June 2019 / / 53STAY IN THE ZONE
My Polar watch is always on my wrist
when training and it’s key to helping me
stay in the correct heart rate zone for the
session. It’s especially true on easy days,
where the tendency is to go too hard
because you want to be in that sweet spot
where you feel great after a session. Don’t
be afraid to go easy; the reality is that
there’s probably no physiological benefit
to pushing slightly harder. My heart rate
in the easy zone is 135-145 beats per
minute, under 70% of maximum.PRIORITISE RECOVERY
Tech can be really helpful in monitoring
recovery, and one simple way is through
measuring resting heart rate. I track it
over a long period of time for the best
indicator of whether I’m a little rundown
or if there’s an underlying illness brewing.
I work on 10% higher than normal being
a warning so, because my resting heart
rate is low (usually 36-37bpm), that means
a variation of only 3-4 beats. If it starts
heading up towards 50 then that’s
definitely not okay and means bad
times for me.DON’T DO TOO MUCH, TOO SOON
The activity tracker on the Polar records
how much daily activity I do over a long
period of time and then adjusts and
instructs accordingly. If I’ve had a really
big training day, it will have gone way over
my targeted amount and I know I need to
be careful for the next couple of days and
not increase the load. Otherwise there’s a
higher risk of injury or illness.USE TECH FOR SUCCESS
VICKY HOLLAND: RUN SECRETS