Heart Rate Training Nick Hill Style

It should be made clear that everything from here on out comes from the mind of a pretty amateur athlete without any type of degree in human physiology, or even the knowledge one gains from a college-level biology class. Instead most of what I know comes from my years of cycling and running and an almost constant obsession with numerical data.

I’ve been training with heart rate monitors (HRMs) for about 3 or 4 years now. The idea is that either by checking your pulse or using a chest strap that detects your beating heart, your heart rate can be measured and transmitted to some device (usually just a watch) that gives you continual updates. I first started to think they might be something useful after riding those stationary bikes at the college gym that had a HRM integrated into the system. But I also hated riding a stationary bike. So, while I was racing and training for my bike ride across America, I opted to buy the cheapest HRM I could find and started using it for all my workouts.

There are a lot of ways that you’re supposed to use the information you gain from a HRM. They’re all related to this idea of a max heart rate and a bunch of other info determined from equations that are not entirely accurate. As such, I almost completely ignore them. So, then why in the world do I use a HRM?

It lets me know how many matches I have to burn.

In cycling, there’s always talk about how all these guys are attacking each other back and forth as they ride up a mountain pass. Each time a rider attacks, the other riders have to quickly accelerate to stay with the guy, or their races are over. And with each of those accelerations, there’s a good chance they’re exerting themselves more than they’d like. The measure of “more than they like” is really what is referred to as a lactate threshold. Once you start crossing that threshold in an endurance race, it’s downhill because lactic acid streams into your blood, making everything hurt just a bit more. And so they’ve burned a match. Eventually, their body has produced so much lactic acid that they’ve burnt through all their matches, and they can no longer keep up with the race’s pace.

Over the years I’ve been able to ascertain a rough region of my heart rate that corresponds to my lactate threshold just by measuring my exertion, pain, and heart rate (I know it’s not the proper way to determine lactate threshold). And so as I run, I can keep an eye on my exertion and how many matches I have to burn via a HRM. It ultimately means I have a better idea what’s going on with my body. And that knowledge helps me dole out my exertions a bit more carefully, so I don’t get burnt out halfway through a run. Additionally, I know that if my heart rate is lower for a given pace and distance than it was a week ago, I now have a tangible artifact showing an increase in strength. This makes my Garmin Forerunner 110 a great device for me. I can monitor my heart rate while knowing what my running pace is and search for correlation.

If you’re interested in training with a HRM the way I do, my (proceed at your own risk) advice is to grab a relatively cheap HRM (usually no more than $50-60). Then over a series of workouts begin watching your heart rate to see how it goes with an exertion. A great way to do this is with interval training, where you briefly (no more than 2-3 minutes) go all out and watch your heart rate to see you at what point you begin physically breaking down. Back off for a few minutes and repeat the heavy effort. With time and consistency, you’ll be able to paint a picture of your body’s limits and can begin stretching them to improve your fitness. It’s kind of a fun thing.

Additionally, after painting this picture, you can then begin using the HRM to understand how much effort you are/should be putting into a given workout. For example, on my LSD runs, I know around what levels I should be keeping my heart rate at and can keep myself in that region.

If you’re curious, you can check out the info from my most recent runs with the toolbar on the right. The links open up a page to my Garmin Connect account where you can see my heart rate data coupled with pace, distance, and elevation information. Notice how elevation often correlates pretty closely to heart rate.

Aside: I think it is really easy to get “teched out” with regard to using too many data devices during exercise. I think it’s important for you to understand exactly what you’re looking to get out of using a HRM or GPS watch or whatever else device you have. For me, I settle for the simpler devices because they fit with what I want in my training. For you, that may mean a more elaborate device or, perhaps, no devices. It’s all up to you.

Winter Running Survival Guide

I live in Wisconsin. If you haven’t spoken to my mother this week or missed out on hearing of Bon Iver and the album recorded in Wisconsin’s wintry cabin, you might not know it gets cold here during the winter. I guess that’s not totally unforgivable.

But it means that if you’re going to train for a spring marathon, hate treadmills, and working out indoors, you’re going to have to deal with some freezing temperatures. And possibly some slippery ice. Oh, and just being cold. But wait! It’s not actually that bad.

Everyone has their own methods for surviving cold weather running. But there are a few guiding principles that I’ll outline with my own practices.

1. If you’re warm when you start your run, you WILL be drenched in sweat by the end of it. I promise. It’s better to be a little chilly at the start and warm up through the run. A good rule of thumb is to dress as if you were going for a walk with the temperature 20 degrees higher. So, if it’s 20 out, dress like you’re walking in 40. I prefer to be a little cooler than most when I run, so I usually opt for adding 30 degrees rather than 20.
2. Layering will save you. If you get hot, you can remove stuff. But also, it means you don’t need to go buy that new fancy whatever for the special winter weather. Just throw on a long sleeve shirt, a windbreaker, and possibly a baselayer, and you’ll be good into the teens. And be aware that the pocket of air between your layers even acts as insulation. It’s like an extra free jacket! (sort of...)
3. Head, fingers, and toes! Wear a cap. Cover up those fingers with gloves, and make sure your socks keep those toes (and ankles!) warm. On really cold days, I wear two pairs of gloves even. For that inch of ankle that’s bare between your tights/pants and your shoe, make sure you have a few pairs of socks that will cover that up. Sure, I love no show socks, but covering that inch of skin makes your day so much better. Additionally, a neck gaiter is nice on the really cold days.
4. Keep your feet under you. Probably the worst part of all the cold weather running is when sidewalks and streets freeze over. Usually it’s not an issue. Mostly, I just pay attention, run during daylight, and skip over sections of ice. But what saves me in those instances when I can’t spot the ice is keeping my feet under me. So, don’t over-stride. Besides being bad running form and possibly doing a number on your knees, it puts your feet in front of you causing you to apply a force parallel to the ground. What that means is you’re more likely to lose traction and take a dive. Keeping your feet directly under you means most of your weight applies a force perpendicular to the ground, rather than parallel to it. Consequently, you stay on your feet. Trust me. I have a (few) physics degree(s).
5. Knowing that you’re training for an end goal keeps you getting out there and toughing it out. So, sign up for a race. It doesn’t have to be a marathon. But just a 5K, a 10K, or whatever keeps you motivated and out there running. This is true for me now, and even in the past when I did track in high school and cycling in college (and cold weather cycling is muuuuuuch worse than cold weather running).



If possible, grow a beard. Sure, it keeps your face a little warmer, but mostly, it makes you feel more badass while running. Especially when ice forms on it.

Treating Diabetes for Me

My current diabetes treatment isn’t quite the same as when I was first diagnosed. I no longer take insulin injections, but rather use an insulin pump to administer insulin into my body. It basically looks like an old school pager with a funny tube hanging out of it. That tube is connected to my body via a small plastic catheter at an infusion site on my stomach. On the other end of that tube inside the insulin pump is a reservoir of Humalog insulin.

Humalog is a type of fast acting insulin, like R. However, it is more rapid acting. Within 5 minutes of entering the body, it begins moving blood glucose out of the blood to cells. Its “efficiency” peaks about 45 minutes after injection and ceases any function after about 3 hours. R on the other hand takes about 45 minutes after injection to begin functioning at all. NPH, being a slow acting insulin, takes about 3 hours to start its job.

The strength of the pump is that it basically allows me to give myself tons of injections of tiny amounts of insulin. It accomplishes this by keeping that catheter in me at all times. Additionally, since Humalog is a fast acting insulin, if need be I can program the pump to alter my dosage with almost immediate results. With an injection, you have to either hope the amount of insulin you gave yourself earlier isn’t too much to incite low blood sugar (ie: hypoglycemia) or hope that it wasn’t too little to cause high blood sugar (ie: hyperglycemia), which may mean another syringe and injection. Basically with the pump, I have a little more inflexibility by way of having something attached to me all the time, but I get a little more flexibility in how I can treat my diabetes.

Now, to mirror the basal and bolus treatment I outlined with injections in the previous post, I administer insulin two different ways with my pump. The basal is done by continuously giving me insulin at a rate I program into the pump (usually quantified as a unit per hour, where a unit is scientifically recognized as 0.001 mL). This is important because sometimes you need less insulin at night than you do during the day or vice-versa. But ultimately it’s kind of a like an IV drip.

The bolus is taken care of by having the pump deliver extra insulin whenever I sit down to begin a meal. I do this by counting how many carbs I plan on eating and then using a ratio of insulin to carbs to figure out how much insulin to administer (eg: at dinner I give myself 1 unit of insulin for every 10 grams of carbohydrates I consume).

In between all of these measurements of insulin doses, I also have to keep an eye on my blood glucose with my (aptly titled) glucose meter. Ideally, I try to keep my glucose between 90-130 mg/dL (that’s milligrams per deciliter). That’s considered a roughly normal range and keeps me feeling all right without any symptoms of hypo or hyperglycemia.

There are definitely a lot of caveats and changes I make to this formulation given circumstances (eg: using my pump to treat glucose levels above 130), but basically this is my life with diabetes. I promise it’s not as bad as it sounds. If anything, I promise I can tell you the nutritional facts on just about any food you can throw at me. And it certainly hasn’t kept me from living a normal life.

My Diagnosis

I’m not certain what I did to piss off my body to the point to make it think attacking my insulin producing beta cells was a good idea, but I like to think I was innocent in the affair. What I do know is I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on June 2nd, 1997 at the age of 10. Fortunate to me, because my younger brother had been diagnosed far earlier in his life, my mother took notice quickly when I began exhibiting typical symptoms of hyperglycemia (ie: excess of glucose in your blood). Particularly, I was perpetually thirsty (nothing will quench the thirst of a burgeoning diabetic), and I literally had to urinate every 15 minutes. She checked my blood glucose level to find it was far above that of someone with regular insulin function.

I was consequently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before hospitalization from DKA became necessary; by far, the most common introduction most type 1’s experience in their introduction to diabetes. From that point on, I began the regimen of twice daily injections of NPH and Regular insulin to act in the stead of the insulin my pancreas no longer made. NPH insulin is a “slow acting” insulin and acts to treat the base level absence of insulin in diabetics. Basically, this just covers the constant removal of glucose from the blood that any person requires even if they are fasting.

R is a “fast acting” insulin you take near a meal time that works to remove the sudden influx of glucose you experience when you eat any meal featuring carbohydrates (ie: bread, grains, sugar, etc.). There are different types of insulin and ways to administer it, but the typical prescription’s goal follows the outline above: You need to care for the base absence of insulin in the body, and then you need to also have the insulin care for the influx of glucose due to eating. Respectively, we refer to these different utilizations as the basal and the bolus. I’ll get back to these in the next entry.

But I guess this is the point where I should talk about how my life was never the same after that day or something. And I guess in a noticeable way it did change, but the truth is I’m a rather pragmatic person, even at the age of 10. Sure I had difficulties controlling my glucose levels at times, especially in my early teens (we’ll get to that later), but I felt better if I controlled my diabetes (which really means controlling your glucose levels). And there’s nothing to do about it for the present. So, I just sucked it up and got on with my life. That was a lot better than pouting about it.

Diabetes 101

As I'm surely going to spend a lot of time discussing diabetes on this blog, especially type 1 diabetes, I figured it's best if I give some background to the disorder as well as some info about how I personally manage my diabetes. So, consider this part 1, where I discuss the disease. Part 2 and 3 will discuss my diagnosis and current treatment.

There are two specific types of diabetes. They are known rather simply as Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is an auto-immune disorder in which a person’s body attacks and destroys the insulin producing beta cells of the pancreas. Type 2 involves the development of insulin resistance and/or a relative insulin deficiency.

As several of you are probably aware, the occurrence of either of these scenarios is a big deal. Insulin is the only hormone in the body that facilitates the removal of glucose (in so many words, sugar) from the blood and its passage into cells (eg: muscle, liver cells, etc.). There are many and several problems associated with not having insulin complete this task. If you’re ever in a doctor’s office, they usually get thrown under the umbrella term of “complications.” There are the “acute” or short lasting problems of diabetic ketoacidosis (ie: DKA, imagine your blood literally turning into acid), diabetic coma, or the very common hypoglycemia that can ultimately lead to seizures; then there are the "chronic" problems most people hear about that result in heart problems, blindness, and loss of feeling in one’s extremities (ie: feet and hands).

To prevent these complications, the goal of any diabetic is maintain blood glucose levels as close as possible to those of a person with normal insulin function. I am in no way equipped to speak on all the different methods for doing just that. And different methods work better and worse for different people. In general, they are all combinations of the same things though: Exercise, frequent blood glucose monitoring, finding the right balance of diabetes related prescriptions for you, and paying close attention to what food goes into your body.

It’s often a lot to ask of someone to take care of all those things. But as a diabetic, you eventually learn that they are necessary steps in order to live a good, enjoyable life. And that’s usually worth it.

The Plan

The fact is this is my first marathon. To be even fairer, I haven’t consistently run in over four years. But about five months ago, my girlfriend decided to run in this 5 mile adventure race in the Amana Colonies, and I decided to spend the 3 weeks before the race getting into some kind of shape and run it too. I didn’t do terribly, and then I remembered I loved running. Hey-o!

The real point is I barely know what I’m doing when it comes to training for a marathon. I have a few things going for me though. I’m not entirely a stranger to endurance events. In middle school and early high school, I was a tolerable mid to long distance track athlete. And in college, I raced (very poorly) as an intercollegiate road cyclist before packing my bags to ride my bicycle across America (note: east-to-west is the wrong way). But before two weeks ago, I had never run more than 7 miles at a time in my life. Nevertheless, here I am beginning the third week of my training plan.

Concerning my training plan, I’m following the Novice 2 schedule of Mr. Hal Higdon pretty closely. I haven't had the easiest time building up to the mileage necessary for the start of the plan, but I've gotten there and am getting ready to take it a little easier this third week.

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	Rest	3 m run	5 m pace	3 m run	Rest	8	Cross
2	Rest	3 m run	5 m run	3 m run	Rest	9	Cross
3	Rest	3 m run	5 m pace	3 m run	Rest	6	Cross
4	Rest	3 m run	6 m pace	3 m run	Rest	11	Cross
5	Rest	3 m run	6 m run	3 m run	Rest	12	Cross
6	Rest	3 m run	6 m pace	3 m run	Rest	9	Cross
7	Rest	4 m run	7 m pace	4 m run	Rest	14	Cross
8	Rest	4 m run	7 m run	4 m run	Rest	15	Cross
9	Rest	4 m run	7 m pace	4 m run	Rest	Rest	Half Marathon
10	Rest	4 m run	8 m pace	4 m run	Rest	17	Cross
11	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	18	Cross
12	Rest	5 m run	8 m pace	5 m run	Rest	13	Cross
13	Rest	5 m run	5 m pace	5 m run	Rest	19	Cross
14	Rest	5 m run	8 m run	5 m run	Rest	12	Cross
15	Rest	5 m run	5 m pace	5 m run	Rest	20	Cross
16	Rest	5 m run	4 m pace	5 m run	Rest	12	Cross
17	Rest	4 m run	3 m run	4 m run	Rest	8	Cross
18	Rest	3 m run	2 m run	Rest	Rest	2 m run	Marathon

The training schedule's pretty simple to explain. There are 3 types of runs. The runs on Tuesday and Thursdays (and sometimes on Wednesdays) are "comfortable" runs. They're more a matter of just running out the distance prescribed and enjoying the run. Sometimes I like to take these fast. Other times, I'm just tired and gutting it out through the run.

Then there are the pace runs. They're pretty self-explanatory in that I'm training to run the miles at a specific pace. That pace is specifically the one I plan on running my marathon at. Since I'm aiming for a 3:30 marathon time, I need to go for an ~8 minute per mile pace. My Garmin Forerunner GPS watch really helps keep me on track during those runs.

Last, there are the Saturday runs, lovingly referred to as LSD runs (Long Slow Distance), where the goal is to take it easy while making sure I maintain a pace 45 seconds to a minute-and-a-half slower than my pace runs.

Beyond the running, there's also cross-training and rest days. I often try failingly to justify this with my bicycle rides through the city as cross-training. But on the rest days, I rather excel at resting.

Within this training, I have two targets. The first is in a month and a half. The Get Lucky Half Marathon on St. Patrick's Day in the Twin Cities. I'm not building for this race in the way I am the marathon, but rather using it as a way to get used to the nuances of how bigger races are held while having some fun.

The big goal of all this training, though, is the marathon of my adopted hometown: the Madison Marathon on Memorial Day weekend.

My M.O.

This is where I introduce myself. So, that's where we'll start. I'm Nick.

I'm training for my first marathon. Of course, like most people, I get to juggle life and making sure I don't lose my job with training. It's not easy, but it's not too interesting when more than 500,000 people are training for marathons and doing the same thing too.

So, to make it more interesting to you, I have the added pleasure of training for a marathon while also managing type 1 diabetes (obviously not by choice) and a vegetarian diet (by obstinate choice). There are certainly people doing the same thing (see: Team Type 1), but I've never been able to observe the process of someone working through the difficulties of marathon training as a diabetic and vegetarian.

I want that to change for others out there. I want others to know it is possible to do whatever you want in spite of diabetes, but to understand it's a process --- a process that anyone with diabetes can complete with patience and persistence.

And so over the ensuing blog posts, I plan to post about the plans and methods I utilize to make sure I control my diabetes and glucose levels, to ensure I'm nutritionally fulfilled while maintaining my vegetarian diet, and to make sure I'm as fast as I can be come marathon day.