Heather: So many of us are reliant on numbers when it comes to our training and our racing,
but what would happen if we ditched the watch? Well, training to feel can actually be a very
effective method as long as you listen to the cues and you go by perceived effort, so
what have we got to lose? Let's give it a go.
[music] Heather: Whether you're new to training or
you're simply looking for a break from the numbers, then this is the video for you. I
am delighted to rewind, take things back to basics and tune in to our bodies. Well, you
might be asking, "What will we be missing?" Well, if you currently don't train with a
watch then you're not missing anything. That's brilliant but stick with us because we've
got some tips coming up later on. If however, you do train to numbers then you're
probably going to miss having heart rate to give you that feedback on how hard you're
working. You might be missing pace telling you how fast you're going. If you have a permit
on your bike then you might be missing that guidance too.
We've ditched the watch, so how do you know how hard to train? Obviously, you'd usually
use heart rate for that. Instead, we're going to have to use perceived effort. Unless, of
course, you've got a heart condition then you obviously need to monitor your heart rate
closely. Otherwise, we can go off feel, and there's various scales to do this.
One of which is the Borg scale of perceived exertion, and that's actually a scale that
goes from 6 up to 20. 6 being zero effort, so no effort at all up to 20 being your absolute
maximum, and there's a few clear pointers on the scale, I just need to actually check
to share these with you. We've got at 7, that's extremely light, then
up to 11 would be light, 15 would be hard, 19 extremely hard. Those are just a few pointers
on that scale. Now, I personally prefer to use a scale of 1 to 10 because it just I think
keeps it a little bit more straight forward. Obviously, 1 being extremely light effort,
0 would be no effort, and then 10 would be your maximum and you have to work out the
points in between that. Only you're going to know how hard maximum
is and you've got to work out those gaps in between, but before ditching your watch you
could actually use it to help you work out your perceived effort. If you work out your
heart rate zones and you can run in each of those zones and really think about okay, zone
1 this feels like 2 out of 10, for example. Then work it out from that, so you've got
that memory bargain. Use conversation to help too. Bear with me
on this one. Yes, I actually speak out loud sometimes when I'm training without a watch
because it just helps me to work out how hard I'm working. For example, if I was doing a
threshold hard effort and I could get a full sentence out, I know I need to work a little
bit harder and then you could use that in the other way. Say you've got a zone 1 or
a zone 2 nice easy bike or run, then go with a friend that you want to have a really good
chat with. If it becomes too difficult to talk, you know
you're probably working too hard and we can actually put that into the scale. If you've
got your heart rate zones, we can just transfer over to that one out of 1 to 10. For example,
2 to 4 is a very light effort, at zone 1, and that would be 50% to 60% of your maximum
heart rate and you should be able to have a normal conversation like I am now.
Then we've got zones 4 to 5 which is light, zone 2, 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate
and that's going to be a conversation with a few breath intervals, but still a flowing
conversation. Now we move up to 5 to 7 out of 10. That's where the moderate work starts
to happen, you're in zone 3 and at 70% to 80% of your maximum heart rate.
Your sentences will get a little bit shorter, you will need to stop and take a breath, obviously
not stop your exercise but take a breath in between those sentences and you'll start to
find that you won't be able to talk quite as fluently as before.
Now, we reach 7 to 9, this is where the hard work happens, this is a hard effort in zone
4, so you're at 80% to 90% of that maximum heart rate and really you should only manage
one or two words before needing to really get your breath back, so it's going to be
not a particularly sociable effort. Then, of course, we have 10 out of 10 which is maximum,
90% to 100% of your maximum heart rate and, no, you shouldn't be able to talk at that
level. [music]
Speaker: Heart rate isn't the only metric you're going to be missing, what about pace?
Well, unless you are cycling on a flat road with no wind, you're running on a smooth surface
where there's no hills or you're swimming somewhere with zero current and it's completely
flat water, your pace is unlikely to stay the same even if you're putting in continuous
effort. Actually training to pace can be a little
bit limiting, because of that. So embrace perceived effort and you can get a lot more
out of your training. Training to feel does come with some challenges, of course. You
can't start to overthink everything and analyze every bit of effort which defeats the object
because the whole point of this is being able to relax and purely embrace going through
the motions and actually doing the training itself and you have to learn to listen to
your body. Yes, I've talked about that already, but some
days you just might not be feeling it and you need to back off and let your body recover
and it will come back stronger the next day. Other days if you're feeling good then go
ahead and push it a bit. You've got a bit more freedom to adapt your
training and it is a fine line between working out if you're just feeling a little bit lazy
and lethargic or actually if your body is tired and needs a rest. It comes with practice,
not the being lazy part, obviously, but understanding where that line is and sometimes you might
make a mistake and overtrain a little bit but you'll soon learn, trust me.
Then if you're being coached it does pose some challenges because, obviously, coaches,
especially if they're working with you remotely, want to see numbers so they can help analyze
exactly how your training is going, but speak with your coach and try to adapt those numbers
to your perceived effort. It will take a little bit more communication to start with. When
I first started training for an Ironman I didn't have a smartwatch of any sort, I purely
put my phone in my pocket and recorded my speed on Strava and no heart rate.
When it came to running I just used a stopwatch and I'd got to a fairly decent level with
that, I must admit that I think my coach was relieved when I did get a smartwatch for Christmas.
[music] Speaker: Let's break each discipline down
and have a closer look on how you can use RP, rate of perceived exertion. With swimming,
there's quite a few options here, and obviously, if you're doing open water you're going to
struggle to see pace or use a watch anyway. You can start off by using your strokes as
a measurement of a duration, so say you want to do some intervals, well, focus on working
hard for say 50 strokes, then do 20 strokes easy and repeat that and you know you've got
the set same time each time and you can even measure that if you wanted or if you had a
distance between two buoys then you can use that as your hard effort.
You've also got the option of, well, I guess just listening to your breath and how hard
you're working. Say you're swimming at 1 effort and you're quite comfortable in a bilateral
breathing pattern and then that gets too difficult and you need to opt to 2 breathing pattern,
well, that will show you've got a change in effort. At the end of the day there with swimming,
a lot of your work needs to be on technique. Which, obviously, a watch will bring no advantage
there anyway. [music]
Heather: Ride with a club and you'll soon see evidence that you don't need to have metrics
to be a good cyclist. It's amazing how many still don't actually have bike computers or
if they do it's there purely for a navigational tool. Now cycling effort is dictated by who
you're riding with, the terrain, and even the weather conditions.
If you do want to do a set distance when it comes to efforts, then stay local and you
can plan your route according to road signs or maybe choose a nice hill to do reps up
and you'll soon get a good work out of that one.
If you want to ride in a group or with friends but you're intending on sticking to a training
program, let them know what your intended effort is for that day. You could say you're
just sticking to zone 1 or 2 then you're going to do a lot of drafting, it's probably best
you let your friends know first. [music]
Heather: Finally, we've got running and a lot of the cycling tips cross over here. Conversation
levels are a brilliant tool as I've already mentioned and hill reps are brilliant for
getting in those hard bits of work where heart rate and pace really don't matter, and if
you're doing really short intervals it's actually best to ignore heart rate because of the lag
you get. Then you can use friends to help pace you.
Say you've got a friend who runs naturally at a pace that's just a little bit uncomfortable
for you, well, if you've got a zone 3 tempo effort, ask them to join you.
Optimizing fitness and progression is all about that balance between pushing your body
hard and recovering adequately and, yes, your watch will give you numbers and metrics to
help measure that. Only you know how you feel on the day and quite often our body will give
us warning signs before it'll even show up on the numbers and it's easy to ignore that
when you're focusing on training to numbers with your watch or you know you've got a hard
session planned that day, but you can get a lot more out of yourself if you do start
to just tune in and listen a little bit more. Again, it's working at that fine line between
fatigue and lack of fitness, something I've realized recently during lockdown. Well, anyway,
the whole point of this is to bring it back to basics and for you to just go out there
and purely enjoy training, and now is a great time to do a little bit of an experiment with
that. Actually, Mark Fraser and I did our own experiment
recently where we headed out to run 10k or at least try to run 10k. We got rid of our
watches and we just went to see how good we were at gauging our pace and distance. Turned
out, I wasn't that great but if you want to have a watch go and check that video out.
Remember, give us a like and you can follow us on our social media channels too.
[00:09:22] [END OF AUDIO]