Maybe some wise-man out there once said, "Nothing is worth doing without data." And maybe he was right. I fully concur though, I LOVE DATA. So I thought today I could talk a little bit about the most important feature for me on my Garmin 910xt is the heartrate monitor.
If you don't know much about the Garmin line of products, the 910xt is a GPS watch made for triathlon in mind. It is waterproof and allows you to pick 4 different sports (Swim, Bike, Run, Multisport).
Anyhow, back to heartrate. It's been a bit of trial and error with me, but I've been using heartrate training for my running consistently for about 5 months now. I started using it for the Disney Half Marathon after the run-walk-run Galloway method did not work for me. I think running too fast just killed my leg.
In December 2012, my Zone 2 running was approximately at 13:30 min/mile pace.
Currently, April 2013, my Zone 2 running is approximately at 12:15 min/mile pace.
In about 4-5 months, I have knocked 1:15 mins off my mile pace, presumably at the same exact effort over the course of those 5 months! I think that heartrate training has proven to be extremely useful and I am glad that my Ironman training plan is based on heartrate zones.
For races, I turn off the heartrate alerts on my Garmin and just run with 'perceived effort', going how fast I want to go. Which has turned me into a 10 min/mile in a 10k (65 degs F), but just recently I ran 7.5 miles in 82 degs F at 10:18 min/miles. I am pretty sure I could crush my 10k time in the cooler temperatures now.
