Heart Rates and First Ride

rickenbacker89

After some posts and replies on this forum, I bought a trek 1.5. I picked it up two days ago and went on my first training ride today. Great bike, really pleased with it. The question I have is this:

My average HR for one hour and 15 minutes was 175 bpm with a 199 max. I know my HR max is around 218 bpm, by the way. I'm in pretty good shape, I'm on a competitive university rowing team. Do these numbers sound high? I've been sick for the past week so that could explain maybe 5 or 10 beats off. It didn't feel as if I were going too hard. Anyway, just wanted to know what you all thought. Thanks

GavH

I presume from your background that your HRmax has been scientifically proven at 218? Assuming this to be teh case, your HRavg of 175 is about 80% and a high of 199 about 92%. Based on the percentages, this is not overly high in my opinion. Of course it depends a lot on your route.

Bronzie

You'll get more/better replies if you post this in "Training" forum.

Well you're average is 80% of max which would roughly equate to Zone 3 / Tempo / Intensive Endurance level of intensity. For me, that would be working pretty hard on the bike, certainly it would feel like I was putting in a fair effort to achieve that sort of average. For you, it might feel quite different.

Have a look at this thread for more info on HR zones:
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12592875

Problem with HR is that is can vary quite widely due to being dehydrated, sickness, tired from previous training etc, so it's sometimes best not to read too much into a single ride's results, but look at the overall picture. Maybe log a few more rides and see if you can see a pattern in your HR over similar intensity rides.