Knowing how fast your heart rate should be while training for a triathlon is very important because the event requires a high level of fitness and endurance. Triathletes swim, bicycle and run in the same race. The distance of a triathlon varies, but international distance triathlons, the most common of the four triathlons, consist of a 0.62- to 1.2-mile swim, a 15.5- to 31-mile bicycle race and a 3.1- to 6.2-mile run.
Explanation
Your heart rate zones while exercising are based on your maximum and training heart rates. Your maximum heart rate is approximately 220 heartbeats per minute minus your age. If you're 40, your MHR is 180. The training heart rate is expressed as a percentage of your maximum heart rate. If your training heart rate is 70 percent, you are exercising at 70 percent of your MHR or 126 heartbeats per minute if you are 40.
Improving Your Heart
Your heart pumps more blood in each heartbeat as it becomes more accustomed to exercising at higher heart rates, according to the "Swim, Bike, Run" book. This improves your per heartbeat speed and allows you to move at faster speeds at lower heart rates than you had previously been able to achieve only at higher rates. You should exercise your heart daily. "Swim, Bike, Run" recommends five to eight hours of exercise weekly, but you shouldn't do the same exercise on consecutive days because your skeletal muscles need 24 hours rest.
Types of Exercise
Seven types of exercise with varying heart rate zones prepare you for a triathlon--additional resistance intervals, developmental speed, long aerobic, race pace, regular intervals, short aerobic and strength. In the early stages of preparation, most exercises should be long aerobic, the exercise which requires the least intensity and lowest heart rates, according to "Swim, Bike, Run." As the race approaches, you should do more interval and race pace exercises.
Aerobic Exercises
Aerobic exercises are continuous exercises. They improve your ability to perform when you are fatigued by increasing your fuel supply and oxygen consumption. Long aerobic swimming, bicycling and running exercises last more than an hour and should be performed with your heart beating at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Your heart rate zone for short aerobic exercises should be 70 to 80 percent of your MHR.
Interval Exercises
Interval exercises are more intense aerobic exercises, according to "Swim, Bike, Run." Your training heart rate during your interval swimming, bicycling and running exercises should be 80 to 90 percent of your MHR, according to "Swim, Bike, Run." Regular interval exercises are done on flat land while the winds are calm or in calm water. Additional resistance interval exercises are done on hills, while it is windy or when there are a lot of waves.
Other Exercises
Race pace swimming, bicycling and running exercises should be done most often four to 16 weeks before a race. They require a heart rate zone of 90 to 95 percent of maximum heart rate. Throughout your training, you should do strength training exercises with a heart rate zone of 60 to 70 percent of MHR because it "builds stronger tendons and ligaments than endurance training alone," "Swim, Bike, Run" says. Developmental speed exercises are 20-second bursts of race pace exercises every 15 minutes and require a race pace MHR.
References
- "Swim, Bike, Run"; Glenn Town and Todd Kearney; 1994
- "The Merck Manual of Medical Information"; 1999
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
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