Send your questions for three-times Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill to [email protected]. Shaun Clarkson: I've been using the interactive training program at level four, I train four or five times a week, I'm into my fourth week, looking to reach week 26 around start of November, ready for the BIRC on the 15th November 2003.I've had no problem hitting the required pace and my stroke rate (SPM) seem to be right, but my heart rate is much higher than it should be for the bands, for example, a few days ago l did a 10 minute row average SPM 28, pace average per 500m was 1.50.2, this was suppose to be in the AT band which for me would be HR 150-160, the actual HR for this row was average 172, my resting HR is 54, my MHR is 185.This seems to happen during all my sessions, that my HR is 10-20 beats higher than it should be, although I always feel OK, apart from the obvious feeling of being nearly unconscious after a serious 2,000m row.Terry O'Neill: I would not worry too much about the heart rate. Many people think that the heart is like some motor and that if you over rev it, it will go off bang. What actually happens is the heart rate responds to the demand for oxygen in the working muscles and does not have a maximum as such. The training ranges are guidelines and not absolute but what you should find is that for a given pace your heart rate should come down or for a given heart rate your pace will increase. The benefits of trying to align heart rate, stroke rate and pace is you will be improving your efficiency and even if you cannot get them all spot on, tending towards alignment will be an improvement.