Running for Beginners
If you are looking for a measure of fitness, then your heart rate is a great way to do this. Fitness can be measured in many ways, a good indicator (one I prefer to use) of how fit we are is our Resting Heart Rate (RHR).
To measure your RHR, find your pulse on either your wrist or neck with any finger and count the beats for 15 seconds, then multiply this by 4. This sum will give you your RHR. The average male adult has a RHR of 60-80 at rest, females 70-90. Also make sure before you measure your heart rate, you do so first thing in the morning. The reason for this is to avoid stimulants like nicotine and caffeine affecting the result.
Understanding RHR can be very useful to runners. For instance, they can ensure you are running at the right pace or that you have fully recovered on a rest day. A RHR of 10 beats a minute (BPM) more than usual can indicate you are becoming ill, are dehydrated, or not fully recovered. Some people take heart rates during training with their fingers to ensure they aren’t working too easy or hard, but I advise against this method as it is generally inaccurate. If you are this serious about your training, get yourself a good heart rate monitor; they are a great tool to improve your training.
Your Training Heart Rate (THR) is between 60-80% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). To obtain your MHR, you need to run as fast as you can for at least a minute and then take your pulse, do this a few times and average the results out. Or, if you don’t fancy the hard work, you can subtract your age from 220, although many runners will testify to how inaccurate this method can be.
You should run at this pace to promote ‘the training effect’ and to not over stress the body. Whatever training pace you come to run at, you should be able to talk without becoming short of breath. I personally train at 1 to 2 minutes below my 5k race pace. Putting on the Heart Rate Monitor before each run can become a hassle, not to mention expensive.
However, different levels of effort have different places within a runners plan. To tune up for a race, it may be recommended to push your runs up to 90% of your MHR.
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