Steinar Mundal About Heart Rate Monitors
Steinar Mundal is one of the coaches who is skeptical about how some athletes use heart rate monitors. He sees that it goes beyond the training effect, and athletes, even at the elite level, constantly throw away valuable training benefits and progression when they control their training according to the heart rate monitor.
“Heart rate monitors are often misused. Today, it is about the body and what it can tolerate that must control the intensity. Many athletes become too busy looking at the clock instead of feeling the body. But if you don’t learn to know the right intensity for your body, you will have problems in competitions,” says Mundal to Langrenn.com.
The veteran coach at the national, team, and club level, both in cross-country skiing and biathlon, has, among others, been coach for Vibeke Skofterud, Petter Northug, and Martin Johnsrud Sundby.
“When you go to competitions, you can’t ski and look at the clock all the time. You have to train yourself to control your speed and effort according to how your body feels and build your own experience of how hard you can go without breaking at different distances,” says Mundal.
Steinar points out that many of the best use heart rate monitors, but they have a sensible relationship with the monitor during training. Moreover, it is not the case that one “must” use a heart rate monitor to be good.
“Many of the best use heart rate monitors, but they do not “abuse” them. It is not the heart rate monitor that determines how well you train or how good you will become. Thomas Alsgaard hardly used a heart rate monitor, and he got pretty good after all.”
Evaluation and Control
Mundal’s experience is that heart rate monitors have the most significant value as a control and evaluation tool. He is concerned that the athlete should control the session and that it should be based on the feeling, not the numbers on the clock.
What should heart rate monitors be used for?
“It is useful to look at data from the heart rate monitor afterward. Such data can provide insight into whether you have carried out the session correctly, started with the right speed, or missed the intensity. And then you know how it feels on the body. The point is that you should not let the clock rule the session.”
At the same time, Mundal emphasizes that data from heart rate monitors can provide valuable insight into training and form development. But then it’s about seeing trends and tendencies in the heart rate data over time, both from sessions and competitions. If the form is improving and the body responds as it should to the training load, it confirms that you are completing the sessions well and getting sufficient recovery.
Heart rate monitors also provide a lot of data useful for mapping causes of stagnation or decline. Often the reason is that you train a little too hard in the sessions over time and/or without sufficient recovery, so the total load becomes too great, and the body does not absorb the training as it should.
Tests
Mundal’s experience is that other methods for checking progression and shape development are just as reliable as the heart rate monitor. And here it is that the simplest is often the best: running and rollerskis tests.
“Running tests on the same course are the very best to see if you are progressing or regressing,” says the veteran coach.
But for such running tests to produce comparable results, it is essential to ensure that the conditions are as similar as possible each time.
“You must have the same course, and there should be the same surface so that everything is as similar as possible every time. That is also why it is better to do running tests than on rollerskis,” says Mundal and explains:
“Even if you use the same course on rollerskis, conditions such as wind and precipitation, the wet or dry ground will have a much greater effect on rollerskis than on running.”
10-15 minutes is enough
Mundal recommends running tests on gravel and preferably on an uphill slope so that the load is constant but at the same time not so steep that you risk heavy legs. He further points out that such running tests do not need to be exceptionally long.
“If you run on a smooth uphill, it doesn’t have to last longer than 10-15 minutes. That is enough for you to get a good idea of what the shape is like, and you learn something about how hard you can start and hold all the way in.”
The most important thing about running tests is running them on the same course and relatively often.
Tests on rollerskis
Although it is easiest to test running, rollerski tests have the advantage that they can be done on rollerski tracks where the terrain and the technical challenges are similar to the competition tracks you encounter during the racing season.
At the same time, there are several factors to check if you will do a test race on rollerskis.
“You cannot compare the times from a test in sunshine and summer temperatures with the results from a test in cold autumn rain and headwind, even if the test is on the same course,” says Mundal.
Mundal recommends rollerski tests in the summer and the first part of autumn. Later in the year, too many external factors will affect the results.
Furthermore, the equipment must be the same every time. But even then, there will be several sources of error.
“You must, of course, use the same type of wheels each time. But there will still be a difference in rolling resistance because the temperature and weather conditions affect how easily or slowly the wheels roll, also on dry asphalt,” says Mundal.
Treadmill tests
Alternatively, tests can be done indoors on a treadmill. This applies to both running and on rollerskis.
“The advantage of doing a running test on a treadmill is that it gives a minimal margin of error since you can control all external factors, such as temperature, surface, speed, and incline. It is particularly relevant later in the autumn when the weather deteriorates,” says Mundal.
Lactate
The lactate test is another method used to control intensity and progression. Lactate tests can be done inside a training lab or in the field.
The latter requires more from the athlete, especially if they are alone.
The disadvantage of using lactate as an intensity control is that many factors can affect the lactate level. The weather, hydration, and whether you are testing in low or at altitude, are some of the things that affect the measurements. In addition, it requires some experience to carry out the tests correctly.
“There are many sources of error with lactate tests, but the biggest source is that it is difficult to carry them out correctly. You need to have an experienced helper with you if you are going to do it in the field,” says Mundal.
“It requires a lot of practice and precision to test lactate correctly. It is easy to spill a little blood or for a little sweat to get on the equipment, and then the result will be wrong. But those who use it often and carefully also benefit from such measurements in different ways. And they quickly realize if they get an incorrect measurement,” says Mundal.
Also, when it comes to lactate measurement, treadmill testing is an alternative. It is by far the easiest and often gives the most accurate results.
“It is easiest to run lactate tests on a treadmill with experienced professionals in a test lab, and the safest thing for it to be as accurate as possible,” says Mundal.
Feeling beats everything
Regardless of which external method(s) one uses to control intensity and form development, Steinar Mundal is concerned that none of them can replace the subjective perception and value of being able to control the speed and intensity of a personal feeling. That ability must be trained.
“You must get to know your body so well that you know the right intensity, both in training and competitions. It takes experience, and no instrument can do it for you.”
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Steinar Mundal has been a coach at the national team level in cross-country skiing and biathlon both in Norway and internationally for a lifetime and has, among other things, been responsible for both Vibeke Skofterud, Martin Johnsrud Sundby, and Petter Northug. For the last four seasons, Mundal was the coach for the private team Team Telemark (now part of the newly established Team Aker Dæhlie). There, he has been responsible for Even Northug, who recently joined the elite national team, Mikael Gunnulfsen, and Kari Øyre Slind.