Three Days Before Race #1

My first race is in three days.  As of today, however, I still have not resolved my heart rate monitor issue.

If you read my last post, you know that the reading on my HRM was regularly spiking.  I thought that the culprit was either an expiring battery or some kind of interference from my new running jacket.  It was easy enough to put both of these theories to the test.  A fresh battery & running without my jacket still gave me conclusive evidence: something else was wrong with my equipment. 

Coach Benson, the author of the book I am using for training, has a section in his book describing various things that can cause the heart rate monitor to malfunction.  One of the things he mentions is that a loose chest strap can result in just such errant readings.  After reading this, I was sure that I had found the solution to my problem.  I tightened the strap, put on my heart rate monitor, and observed the readout as I sat and read on Saturday afternoon.  No spikes.  Problem solved, right? 

Of course not.  The next morning as I took to the road, things started off looking right (as they always do).  But after running for a while, my HRM reported my heart rate at 210 BPM.  I can get my heart rate pretty close to that and I know what it feels like.  No way was my heart beating that fast.  I was probably right around 150 BPM, a far cry from over 200.  The continuing errors on my device led me to do more research on possible problems.  As it turned out, my hunches were right in terms of my problem-solving efforts.  Weak battery & some types of clothing can indeed have such result.  But the other thing I found out is that a lot of people have had just such a problem -- that the chest strap (and indeed all Garmin chest straps, apparently) has a bad habit of showing heart rate spikes after about six months of use.

I’ve ordered a new chest strap and contacted Garmin customer support.  Hopefully they will replace the faulty one and I can have a spare strap going forward.  The heart rate monitor is too central to my training to go without.

On the other hand, the last week of running has been uniquely rewarding.  Since my heart rate monitor has shown itself to be an unreliable tool, I am willing to ignore whatever it tells me.  So, I’ve been running with fewer constraints.  Generally, my runs are keyed to a heart rate range, and I spend my whole run fighting to keep within the range.  If my run is supposed to be a 60% - 75% run, I spend the whole time at 75% - 76%.  I always want to run faster than my workout will allow.  Being able to ignore the beeping of my device has been quite liberating.  I still try to follow the spirit of the session -- i.e. in the 65% - 70% sessions, I know the whole point of the exercise is to hold back -- but now I’m holding back on my terms.

Unfortunately, I fear that this will delay my progress somewhat.  I’ve been running “how I want” for a couple years now with basically no progress.  The whole point in following Coach Benson’s model workout program is that it will allow me to develop as a runner.  Running slow is in unsatisfying in some ways.  However, there is satisfaction to be found in achieving a goal.  My goal is to run a marathon.  Lest I forget.  Also, I want to develop into a better runner.

This weekend is the first test.  It’s a little premature.  On Coach Benson’s schedule, the 5k doesn’t come until the end of week six, and I am only on week four at this point.  Also, I don’t really have an empirical benchmark to demonstrate development.  In any event, I’m psyched that, for the first time since I started this training: I get to run!  The faster, the better!  Race day!

My goal has been to do a 5k in 30 minutes.  I have a hunch that I might be able to do even better than that, though, so I’m setting up my splits so that my Garmin will be encouraging me to finish in 26 minutes.

It’ll be the first time that the Garmin will be telling me to speed up rather than slow down.