Gauging effort expended based on HR

cant find the link right now but there was a recent study that suggested that HR monitors are useless and how you feel is a much better judge of your exertion than your heart rate per minute.

The formulas can be very inaccurate. The 220-age has me at max 165, I can average higher than that for a couple of hours. I hit 187 HR under right conditions. All-out effort will not necessarily hit your max heart rate I would interpret your desire and ability to talk between repeats as a good indicator of % effort. My personal guidelines: 90% - nod or single words, not necessarily coherent 80% - a few words with pauses 70% - phrases/sentence 60% - yack I like this!! I've also noticed that when I work so hard I am slightly hypoxic, I can verify it with that lovely tingling feeling in the top of my thighs, What I also find interesting is the amount of improvement associated with increases in percentage of effort is kinda like a geometric progression in reverse (32-16-8-4-2-1). I was kinda hoping that maybe I could improve more quickly if I trained more correctly - which means that a person ought to be able to figure out what their 80-90% effort is currently (time wise) and that by forcing themselves to train at higher levels, that after a while, the time that once took 90% effort, would only require 80% effort. By gauging what that time is, we might be more accurately able to predict how much we have improved - even without the benefit of a meet - sometimes I need little bit of proof of improvement long before a meet comes around! Thanks for all your input! :blush:

˙ʇıq ɐ dn sbuıɥʇ ǝbuɐɥɔ oʇ ʇuɐʍ ʇɥbıɯ ɟןǝsɹnoʎ ǝʞıן ɹǝʞoɹʇsʇsɐǝɹq ɐ ʇnq 'ǝʇnuıɯ ɐ uo spɐǝɹɥʇ 3 ɟo sʇɐǝdǝɹ ʇsǝɹ-ʇɹoɥs ǝʞıן buıɥʇǝɯos ɹoɟ ʇooɥs ʎןןɐnsn ı ˙ǝʞoɹʇs pǝɹɹǝɟǝɹd puɐ ǝɔɐd ɹnoʎ oʇ sןɐʌɹǝʇuı ǝɥʇ ʇsnظpɐ sʎɐʍןɐ uɐɔ noʎ ˙ǝןqɐzıɯoʇsnɔ ǝɹɐ sʇnoʞɹoʍ ɯnɹoɟ Man Guy - you are making my brain work as hard as my body! And it's nice that workouts ar customizable - even with a coach on deck - one can always kinda mix it up in your head to make it more fun/challenging.

And ALSO - if your current fastest time is say 1:05 in the 100, but you do repeats holding a 1:10 - what percentage of effort do you think you are expending on the repeats? Obviously less on the first one than you will on #10, but, just wondering. Depends on the person. For me that would probably be impossible (110% effort?) while for a distance person it might be 80% effort. That is one reason for using heart rate to measure effort, it bypasses a few physiological differences.

I feel like pool heart rates are lower than dry land heart rates, with equal effort. Maybe the cooling factor plus the breathing factor? Cooling and breathing are two factors, but I think the largest factor is horizontal body position.

My personal guidelines: 90% - nod or single words, not necessarily coherent 80% - a few words with pauses 70% - phrases/sentence 60% - yack This is classic. At first it made me laugh, but upon reflection it seems like a very good way to quantify effort. It should be posted next to the white board where the workouts are written. Thanks for sharing.

If your fastest time in the 100 free is 1:00, then what should 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% effort be (time wise?)? I think perceived effort is going to vary person-to-person, so it's difficult to say. To me, 60% means really slow. You should feel like you're really holding back. 70% is a little faster, maybe around the pace you could hold for a long swim like a T-30 or something. 80% should be faster than this and 90% is just a hair off your maximum effort. Forget about formulas for max HR. Just swim an all-out 100 and take your pulse immediately after. That's going to be darn close to your maximum heart rate.

Does anyone know how to gauge the percentage of effort expended in relationship to your HR? Not really, coaches often assign sets with ??% effort I gauge my effort by feel and time, how hard I pull & how I kick. how hard it feels and how hard I'm breathing Also if you're swimming next to swimmers of similar ability, hang with them. If your fastest time in the 100 free is 1:00, then what should 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% effort be (time wise?)? It depends 060% very easy, 2 beat kick, maybe 1:25 - 1:30 070% easy, pick up turn over a little, 2 beat kick 1:20 - 1:25 080% easy speed, still 2 beat kick, 1:15. - 1:20 090% strong but not all out 1:10 - 1:15 100% go as fast as you can but correctly split, race 1:05 - 1:10 also there's effort levels for particular sets, sometimes coaches say go "all out" but then don't allow enough rest to really go ALL ALL out so you set your speed and effort based on what you're doing now and what's to come. Effort depends on the specifics of each set Rounds Repeats Distances Effort levels Rest between repeats and rounds Special instructions: like 4 SDKs off each wall, or 6 beat kick the whole way, or 4 breaths per length

I guess 100% is also "yack" just a different definition.