Welcome to the Wednesday, July 11, 2001 edition of "The Heart Zones e-Newsletter"

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Copyright: Heart Zones, your source of heart rate training information

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In this issue:

1. Monitor Mistakes: How to Erase Them from your Training

2. 4x Olympian Tells His Heart Rate Secret

3. What To Do If Your Resting Heart Rate is on the Rise

4. Boulder, Colorado hosts the next Heart Zone Training Seminar/Certification

 

Also...

5. Be the first to visit the new website

6. Farewell and thanks to Shawn Boom, first editor of the HZ e-Newsletter

7. Using your Monitor as a Secret Weapon.

8. Race Day Precautions

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1. Monitor Mistakes: How to Erase Them from your Training

Learning to use a heart rate monitor is like any other sports skill. It takes knowledge and hands-on experience to do it right. To jump start the learning curve, here are some quick ways for you to avoid monitor mistakes:

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2. 4x Olympian Tells His Heart Rate Secret

Whether you are the Olympic champion, a wise septuagenarian or somewhere in between, it takes a lot of heart (blood pumping capacity) and a lot of heart (confidence and inspiration) to achieve your best-possible performance. Your heart rate monitor can help you build both types of heart.

 

There is little information about using your monitor to build the “inspired heart”. Believing that peak athletic performances are 50% inspiration and 50% perspiration, here are a couple of my ideas on using your monitor to bring forth an inspired heart:

-Lyle Nelson, four time Olympic biathlete.

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3. What To Do If Your Resting Heart Rate is on the Rise?

Your morning wake-up (resting) heart rate also known as your “am heart rate” is a good indicator of your current physiological state. As a general rule, the lower the number the better it is for you. Measuring it on a regular basis is a good strategy to give you indication as to your recovery and regeneration from all types of physiological and other stresses. Reasons that resting heart rate increase from a number of different factors:

inactivity, altitude, medication, stress, illness/disease, over-training, under-training, and probably a few others not listed here. Look at your entire lifestyle for an answer to why your wake-up heart rate might be increasing then measure, monitor, analyze, and act upon that information.

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4. Boulder, Colorado hosts the next Heart Zone Training Seminar/Certification

If you are ready to jump start your training in the heart zones, why not attend our next seminar, workshop and certification opportunity on Saturday, September 22nd in Boulder, Colorado. Join seminar coordinator and Red Jersey Master Trainer Susanne Achtenhagen and Kathy Kent along with Sally Edwards for a day of testing and measurements, designing a training program, and Heart Zones Cycling Indoor studio bike training certification. Go to www.heartzones.com  seminars for more information.

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5. Be the first to visit the new website: www.heartzones.com

Four years ago, Heart Zones built it’s first website. At that time, the strategy was to put your company as a brochure on the Internet and to lock down a domain name. During those intervening years, the Internet evolved and matured to an e commerce, web community, communication, and content platform (among other things) for businesses and organizations. This week, Heart Zones did the release of website version 2.0 with the help of Benjamin Edwards, web designer and Shawn Boom, the master mind behind the change. We’d all love your feedback and input on it’s navigation, ease of use, and delivery on the promise of getting each of you more involved in training in the heart zones.

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6. Farewell and thanks to Shawn Boom, first editor of the HZ e-Newsletter – and much more.

Everyone, including all the zoners within the heart zones community would like to thank Shawn Boom, the first editor of the Heart Zones e-newsletter and the Director of Most Things at Heart Zones for his contributions to the company. Shawn has departed from the HZ company but not from the folks within our reach. Guaranteed that you will still hear from him as he heads off to Lake Placid, New York in two weeks to do the Ironman Triathlon there. With little recovery from the race, he enters his next lifetime commitment; he’s getting married to Bethany Kramer on August 24th. We all wish Shawn the

best in his next endeavors.

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7. Using your Monitor as a Secret Weapon

Don’t make the mistake of thinking your heart rate monitor is only a training device. It’s also an equally important racing tool – a secret weapon. Most elite athletes train and race with a monitor. So should you especially if you’re aiming for a peak performance and you like the data feedback loop that it provides. Here are a few tips on how to use this hidden advantage that you have over those who do not have a monitor:

· Determine your highest sustainable heart rate number - Using steady state workouts, determine what heart rate you can sustain over the length of the race and then use this as your target racing number.

· Trust your monitor – During a race it is easy to let your mind take control over your body. Rather, develop the connection of the mind-body and use the data as a constant stream of information to make race management decisions.

· It’s pure sweat dripping motivation – Use the information on your monitor during a race as motivation by holding back if it reaches too high a number and picking up the pace if it’s too low.

· Follow the 10 beat-rule – Because of nervous tension during races, heart rates quite often are 10 beats higher in a race than during your time trial workouts to determine your highest sustainable number. Put this into your calculations and management process to adjust your tempo during the race.

 

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8. Race Day Precautions

Avoid common race day problems, which occur when using a monitor during your events by incorporating your monitor into your race day rituals and preparations. This way, there won’t be any surprises. For example, avoid the temptation to go high/hard and stay with the rabbits at the front of the pack if your heart rate monitor says otherwise. Another example is to be alert to weather and course conditions, which may affect your heart rate data. Finally, recognize that negative thoughts can force your heart rate downward in the same way that highflying confidence can accelerate it. Balance all the emotional and physical factors into your decisions about how to make the fine-tune adjustments of your heart rate numbers on race day.

 

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