I started running seriously for my health about 6 years ago. By “serious” I mean running 4 or 5 times a week, running races, and reading “Runner’s World”. I trained the first 3 years without ever trying a heart rate monitor. I didn’t really see the point. I was training well and following a schedule. My times in the races I ran were adequate. Then my wife purchased a Polar Heart Rate Monitor for herself.

She wore it religiously and finally got me to just try it on a run. I was sad to see I had been cheating myself for a very long time! According to the calculations for my age, I should have been hovering around 160 during my hard training periods. My heart rate was not even breaking 152 during my “intense” workout periods! My short bursts of time when I was to “max” out my heart rate (which should have been around 174) for a short period of time was only producing about 160 beats per minute according to the Polar Heart Rate Monitor!

I was taken back by this information to say the least. I was shocked to learn that my “extreme efforts” really weren’t pushing my heart to where it needed to be. Therefore, I am now a firm believer in using a Polar Heart Rate Monitor. I even purchased one of my own. I don’t use it all the time; just once in a while. I know using it every so often will “keep me honest”. The heart rate monitor will not lie to you! If you are slackin’ it will tell you!
The Polar Heart Rate Monitor works just like other heart rate monitors. A thin band is worn around your chest and the watch is worn like a running watch. Just push the heart button on the watch to start it syncing with the strap’s heart detection. Don’t purchase the lower level monitor. Pay about 30 dollars more and get one that the lap split feature built into the watch. That way you can just use the Polar unit in place of your running watch.

The one thing I don’t like about the Polar Heart Rate Monitor is that is seems like the chest strap’s built-in battery does not last long enough. In order to replace it one has to send it off to Polar. And that is about the only complaint I have ever had with the Polar Heart Rate Monitor.
There are many resources on the web which detail ways to maximize the benefit from using heart rate monitors. Besides running shoes and a lot of motivation, I can’t think of a tool which a runner could benefit from more in their running. Just being able to easily keep your heart “in the range” during any give workout is a vital step in achieving maximum health and fitness. A Polar Heart Rate Monitor has a retail price of around $129.00 and is worth every penny of that to the serious runner!