High-tech Training Made Easy
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Ask my wife and she will tell you I have the slightly annoying habit of checking my own heart rate many times at day. The first measure is when I first wake up (and I can tell you those numbers going back nearly 20 years). The second measure is while I am training, irregardless of the workout's intensity. This is where heart rate measurement becomes even more important is as a tool. Now a devoted spinning student, even my wife can tell me her five heart rate training zones - but the trick is what to do with this information once you have it.
On a recent trip to New York's Tourneau Time machine, I discovered a corner of the store dedicated to a line of multi-function specialty watches I had never heard of (that from a self-proclaimed watch-geek). Suunto (pronounced Soon-toe as far as I know) offers one of the most comprehensive selection of watches for almost every sporting need. From diving watches to sailing watches, and even watches for golfers (the Suunto G6 enables the golfer to check tempo, rhythm, backswing length and club head speed).
For us endurance athletes, there is the Suunto t6, the next generation of heart rate monitors (HRM). In simple terms, a heart rate monitor's usefulness is measured by how easy it is to navigate the various functions. What good is it, if you can't remember how to set the training zones or even access the data collected on your last training run?
I found using the Suunto t6 a breeze after a quick scan of the owner's manual. The Suunto t6 has three basic screen settings - Time / Altimeter / Training. It is from these three basic starting points, that things get very interesting indeed.
The Suunto t6 unit can even be paired with a wireless speed sensor (for the bike) as well as a foot pod to calculate running distance and pace. But that is not what makes the Suunto t6 unique. What separates the Suunto t6 from the rest of the pack is the training manager that comes with it. Plug your Suunto t6 into your computer and now you have a desk top coach to help you analyze the data from not only your individual workout, but from your history of workouts. Once you load your personal data (age, height, weight, resting HR, max HR, level of activity, etc), the training manager takes over from there.
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As Suunto states, the Suunto t6 takes the "guess work out of training".
This unique training software offers;
- Quick and easy training assessment, training calendar for simple planning, training logbook with follow-up reports, log file exchange via e-mail and internet, altitude profile of workout.
- Deeper analysis of training sessions with 7 body parameters: EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption), heart rate, respiration rate, ventilation volume, oxygen intake, energy consumption, training effect.
The graphing capabilities allow you to plot an almost endless list of measures, such as your HR, VO2, and breathing frequency verses the altitude change of a specific training session. The Suunto t6 also charts another very unique measure called Excess Post-Exercise Consumption (EPOC for short). This EPOC value is then used to measure the "Training Effect" or the value of a specific workout (or even series of workouts) in improving your overall fitness level.
There are five training effect categories: 1. Minor/recovering effect, 2. Maintaining effect, 3. Improving effect, 4. Highly improving effect, 5. Overreaching
The Calendar View will monitor your body of training and see first hand if you are working sufficiently hard to make improvements in overall fitness, yet still giving the body ample time to recover by watching the progression of the EPOC values (are you avoiding overreaching?). The Suunto t6 comes with a Training Guidebook, which goes well beyond just teaching one how to use the computer training manager, as it provides a great lesson in sound training philosophies and goes to great lengths to describe the various performance measures in simple enough terms (such as heart rate reserve, respiratory and ventilation rates, oxygen consumption, etc).
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The writer - Mikael Hanson is a founder of Enhance Sports, a multi-sport coaching and racing company based in New York City. Visit them on the web at www.Enhancesports.com
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