is a HUGE sticking point for me in my present training. VERY annoying because it happens at about the point where your mind begins to wander off into wherever it goes when you fall into a pace and then the beeping pulls you back from it. It reminds me of being constantly awakened right when you're about to go to sleep. He goes on to say not to give in to the desire to ignore the HRM and also that it will eventually go away too. GOOD!

Another thing he suggests is to use the heart rate monitor for Daily Real World Biofeedback. In my case I went to the dentist wearing my HRM. I was having a filling replaced and I thought it would be interesting to see how high my heart beats per minute (BPM) jumped when the drilling started. Funny thing here...and this was verified by the dental assistant, whenever the drilling started and all during the drilling, my BPM dropped to a very low level in the 50's. When the drilling stopped my BPM went up to the mid to upper 60's. Very strange. And no I don't like getting fillings. I dislike the sound of the drill as much as anyone. So there you go. A couple of interesting things that Parker brings up in Chapter 15 of his book that have been put to the test of experience. In the future I'll be talking about some other writers I've been reading who come from a distance running background that also do triathlons. In particular Don Fink's Be Iron Fit. Gotta go! Time to run!

Max Heart Rate

Well it's two days after Thanksgiving and I went out to do the Max Heart Rate (MHR) workout after warming up with my wife a couple of miles. I did almost what Parker suggests in his book but stopped after two hill climbs because my own breathing was freaking me out. I hate hearing myself pant audibly. It makes me think I'm worse off than I probably am. My Max after two repeats (Parker suggests five) was 177. My formulaic Max following the Karvonen method is 181. I'm pretty sure that's very close to what it is. I'll have to take it to the Track I guess and see what happens there. I've always disliked speedwork. Probably because it hurts.

My Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is 51. Taking that is a little awkward because you have to move to get everything in place (making your heart rate go up) plus I haven't mastered my Timex Road Trainer and I guess it was beeping and woke up my wife last night. So I've decided to track my weight, BMI and RHR and see if those three variables mean anything in the coming months. I really haven't had this much fun since I filled out my Jim Fixx Runner's Diary in the late 70's and early '80's (high school days for me).