round and round in circles

stratcat

I've just bought a heart rate monitor and a turbo trainer to maintain and increase my fitness over the winter so that I'm hot to trot when the TT season gets going again next year 8)

I have done lots of searching on here and various other links offered up in other threads so apologies for asking similar questions but I'm getting more confused :oops:

I know looking for MHR is of relative little use and what I want is my LTHR
so.....
I've just completes a threshold test that gives my HR as 167bpm. It was an hour consisting of warm up several short intervals (1 min and 2min) followed by 20mins at as hard a pace as I could sustain for the 20mins.
I didn't realise I could produce so much sweat...... anyway,
I'm now trying to work out the zones based on this lthr and it seems to be the complicated bit.
Does my 167 equate to the top or bottom of Zone 5 here
zone calc
or am I barking up totally the wrong tree?

The HR monitor was bought to stop me going off the boil during tt's and it has worked brilliantly the last few weeks. I'm determined to get better and faster now, hence the turbo.

Apologies for asking a similar question and waffling on. I have got a couple of other questions, but I'll save them for another thread :oops:

LikeUStoleIt

hiya.

try using these zones from joe friel:

http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2 ... zones.html

i find these very handy, and have used them for the last few years to control bike ride intensity for ironman training.

the only issue is that zone3 (tempo) covers a pretty small range, and is hard to stay in when you're out on a rolling road. it's easier to target on the turbo though, so you should be okay fior your winter training.

good luck.

Bronzie

stratcat wrote:

Does my 167 equate to the top or bottom of Zone 5 here

Top of Zone 4 / Bottom of Zone 5

Bear in mind if you were sweating heavily, you HR was probably subject to some heat induced upward drift. Invest in a good fan (something like a 16" 50W jobby) to get the most out of your indoor training.

stratcat

Thanks guys. I've looked at the Joe friel zones. I've got a big fan going i just didn't expect that much sweat. You don't notice when you are riding outside.

Alex_Simmons/RST

stratcat wrote:

I know looking for MHR is of relative little use and what I want is my LTHR

Nothing wrong with determining and using HRmax for setting training levels. See here for some calculators/info on HR training levels:
http://www.cyclecoach.com/index.php?opt ... Itemid=145
http://www.cyclecoach.com/index.php?opt ... Itemid=146

There is no one HR at threshold either, it's a range. And HR response can vary depending on a number of things.

stratcat wrote:

Thanks guys. I've looked at the Joe friel zones. I've got a big fan going i just didn't expect that much sweat. You don't notice when you are riding outside.

That's because outside we have a 30+km/h breeze flowing over our whole body cooling us down.

For every watt we output at the wheel, there's another 4 watts of waste heat being generated by the body.

Do some 300W intervals on a trainer and you're pumping out ~ 1200W of heat. It's little wonder we sweat and is why cooling is vital for indoor training to be effective (since without it you simply cannot sustain the power you might otherwise be able to and training is compromised).

stratcat

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Nothing wrong with determining and using HRmax for setting training levels. See here for some calculators/info on HR training levels:
http://www.cyclecoach.com/index.php?opt ... Itemid=145
http://www.cyclecoach.com/index.php?opt ... Itemid=146

There is no one HR at threshold either, it's a range. And HR response can vary depending on a number of things.

Thanks for those links Alex, I think I'd seen them from one of your previous posts. I was working on the assumption that as most of my training efforts would be at or around my LTHR that my max was of less importance.
I guess at the end of the day its only a number and as long as I'm working hard its all good .
At 41yo I'm not going to the Olympics anytime soon (not in this incarnation)

Alex in your opinion is the 167bpm the actual top of the aerobic threshold zone (zone6 in your link) or the bottom of that zone or being an average is it actually the middle??

Alex_Simmons/RST

stratcat wrote:

Alex in your opinion is the 167bpm the actual top of the aerobic threshold zone (zone6 in your link) or the bottom of that zone or being an average is it actually the middle??

Depends. Your HR response may be different outdoors than on turbo. It is often different racing than in training.

For a hard 20-min effort, I'd say it's around the top of Zone 5 on the Level 2 calculator, which would put your HRmax ~ 180bpm. But even that might depend on your pacing. Through a well paced 20-min effort, HR can easily drift upwards by 10 beats or more.

In the end, alls you can do is alls you can do, so if you can't sustain efforts at a given level, or they are too "easy", then adjust the levels.

stratcat

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

In the end, alls you can do is alls you can do, so if you can't sustain efforts at a given level, or they are too "easy", then adjust the levels.

I agree completely, I originally bought my HR monitor to see if I was slacking off during my TTs . Its been fantastic for this. Yes I know there is a lag, but I can tell if I'm going too easy and not pushing hard enough (I know, more of a concentration thing rather than a fitness thing). It's certainly worked for the last two TT's I've knocked at least a minute off my previous PB times.

180 bpm max would sound about right. I got a peak of 179 at last weeks TT and regularly see between 171 and 178 peaks on my road rides. I'll try that max test you linked to next week.

Thanks for the advice

bexley5200

round and round i live in milton keynes