Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot Paperback – August 1, 2009

I'm a triathlete and have been doing winter maintenance training that includes 2 Zone 2 runs a week. My Zone 2 HR is what Parker has as the 70% ceiling. I've had a horrible time with it because it's SO slow and it frustrates the heck out of me. How am I supposed to get faster if I'm running at a pace that's 3 minutes per mile slower than I can do a 5k? I'm not a distance runner, so that makes me even LESS tolerant of slow paces. But... I'm also one who realizes that I am not an expert in training the right way and have spent many, MANY weeks nursing one running injury or another and having to take time off because I'm burned out from running. Of the 3 sports for tri, running is the one I don't particularly enjoy.I got this book and Parker explains WHY running at this crazy slow pace will help me run at a faster pace when it's race time, and how it will help keep me from burning out and injuring myself, and how after a few weeks of suffering through the embarrassingly slow pace, I will see that that slow pace is somewhat less slow and I'll keep the HR in the target zone.I have only been following it for a few runs, to be honest. Until I actually read WHY I want to be training like this, I had decided Zone 2 was too slow and it was stupid. I was going to run how I feel. Now I'm actually putting it into practice. My speed hasn't increased yet, but I'm finding it easier to keep my HR in the target zone, which I couldn't do at all when I started. I'm able to deal with the longer runs better than I was and look forward to my hard runs more.I've got just about 6 weeks left of winter maintenance and then I start bringing in a higher level of training. I'm thinking that this method will have served me well when it's time to go!

If you search the web, you are hard pressed to find any info about this book. Why? I have no idea. Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot is a fantastic book for runners of any level. I loaned my copy out, and simply bought another for myself.John L. Parker does a fantastic job breaking down the complex physiology of heart rate monitor training into a readable yet informative text. It truely is heart rate training for the complete idiot (like me). Runners of any level will benefit from learning the principles Parker puts forth in the book.This book should be a part of EVERY runner's library. By the way, I am 48 and a mid to back of the pack runner.I have read some comments about Parker's training schedules from the book, and they are legitimate concerns. But if any runner learns the principles within the book, they can be applied to your own, individual training schedule.I only wish John Parker had a website or some other non-fiction to read. He is only known for his novel "Once A Runner", but nothing is ever mentioned about this masterpiece.2 thumbs up!

I am not a competitive athlete. I don't even run. I bought this book in order to try to understand the heart rate monitor and it's uses, hoping it would make training more interesting. I own an eliptical trainer (for warming up and cooling down) and an indoor rower (my 'main machine'). I train to gain general fitness and keep my back from complaining. My work is such that I can't train every day of the week.The general tone of the book is conversational, encouraging and mr. Parker obviously knows all the shortcuts and excuses runners use to try to get results faster. He can also explain why they don't work very clearly.I got more than I expected. First of all, you need to find out your maximum and minimum heart rate in order to really work with this book. A challenging prospect since I live in the Netherlands and I needed a hill to find out what it was. My brother and I made a trip to the dunes to find a suitable hill, and both of us came home with surprising results. We were also quite exhausted! You need to put effort into this part, but I definitely recommend really doing the work to find your personal maximum and not being satisfied with a calculated estimation. It made all the difference in the world to my training. I turned out to have a rather low maximum, so never realised why I always came up short! John Parker helped me find out why. My brother turned out to have a high maximum for his age. Estimations wouldn't do him justice, either.Using the new information and training schedules I suddenly started to improve by leaps and bounds: more energy, better health, weight loss and an overall joy in seeing my performance improve. I've started to make my slow rows longer (regularly doing 10 k) and my fast rows more interesting with interval work. I can adapt all the training schedules in his book to my rower.There are training schedules for beginners (and no, I don't think he expects you to run the full distance, just keep your heart rate in the right zone for that particular distance!) for intermediates and for the better runners out there. There is info for those who engage in other sports. There is even information about the oddities you might encounter while working with a heart rate monitor.I personally didn't need to read the succes stories included in the book. Some of you out there might need to. Like me, you will probably need all the encouragement mr. Parker can and does give you to give his method a try. Some might find his tone a bit patronizing, I thought it was funny. I do recommend you try it though. It made a huge difference for me!

I've used the plan laid out in this book to train for running events off and on for many years. The results never fail to impress me (as long as I follow directions!). The authors instructions are easy to follow, written in an encouraging and positive manner, applicable across a wide array of sports, and most importantly: driven by data and science. Frankly, it was harder to follow the instructions to set up my heart rate monitor than to read this book and understand the concepts provided therein. Overall, I highly recommend it.

This is a great book with very helpful information for runners. It was delivered on time and the cost was great. Highly recommend.

This is an excellent book, very much aimed at runners, although there is a chapter aimed at other sports. The author wants readers to use their HRM to adjust their training, explaining in detail what to do as well as setting out broad principles. I particularly enjoyed the case studies and anecdotes: different people have very different experiences. The style of the book is informal and engaging.One slight criticism: the book was first published in 1993, though since updated, and in places it shows its age. For example, lactic acid gets blamed for muscle pain - an idea that is now deprecated. The author says you can generally set HRMs 'alarm' limits to the nearest 5 beats per minute: my bottom-of-the-range monitor lets me set them to the nearest beat. The book still deserves all the stars allowed.How did it work for me? A week after I first used my HRM I am delighted with the book and the monitor. On purchase day, a Saturday, I rushed off to run up a hill so I could find my maximum heart rate. I then ran ten miles as fast as I could. I did not need the HRM to keep slow on Sunday - sore legs (DOMS). By Monday I felt ready for a hard run, but I had followed the book's advice & measured my waking pulse: it was high. This is a possible indication of overtraining, so I ran slow with the monitor again. Ditto Tuesday & Wednesday. Pulse better on Thursday, but that's a rest day. Come Friday my pulse was 50, which is currently OK, so I ran a seven-mile course I know well. I have must have run it 50 times against the clock in the last 10 years, and knew that I was unlikely to improve by more than a minute over the time set fortnight ago. Actual improvement: 4 minutes. The HRM revealed overtraining I had not noticed.HRMs are not cheap, and this book has helped me get value from mine. I feel it has already paid for itself.

Superb book! It was recommended to me, and even after all these years, it's still very useful!!!

Like many people I know, I had a heart rate monitor for years but it was really just a novelty gadget. I wasn't making any use of the numbers it displayed because I didn't really know how to.I was searching for a training plan to prepare for my first half marathon. I found it really difficult to choose one from the countless alternatives because I was confused by the intensity required for individual workouts. Some plans were based on pace derived from recent race times. I found some workouts in these plans too hard whilst others seemed too easy. Other types of plan were based upon perceived exertion but I couldn't understand the imprecise terms used to describe the required intensity e.g. slow vs easy vs comfortable vs hard vs tempo. I also had no clue how to pace myself in the actual race and I knew this was an issue for distances over 10K. I suspected that a heart rate monitor could be a way of using a bit of science to optimise my training and pacing myself during the race but I couldn't work out how.I asked for some help on a running magazine forum and somebody recommended this book. I'm so glad they did because it is brilliant. It answered all my questions and was the basis for a very productive training plan for me.After 10 short pages, you will know how to use your HRM to properly control your training intensity during a workout - probably for the first time ever. After the next 25 pages you will have refined it so that the thresholds you use are the right ones for your body. You will then want to read the rest of the book to convince yourself that the counterintuitive message is believable i.e. you have to train slower to be able to go faster. You still probably won't believe it but the testimonies in the book from people who have tried it will likely persuade you to try for yourself.You will have to exercise great discipline to do the easy workouts at or below 70% of your WHR. Even the slightest little incline on familiar routes will have you walking at first and it is really hard to believe that the workout can be doing you any good if you have to go that slow. However, you get back home feeling energised and refreshed instead of knackered. If you stick with it for a few weeks then you notice yourself being able to continue jogging up those hills without having to walk and your pace gets quicker for the same level of intensity on the flat. You also find that you have to go much faster for the hard sessions to get your heart rate up to the required level. The result is more enjoyable training, less injuries and faster times.I find that the training plans in the book aren't suitable for me because even the novice plans have you running five days a week and I can't do that. However, you can easily take the principles and adapt other plans to suit your circumstances. That's what I did and I easily completed my first half marathon. What's better is that I am eager to carry on training for more events in future. In the past I usually gave up either because of injury or because training was so hard, it ceased to become enjoyable.

Easy to understand good book if you are just starting heart rate training. Also checkout the book Heart Rate Training by Roy Benson.