Marathoning Matters

Top Ten Reasons to use Wii Fit to Train for a Marathon

1. Because Super Mario Bros marathon training involves stomping too many Goombas and rescuing Princess Toadstool.
2. Running in place is closer biomechanically to real running than, uh, not running.
3. Swimming and cycling in place are still in beta so you can't train for a triathlon yet.
4. You can jump and hit the bottom of the bricks with your head to get minutes taken off your time.
5. Rumor has it Boston will certify the Wii Fit Island course for qualifying.
6. Wii Fit Hula Hoop provides perfect cross training.
7. Wii Fit is a good marathon training combo with the "Eat all Day and Lose Weight Diet."
8. Wii Fit balance board work ensures you're unlikely to fall down when you actually venture outside to run.
9. Being close to the living room wet bar makes it easy to stay hydrated.
10. Get enough credits in your Wii Fit Bank and you can train for Wii Fit Ironman.

Nike iPod iPhone Heart-Rate Monitor GPS Darned Foot Pads and Chest Straps Comparison

Who better to guide you through the Nike/ipod/iphone/heart-rate monitor/GPS/foot pod mine field than someone who has bought, used ardently and then discarded all flavors of them?

The straight scoop: What you probably want is a Frankenstein assortment of the qualities and features of several products. Unfortunately, no product has it all, although Nike has something on the drawing board that even includes hydration levels.

So you can be like me, and wear more than one on your runs (say, iPod with GPS heart-rate monitor), or choose the benefits you want the most.

The following chart of the benefits should help you to choose whether you want an iPod, a heart-rate monitor, a GPS running watch ... or all three.

To further explore each category, check out these posts on iPods,on Heart Rate monitors, and on GPS watches. They include comprehensive lists of your choices organized by capabilities.

Before the chart, here's the bottom line:

• iPods: Easiest to use, slick online running journal, and it's nice to have music with spoken mileage and pace 
• GPS Watches: Next easiest to use, most accurate mileage, and can be used to share running routes
• Heart Rate Monitors:  Best for figuring out what pace you should train at, gauging fitness. 
  

Benefit	Heart Rate Monitor	Heart  Rate Monitor with GPS	GPS Device	GPS Device with HR Monitoring	HR Monitors with Foot Pod Sensors	iPod with foot  pods for “special” Nike + shoes	iPod with foot Pods held by cheap pouch to accommodate other brands of  shoes	iPhone that Apple hasn’t deigned to let work with Nike pods (but don’t worry, they work with  MapMyRun)
Training at the appropriate level of intensity1	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Gauging fitness improvement2	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Recording mileage and pace automatically3		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Recording mileage, pace and course automatically4		Y	Y	Y				Y
Not having to wear a pod on your shoe 5	Y	Y	Y	Y				Y
Not having to wear a chest strap6						Y	Y	Y
Guiding you home when you get lost on a run7			Y	Y
Being able to read pace and relevant data on the device during your run if you’re over 408
Listening to tunes on your run with pace and progress announcements in headphones9						Y	Y	Y
Having some famous voice recording say “congratulations, that was your best time yet.” 10						Y	Y	Y
Running against a virtual partner11			Y	Y
Running inside a heart-rate zone12	Y	Y		Y
Can wear your favorite brand and model shoe13	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	See next column	Y	Y

1. You really need an audible indication that you've gone out of your desired heart rate zone, so look for that feature

2. Just compare your heart rate and pace on the same workout to see your fitness improvement

3. Every device except a simple heart-rate monitor records pace and distance. Many can also upload to a web-based running journal.

4. Many of the GPS devices can map your runs in conjunction with a website

5. If you only wear one pair of shoes, having a pod on your shoe isn't a huge disadvantage (although some, like the Polar, are big enough to look a little odd). However, if you try to make your shoes last longer by alternating pairs in order to let tthem dry for a day between runs, you'll have to move the pod every day, and that's a pain you can avoid with a GPS

6. Wearing a chest strap isn't really that big a deal, although I sometime go out without it and still find value from recording pace and distance 

7. Okay, finding your way home probably isn't that useful, and in fact is a very rare feature on a running GPS, but useful in case you have an issue when running in an unfamiliar city on a business trip

8. I don't know about you, but many 40 year olds have trouble reading their pace, heart-rate and distance metrics on a small watch face while running.  The iPods can solve some of that problem by reading out time and distance at predetermined intervals or on demand

9. See above

10. Paula Radcliffe made more sense to me than Lance Armstrong, but when you come right down to it, the celebrity aspect isn't as cool as the recognition that you've hit some goal or milestone

11. As far as I know, no one has copied this "race against a pace" feature on the Garmin GPS watches

12. It's probably more useful for your training to stay within a heart-rate zone, but the race a virtual partner can be very motivational

13. No worries about having to choose from a limited number of Nike shoes to use the iPod Sports Kit

The Heart Rate Monitor Specific post is already up!

The iPod running gadgets post is already up!

Only the GPS devices post to go!

How to Choose a Heart-Rate Monitor ... and Train with It

Cardiovascular fitness has a huge impact on your speed as a runner ... and on how long you’ll live and how much you’ll enjoy later life. Logically, heart rate is an excellent indicator of cardiovascular fitness, and any heart rate monitor measures heart rate. 

So how do you choose?

The important thing in choosing an HR monitor is knowing what you want to do with heart rate data, and whether a particular HR monitor provides it to you in the form you need.  The various uses for heart rate, and a list of HR monitors that support each use, are shown in a link.

Yeah, okay, price is important too, but you're on your own to find the best price for a watch that supports what you want to do. Just type the name and model into a search engine and you'll be swarmed with price listings. How easy an HR monitor is to use is important as well.  My take is that no advanced HR monitor is easy to configure and use if you’re limited to the array of buttons on the watch itself.  Look for and use the configuration software that lets you set up everything on your computer screen and transfer settings to the watch.

This post assumes that you already know or can learn about using heart rate zones from the manual of the heart rate monitor you buy or from this, the best summary I’ve found on heart rate zones. You'll also need to know how to measure or calculate maximum heart rate.  

Heart rate at rest (Click for List). Resting heart rate may seem unexciting, but it's one of the most useful functions and any HR monitor can do it.  I’ve even worn my chest strap and HR monitor to bed in order to get a truly accurate take on my heart rate at rest (you should measure when you first wake up and before you move from horizontal to vertical). 

Once you have a benchmark reading of your resting rate, try to check it every morning.   Over time, it should gradually decrease.  Lance Armstrong’s is 32 to 34.  An average male of the same age has a resting rate of 70.  That means Lance’s heart pumps approximately twice as much blood per beat as an average male’s heart. Mine gets into the low 40s when I’m in peak condition.  Use something (a paper running diary, a PC-based program that might come with your HR monitor, or an online running diary like those provided by dailymile.com or mapmyrun.com) to record your resting rate along with how you feel before and after a run.

Watch for a rise in resting rate the morning after hard workouts, or on days when you feel tired.  If a resting rate spike persists more than a few days, you are probably overtraining and might want to take a day or two off or do a higher percentage of easy miles.

Pacing your runs (Click for List).  A watch that simply displays your current heart rate could be used to pace your runs.  I suppose you could also try to hold two fingers to your wrist and catch the number of beats while you simultaneously count to ten while running.  To make run pacing practical, a watch needs to beep “too high” and “too low” warnings when you’ve passed out of your target zone.  No need for different tones.  Believe me, you’ll know when your watch beeps whether you’re going too fast or too slow. The beep plus a little bit of guilt is great inducement to quicken or slow your pace.

Tempo or threshold running to improve performance (Click for List).The most effective technique I know for improving marathon performance is tempo or threshold-pace runs.  While you don't necessarily need a heart-rate monitor to find the right pace (see this post for more info), a heart rate monitor is the most fool-proof method.

Average heart rate for total run (Click for List).  While average can be misleading, particularly if you had many waits at cross roads or other reasons to stop, your average HR for a run is a good rough guide to how hard you worked your cardiovascular system.  Put another way, it’s a better indicator of how hard you ran than your time, which can be impacted by hills, wind, temperature, and your current conditioning.

With a measured distance and the stop watch function of all HR monitors, you can record the average heart rate as part of a log of run name or location, distance, and time and you’ll see how your heart rate compares as you run across the same terrain and distance a number of times. 

Average heart rate for a split (Click for List).  An HR monitor with a split function is a great way to see how you’re doing during a race that has mile markers. A lap function (available only from heart-rate monitors that also measure distance run) eliminates the need to run a marked course and click at each marker. Beyond knowing that you’ve hit a particular pace for the last split or lap (say, a mile), your heart rate indicates something about your fatigue. For example, if you go out too fast you’ll see your heart rate climbing from mile to mile even though you're merely holding a steady per-mile pace.  Eventually, your heart rate will go into the unsustainable anaerobic zone where you’re building oxygen debt and will soon have to slow down. 

You can also tell something about what’s slowing you down at the end of a race.  I’ve had joint discomfort in a few marathons before I discovered glucosamine/chondroitin where I was pained enough to be unable to keep my pace and heart rate high, thus finished with a disappointing time. In contrast, after hitting the wall before I discovered the secret to carbo loading, I had my heart rate climb near maximum while my pace slowed to a very tired jog.

Heart rate in relation to instantaneous pace, elapsed time, and distance (List).   To compare the moment-by-moment change in heart rate versus how fast you are running, you really need 2 things: the ability to upload data to a computer and a monitor that somehow measures the distance you’ve run. 

There are two ways to measure distance and combine that data with heart rate data: 1) adding a GPS or 2) foot pod function to an HR monitor.

A GPS uses satellites to calculate changes in your position and can combine that movement data with heart rate data from a chest strap. This is the most accurate and easiest method.

A heart rate monitor that includes a foot pod sensor has some advantages and disadvantages over GPS.  Such sensors calculate running speed, distance covered and even altitude change using an inertial system that sits on your shoe and senses foot movement.  With a single calibration run, you’ll find a food pad’s accuracy rivals that of a treadmill or a GPS.   Unlike a GPS, closely spaced tall buildings in big cities, a canopy of trees, or the walls of a canyon don’t keep a foot pod from working.

In comparison, a GPS tends to be even more accurate without calibration, can display your run on a map with the appropriate website connection (useful for sharing favorite runs with others easily), and can help you find your way home if you run on unfamiliar trails or in unfamiliar cities).

Interval Training (List). A few advanced HR monitors guide you through interval training.  You don’t need a track to run intervals if your watch can take you through sets of sustained effort for a given amount of time at a target heart rate.  An HR monitor that measures distance travelled can be set to take you through a set of mile repeats and tell you where your heart rate climbs to as you strive to hit target times for each mile you run.  You can also use heart rate recovery as the trigger for setting off on the next interval.  Some watches even include a countdown timer when it’s time to take off again, and put in a cool down interval.  It’s almost like having a coach.

Gauging fitness with recovery rate (List).  In my experience, few people who use HR monitors tap this great method of gauging fitness.  While heart rate at a given level of exertion is an excellent indicator of fitness, you need to control a number of factors to know exertion level was really the same.  Not so with the passage of time, and the fitter you are the faster your heart rate should fall when you come to rest after exertion.  The usual metric is how far your heart rate falls in the first two minutes after peak exertion, and you’re looking for a drop of 25 or more to indicate excellent fitness.

While you can time and calculate recovery rate yourself, you’ll get a more accurate reading and do it more regularly if your HR monitor handles it for you automatically.

A number of HR monitors offer such  automated fitness tests. For example, Polar units including the S625X, for example, estimate your maximum aerobic power and maximum heart rate as part of a Polar OwnIndexValue.  While only laboratory tests can do an accurate VO2 Max (via a tube measuring your highest level of sucking wind during strenuous exercise on a treadmill), measures like this are a great way to track your cardiovascular fitness over time.

Other Features To Look For.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, but while you're browsing the watches that handle the uses you want to put an HR monitor to, the deciding factor may be one of the following advanced features:

• Large memory.  Most advanced devices can record data from more than one run or bike ride.  If you rarely upload data for analysis, this might be useful.   Another advantage of large memory is your have lots of room to record data more frequently.  If you record heart rate and pace every 5 seconds as opposed to once a minute, you'll see the ups and downs and stops and starts that minute as opposed to an average heart rate and pace.
• Ease of upload.  HR Monitors that use bluetooth to automatically upload data when you come within range of your computer have a certain appeal.  In general, methods that use proprietary holders and serial ports or audio transmission of data tend to be more trouble than HR monitors that connect via a more modern USB cable.
• More complex analysis and reporting.  Some HR monitors routinely record and report min and max heart rates, overall averages for a number of runs, and probably a whole lot of other things.  Comment if you find something really useful that I've left out.
• Coded signals.  I've run in a number of marathons with a variety of HR monitors without encountering interference, but maybe that's just because I've always owned devices with coded signals, which eliminate the problem.
• Biking options.  A wheel sensor for rotations to measure distance and special handlebar mounts are a couple I remember that might matter to tri-athletes or others who train regularly on a bike

Bottom line: Heart-rate monitors are the geekiest running aid I know.  You may find that a simple GPS running watch or an iPod with the Nike foot sensor are more to your liking (see my overview for choosing among the options).  But if you're a serious runner who wishes to avoid under- or over-training and, ultimately, to run faster and longer at a lower heart rate (i.e., to get in better shape and verify that you have), one of the dozens of available heart monitors is going to be just the thing to keep you motivated and running.

If HR monitors seem too geeky or too much trouble, check out some alternatives (ipod/Nike, GPS) here.

Nike iPod iPhone Heart-Rate Monitor GPS Darned Foot Pads and Chest Straps Comparison

Who better to guide you through the Nike/ipod/iphone/heart-rate monitor/GPS/foot pod mine field than someone who has bought, used ardently and then discarded all flavors of them?

Add my background running reviews and testing for InfoWorld and (going way way back) predicting the Radio Shack Model 16 was going to wipe out the IBM PC, and there’s clearly no one better qualified to review what are essentially little special-purpose running computers.

Oh, okay, so I was wrong about the Model 16. The PC’s triumph just goes to show you how important marketing is.

But marketing will have no impact on my advice here.  Nor do you have to wonder if any of the manufacturers have paid me to plug their products.  I haven’t figured out how to wangle that yet. Which means I’ll give it you the straight scoop right now:

What you probably want is a Frankenstein assortment of the qualities and features of several products and you can’t have it.

On the other hand, you may get all you need to buy the training motivation and assistance you’re looking for in the following chart of the benefits each class of these devices offers.

If not, I promise a series of posts (post on HR Monitors, post on iPods) about the best of each class of devices over the next few days. A little late for you to return that holiday gadget you got for the one you really need, maybe.  But a good guide for spending that gift certificate.

Here’s the chart of benefits, subject to revision as people make suggestions and wise-guy comments in the spirit of helping me deliver the insight you need.

Benefit	Heart Rate Monitor	Heart  Rate Monitor with GPS	GPS Device	GPS Device with HR Monitoring	HR Monitors with Foot Pod Sensors	iPod with foot  pods for “special” Nike + shoes	iPod with foot Pods held by cheap pouch to accommodate other brands of  shoes	iPhone that Apple hasn’t deigned to let work with Nike pods (but don’t worry, they work with  MapMyRun)
Training at the appropriate level of intensity1	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Gauging fitness improvement2	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Recording mileage and pace automatically3		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Recording mileage, pace and course automatically4		Y	Y	Y				Y
Not having to wear a pod on your shoe 5	Y	Y	Y	Y				Y
Not having to wear a chest strap6						Y	Y	Y
Guiding you home when you get lost on a run7			Y	Y
Being able to read pace and relevant data on the device during your run if you’re over 408
Listening to tunes on your run with pace and progress announcements in headphones9						Y	Y	Y
Having some famous voice recording say “congratulations, that was your best time yet.” 10						Y	Y	Y
Running against a virtual partner11			Y	Y
Running inside a heart-rate zone12	Y	Y		Y
Can wear your favorite brand and model shoe13	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	See next column	Y	Y

1. You really need an audible indication that you've gone out of your desired heart rate zone, so look for that feature

2. Just compare your heart rate and pace on the same workout to see your fitness improvement

3. Every device except a simple heart-rate monitor records pace and distance. Many can also upload to a web-based running journal.

4. Many of the GPS devices can map your runs in conjunction with a website

5. If you only wear one pair of shoes, having a pod on your shoe isn't a huge disadvantage (although some, like the Polar, are big enough to look a little odd). However, if you try to make your shoes last longer by alternating pairs in order to let tthem dry for a day between runs, you'll have to move the pod every day, and that's a pain you can avoid with a GPS

6. Wearing a chest strap isn't really that big a deal, although I sometime go out without it and still find value from recording pace and distance 

7. Okay, finding your way home probably isn't that useful, and in fact is a very rare feature on a running GPS, but useful in case you have an issue when running in an unfamiliar city on a business trip

8. I don't know about you, but many 40 year olds have trouble reading their pace, heart-rate and distance metrics on a small watch face while running.  The iPods can solve some of that problem by reading out time and distance at predetermined intervals or on demand

9. See above

10. Paula Radcliffe made more sense to me than Lance Armstrong, but when you come right down to it, the celebrity aspect isn't as cool as the recognition that you've hit some goal or milestone

11. As far as I know, no one has copied this "race against a pace" feature on the Garmin GPS watches

12. It's probably more useful for your training to stay within a heart-rate zone, but the race a virtual partner can be very motivational

13. No worries about having to choose from a limited number of Nike shoes to use the iPod Sports Kit

The Heart Rate Monitor Specific post is already up!

The iPod Running gadgets post is already up!

Just the GPS running watch post to go!