I'm curious, how many of you use, and how often do you use it, taking your heart rate to judge your aerobic conditioning? Last winter when I was not in good swimming shape, my heart rate for a medium effort swim would run 160 beats per minute (I'm 59, not a good heart rate number). As my aerobics came into play, it would drop week by week, a good thing.
Today, I am swimming 10,000 yds every other day and on off-days do a little mile or two with a half-mile of sprints. At the end of my 10,736 yds yesterday, my heart rate was 110. Also, I took my resting heart rate yesterday morning and it was 40. The thing I notice is the better condition I am in, the faster my elevated heart rate falls and I have heard this is a good sign.
Now, I take my heart rate each and every day before, during, and after swimming. It gives me a lot of information. How about you? Are you doing this often enough?
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I have no heart rate monitor down here, I use a watch on my wrist and take it for 6 seconds and multiply by 10. I do this a lot. The common denominator seems to be that my training heartrate is lower this year for the same effort. But my biggest achievement seems to be that my heart rate is just lower now that I am piling on mileage. And it falls quickly when I take my little hydration breaks every 800 yds.
To answer a question presented, I have lost no weight and this may sound crazy to some, I am glad I haven't. I find that my added weight helps me so much in my very long swims. But what I have noticed is now that I am piling on mileage, my body composition is starting to change; slightly a little less fat, more upper body muscle and lat muscle, and my upper thighs are starting into a definition I haven't seen since I swam thousands of yards of backstroke. I'm happy with it all, just have a very long way to go training wise to confidently swim 20 miles in a year. But I find by taking my heart rate more often than not is a very good tool to use to judge my aerobic conditioning.
I have no heart rate monitor down here, I use a watch on my wrist and take it for 6 seconds and multiply by 10. I do this a lot. The common denominator seems to be that my training heartrate is lower this year for the same effort. But my biggest achievement seems to be that my heart rate is just lower now that I am piling on mileage. And it falls quickly when I take my little hydration breaks every 800 yds.
To answer a question presented, I have lost no weight and this may sound crazy to some, I am glad I haven't. I find that my added weight helps me so much in my very long swims. But what I have noticed is now that I am piling on mileage, my body composition is starting to change; slightly a little less fat, more upper body muscle and lat muscle, and my upper thighs are starting into a definition I haven't seen since I swam thousands of yards of backstroke. I'm happy with it all, just have a very long way to go training wise to confidently swim 20 miles in a year. But I find by taking my heart rate more often than not is a very good tool to use to judge my aerobic conditioning.
