Looking to go sub 5 for your next PB?
If you’re serious about going sub 5min/km then it’s likely you’re monitoring your wearable device with greater and greater frequency. Those numbers can track your training outcomes and confirm your speed is improving.
In my role I’ve seen dozens of people accomplish sub 5min/km when they combine their watch with a heart rate chest strap.
Because a target like this is all about getting confident with pacing, it helps for you to be receiving the most authentic metrics about you as possible.
Both wrist-worn devices and chest straps will give you heart rate metrics but the difference is that the fitness wristbands are measuring the downstream flow of blood, rather than measuring the beats of the heart right at the source. The chest strap is the least likely to be thrown off by sweat, wrist position, or skin pigmentation giving you maximum accuracy.
Wrist monitor accuracy can also be limited by tattoo under the optical heart rate monitor. The light used by the heart rate monitor is blocked by the ink and the pattern. As a result, you can get a less accurate heart rate measurement.
If you tried a chest strap decades ago and found them uncomfortable, it worth checking out today’s versions as they are better designed, lighter, less bulky with soft flexibe mesh straps.
At Event Ready Bodies, our team would definitely encourage using a chest strap for a goal like sub 5min/km’s because your heart rate conveys your fitness to pace so well.
Everyone has different pacing ability for different distances. Establishing your individual pacing metrics at the start helps you to match the best type of training session to your goal.
To become a better runner it helps to have clarity about what you are capable of today and to build your pacing skills from there. Not only is running from good numbers and your own numbers nearly always more comfortable for your body, you gain results faster when you train at the best training intensity for you. It’s incredibly satisfying to accomplish a new personal best and this combination of wearable device can really help.
Are you coming to Manawatu Striders-Property Brokers Marathon Half Marathon 2022? – would you like a chance to win a heart rate monitor chest strap?