every few minutes as you're running, to get a general idea of your rate throughout the session. You will probably find that, even if you maintain the same pace throughout, your heart rate will rise by 5-10 beats over a period of 30 minutes

receivers let you record a certain amount of heart rate readings – every minute for 30 minutes, for example. Others store the heart rate throughout, for subsequent recall; most have varying recording intervals such as five, 15 and 60 seconds.At the top end

, because it's hard to raise your heart rate early on in a session using reps of just a minute, your readings would be quite low to start with. As a result, aiming to reach, say, 170 for each rep, you would probably start working too hard too early

When you go on holiday, you'll no doubt want to take your training with you. After all, you are off to enjoy yourself. However, this will often mean running in conditions that can affect your heart rate quite dramatically, both at rest

for cardiovascular fitness development. For example, if you are 40, your estimated MHR would be 180 (ie 220-40). You can then calculate training heart rates from this, using a formula such as 70 per cent MHR (which would be 126).Its quite simple, but unfortunately

It would seem natural that your heart rate monitor should be your greatest ally when it comes to race day – but as ever, the reasoning is not that simple. While you can use your experience from previous competitions to your advantage, you'll find

minutes and 2 x 10 minutes.All these sessions are at threshold intensity, governed by your heart rate. Start with a thorough warm-up and allow your heart rate to rise gradually in the first few minutes by adopting a sensible pace, so that you don’t have

to recover after each session. Typically, you would record the time it takes your heart rate to drop to 120, or 100 if your training heart rates are usually much below 150. As you get fitter, your recovery time will drop, though naturally it depends

the activity regularly. If you're only cross-training occasionally, use heart rates 10-15bpm below your usual levels as a starting guide and adapt them as necessary. If, however, it's going to be a more regular feature on your schedule, you should start to use

machinery with strong electric currents – motorised treadmills affect many watches, often to the point where just walking elicits heart rates above 200! Similarly, runners who live on the flight path to an airport can experience strange readings when low