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Serenity Now!
You stand, majestically, ready to start your workout. The
sun is rising, all's well with the world. As you reach down
to press the start button on your HRM, you realize, "Darn,
my heart rate zones aren't set, my timers aren't set and
I'm not sure I remember how long I was supposed to be in
zone three, or even what my zone three heart rates are."
You curse as you fiddle with the buttons, trying to navigate
the labyrinth of menus, guessing at today's assignment from
the coach. The sun slips behind a cloud. The beauty of the
moment has been lost; your serenity is shattered.
It is true that sometimes the gadgets we use in training
can be a source of stress. In this case, however, the solution
may be more technology, not less. Here's tomorrow's story:
As you press the start button on your HRM, it understands
that today is Wednesday, and that this particular Wednesday's
workout from the coach starts with a 15-minute warm-up in
zone 1 (for you, 106-128). After the allotted time, it gently
beeps at you - it's time to kick it up to zone 3, and your
new thresholds are already active. You see from the timer
counting down that you need to hold in zone three for 20
minutes. You pick up the pace, hit your zone, and find peace
and joy, until you are gently brought down to earth by your
HRM beeping to notify you that your time in the zone is
up - it's time to coast back down to your recovery. The
perfect workout: not too much or too little, just what the
coach wanted, with a chance to let your mind wander.
The surprising story behind these vignettes is that you
may already have everything you need to experience the good
life. With PC Coach software and many models of Polar HRM
(the entire S-Series) you can start your day off right by
uploading all of the workout parameters into your HRM from
your PC. Some even allow you to upload a week's worth of
workout parameters.
How hard is it to get these things uploaded into your HRM?
If you are following one of the PC Coach training plans,
or if your own coach is giving you workouts using the Remote
Coaching Service (RCS), it takes only three simple clicks
of the mouse.
If you are designing your own workouts, you can create an
exercise definition yourself and upload it to your HRM using
the Upload Wizard (described later in this article).
Either way - following a training plan, RCS from your coach,
or self-coached, once a workout is scheduled and contains
'planned' data, there are several different ways to get
to the upload function, and get this information into your
HRM. You can use the 'Data Center' (button on the left toolbar)
or do it straight from the Workout View. The method of choice
depends on the model of HRM you have. Here's the breakdown:
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