Benson Roy - Heart Rate Training

HEART RATE
TRAINING

SECOND EDITION

ROY BENSON
DECLAN CONNOLLY

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Benson, Roy, author. | Connolly, Declan, 1965- author.

Title: Heart rate training / Roy Benson and Declan Connolly.

Description: Second edition. | Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics, [2020] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019024059 (print) | LCCN 2019024060 (ebook) | ISBN 9781492590224 (print) | ISBN 9781492590231 (pdf) | ISBN 9781492590248 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Cardiovascular fitness. | Heart rate monitoring.

Classification: LCC QP113 .B46 2020 (print) | LCC QP113 (ebook) | DDC 612.1/71--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024059

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019024060

ISBN: 978-1-4925-9022-4 (print)

Copyright 2020 by Roy Benson and Declan Connolly

Copyright 2011 by Running, Ltd., and Vermont Fit

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E7788

DEDICATION

Timing, chance, luck of the Irish? Call it what you want, but the writing of this book is the result of one guys tutelage and mentoring. Your authors may be separated by three decades or so (Benson was already coaching when Connolly was in diapers), but their career paths were carefully guided by a higher force. Shortly after meeting, they were chatting about regulating exercise intensity. As they chatted, they realized an eerie similarity in their philosophies. Unbeknownst to them, they had both been mentored by Dr. Christian Zauner, or Dr. Z, as they came to know him. The experience of being taught by Dr. Z was lasting and profound. Their postdegree paths took very different routes, but Dr. Zs influence was ever apparent.

In 1969, with six years of experience coaching track and cross country and two years of teaching high school geography, Benson concluded that hed rather write training plans than lesson plans. A masters degree in physical education would give him a chance to do that full time as a college coach. That fall he began working toward an MPE at the University of Florida. The university did not have an extensive graduate program in exercise physiology, but it did have an outstanding professor, Dr. Christian Zauner, to teach the courses it offered. Dr. Zauner also happened to coach a group of young swimmers in his backyard pool. One day in class, Dr. Z mentioned how he used their heart rates to determine their recoveries during an interval workout. This was an immediate eureka experience for Benson. At that time, he also was a graduate assistant coach of the University of Florida distance runners. He quickly raised his hand and asked how Dr. Z was measuring heart rates. His process of measuring effort by counting heartbeats at the carotid artery made great sense. It had always been a battle to get the runners to stop acting so tired at the end of each repeat and asking whether the workout was finally over. It was even harder to get them going again after each arbitrary distance of jogging recovery as they begged for more time. What wonderful tools their pulses became for revealing the truth about their efforts and recoveries.

That one serendipitous moment led to Bensons work and study of cardiac response to exercise. But his education really expanded when Dr. Z became his mentor and they started a hospital-based business, Fitness Incorporated, that offered fitness rehabilitation services. Their program was designed around heart rate measurements taken manually in the days before monitors. After several years, they sold the business to the hospital, and it served as the cornerstone of one of the first hospital wellness centers in the southeastern United States. Not long after, they both moved away from Gainesville and lost touch. Years later, while visiting a friend in Corvallis, Oregon, Benson learned that Dr. Z was chairman of the physical education department and living just a few blocks down the street. Benson renewed and then continued his friendship with his mentor, the one person who had the most influence on his professional life.

Connollys career also benefitted from the tutelage of Dr. Z. In June 1987, Connolly graduated with a degree in sports studies from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. In the summer of 1990, he graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a masters degree in exercise science. While working as a camp counselor, he applied to graduate schools around the United States looking for funding. He spoke to the chair of the department of exercise science at Oregon State University, Dr. Christian Zauner, who said he might be able to find work for Connolly but not enough to fund a doctoral degree. Connolly drove across the country and appeared on Dr. Zs doorstep. After explaining who he was, Connolly was given funding for three months, although Dr. Z told him if he didnt work out, he was outta there. By the fall, Dr. Z increased Connollys funding support, gave him odd jobs to earn a few more dollars, and shared his insights in the field. Dr. Z was widely traveled and understood the challenges facing international students. Hed invite them over for holidays, find them summer work, and impart worldly wisdom over Oregons finest microbrews. He hosted their parents when they visited and allowed them to call home from his phone. Above all, Dr. Z mentored them about what was needed to be successful. Dr. Z took a chance on an Irish kid who didnt have much to offer and nowhere else to go. For that opportunity, Connolly is eternally grateful. Connolly graduated from Oregon State University in 1995 with a PhD in exercise science and a minor in nutritional biochemistry. He became an Irish national cycling champion, a three-time Ironman, and head coach of the rugby football team at the University of Vermont. In all these domains, he has used the appliance of science he learned from Dr. Z to optimize athletic performance and recovery.