Racing with HR

This reflects only my own experience and view on HR and racing. I have never found training and racing HR to be similar: a HR where I am ‘redlining’ in training can be one that I can hold for an hour or longer in a race.

Skyrace-type events often have such variable terrain that I have to make tactical decisions on the spot that are based on how I feel, such as when the group around me splits into a slightly faster pace and slightly slower pace, and when and where in the race that split might be; whether I am on a steep, hands-on-knees 200 m climb or steady, semi-runnable 1000 m climb, what terrain follows that climb – if it is a downhill then I have some recovery time, but if it is a highly runnable section I do not want to come off the climb maxed out; is it 21 or 42 km (or longer), etc. None of these mimic training conditions and are not captured in training HR, so it would be hard to know what HR to use and at which points in the race to use it as a limiter (my racing HR can vary by ?60 bpm, and more if I include feed stations). The only time this approach failed was my first mountain race 11 years ago: it was awesome for 28 km and awful for the remaining 15 km. HR was not the problem.

In races when I have worn a HR strap, I look at HR only from a curiosity perspective (observations such as ‘wow, didn’t know I could maintain that HR for an hour’), and the race (50 km, ±3000 m vert) where I probably came the absolute closest to a perfect race in terms of where I think the limits of my abilities are, I took an old watch without GPS or HR.

Some discussion of this also occurred previously:

How fast do I run on race day?

Racing by feel requires discipline. It really requires knowing whether you can sustain the effort or if that effort is continued too long you will blow up. This is an experience question maybe. But as I wrote, I have found that my racing HR is just not relatable to training HR: what I can sustain for an intense hour uphill in a mountain race is nothing I can do for even a half-hour in training. So those numbers provide me with no useful guidance, and I have to go from ’feel’. But it requires self-honesty — if a break in a group happens you have to be really honest as to where to be. Admittedly my running pre-dates widely available HR and GPS watches (I remember when an 8-lap Timex Ironman was a novelty), so I am restrictive in their use.

Since Pikes Peak was mentioned I’ll chime in as I’ve raced there quite a bit and consider it my “favorite” race of all. My best years at PPM I used HR as a limiter in the early part of the race (the first 10K when nobody seems to entertain the idea of powerhiking what are some of the steepest sections of the course). The limit I set for myself was roughly my LTHR and I did it mostly to keep my race-crazed brain in check as a (somewhat) objective threshold.

This worked very well and I set my PRs on the course and beat all of my personal rivals (as a flatlander though, it’s hard to truly be competitive in that race overall).

HOWEVER, those “best” years also happened to coincide with my best fitness so it’s hard to say if the HR method was the difference or just a contributor.

Enjoying the discussion though, much of what has been said has gone through my mind as well.

I did my first organized 50k recently. 6500ft total vert, and about 1200ft right off the starting line. Going by my perceived pace/effort on that type grade, and “calibrated ventilation,” I felt that I was starting out ok. But my HR was mid-150s, and I should be running a 6 hour event at mid-130s. Weather was cool. It worried me at first, but I just stopped looking at my watch and settled in.

HR stayed way above what I would have aimed for, over the entire event. But I finished strong, doing the last tough 8.5 miles of each loop just nine seconds apart.

So…race day HR might be a little on the high side and still be OK. Excitement, competition, caffeine, etc.