Fitness Guru Alinda Perrine Brings Heart Rate Training Expertise to NuMetrex

In 1974, Alinda Perrine was attending high school when Title 9 established funding for women’s sports. A girls track team was created for the first time and, as one of only two girls at her school who could run a mile, Alinda earned a spot on the team. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with physical fitness.

“It made a huge impression on me,” she recalls. “From that point on I always ran, not just for the physical benefits, but also for the tremendous mental and emotional release.”

After earning her doctorate in optometry and a master’s degree in public health, Perrine practiced as an optometrist for several years before joining her husband, Bob, in a mountain biking business in Lewisburg, West Virginia. Called Free Spirit Adventures, they began offering bike rentals, training, and touring along the converted railroad lines and bridges that make up the 77-mile Greenbriar River Trail. That successful business opened the door to a wide range of training, consulting and speaking opportunities, including projects with Reebok and Stairmaster.

Then, at age 42, Alinda’s husband had a massive stroke. Lying in the hospital, the former athlete couldn’t speak, read or write. Alinda suggested they had two choices: 1) Say “poor pitiful Bob” and take life easy, or 2) See what it’s like to rehab from a stroke, and “really get in there and do it.” Bob held up two fingers, and Alinda said, “You’re on.”

They approached his rehabilitation by focusing on systematic training, “not just hit or miss,” she explains. “We really focused on how you get feedback, how you use that feedback and how you progress.”

This process eventually led Alinda to explore the benefits of heart rate training, which she and Bob used on a 30-day bicycle trip across America three years after his stroke. They read The Heart Rate Monitor Book for Cyclists, met with co-author Sally Edwards, and put her heart rate training system to the test as they pedaled across the country.

“We used the heart rate monitor as our primary source of feedback, as our guide, and took into account everything our heart rate was telling us,” she says. “We did not base our ride on speed, we based it on heart rate. As long as we kept to heart rate, we could do the distance. We were riding faster at a lower heart rate, and became super fit.”

Since completing their 2001 cross-country bike tour, Alinda has made heart rate training an integral part of her own fitness endeavors as well as her work as a professional coach and personal trainer. She has completed numerous marathons and endurance cycling races, and shares her expertise in training others. In 2005, she coached a Mt. Kiliminjaro Climbing Team using heart rate training to prepare for the high-altitude climb. She co-authored the Timex Heart Rate Monitor Book and has trained other personal trainers at more than 400 fitness facilities and resorts nationwide.

Most recently, Alinda has introduced the ZoneX™ method of sensible heart rate training, and offers her expertise on the NuMetrex Coach’s Corner website. The site features heart rate monitor and fitness advice, including in-depth training articles as well as an “Ask Alinda” Q&A on heart rate monitoring.

“Training with heart rate as a primary source of feedback is extremely important for all levels of athlete, particularly the novice or recreational athlete,” says Alinda. “It sets guidelines and keeps you motivated.”