RE: [RC] HRM's and Increasing Intensity - Mike Sofen
Nothing absolute at all. We’re
talking about pushing a horse into a new zone of physical output. How
many of you would attempt to run a marathon without reasonable prep and
monitoring of your own vital signs during training and the event? Will
you die if you don’t wear your HRM during a workout? Probably not.
Will you achieve the training goals you set for yourself that day? How on
earth will you know?
I am keenly tuned in to my horse, and,
there is no way I can tell when she drops below a HR of 110 (recovery HR) after
a long hill climb. I can GUESS, nothing more. Are you saying you
can do this, or are you saying it doesn’t matter? Two very
different statements. My personal opinion is, guessing doesn’t work
for the type of workouts I’m talking about. They are very
structured, and we need to be able measure differences over days. I know
when my horse is tired, I want to know HOW tired. A HRM gives me that
info unambiguously (at least mine does).
Yes, you could do this simply by measuring
time and distance, but that’s a pretty crude yardstick, since those are
external measures from the horse itself.
Mike Sofen
In all cases, in my opinion, it is
foolish to attempt to increase
> the workout intensity of a horse without a heart rate monitor
> being used every time the horse is ridden. The notion that
> "I know my horse so I don't need a heart rate monitor" only
> works for casual, slow riding.
A pretty
"absolute" statement...
In my
opinion, if one cannot truly "read" their horse well enough to stress
him during intense workouts without hurting them, then (perhaps) THAT skill
should be honed and developed...even if it means using a HRM for some,
until the ability to "read" the horse is acquired.
The horse relies on the rider to care for it. If
someone "needs" a HRM to do that, then okay, use it. But,
for me, why would someone increase the intensity of workouts and rely on
numbers on a watchband to tell how the horse is faring and whether the
horse is progressing or getting hurt?
Why not
improve the rider's ability to read the horse rather than a watchband?
That takes time and a closeness with each horse ridden...and (I
reiterate), if that means using an HRM, that's probably okay, I just
wouldn't blindly rely on one...
