It’s totally natural for runners to use distance as a goal, but if you’re training for that first marathon, just reaching a good 18-mile run on the weekend isn’t going to get you there, especially if the race is a few months off.
Using your heart rate and keeping your runs within a target zone training plan will better prepare you, says Andrew Dorn, store manager at Front Runner Athletics in Hixson. “From a training perspective, heart rate monitors allow you to keep those hard days hard and those easy days easy,” Dorn says. “They provide data you can use daily.”
For example, using just pace to rate your run can be deceptive when you factor in the heat and fatigue.
“Heart rate monitors give you more objective data, it’s numerical and helps you track beats per minute and percentage of max, which help you stay in your zone training.”
Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor