keeping Heart Rate consistent

littleking02

I have Edge 500, and the other day I set a workout and one stage I was to keep my heart level between 130-140 bpm. But after a exhausting exercise before that I just simply couldn't keep to that heart rate for long amount of time. So whats the best way to keep the heart rate within a zone for a certain amount of time?

P_Tucker

Ride yer bike. If your HR is below your zone, ride faster. If above, ride slower.

danowat

littleking02 wrote:

So whats the best way to keep the heart rate within a zone for a certain amount of time?

Slow down, might sound simple in theory, but in practice it takes quite a bit of concetration to do so.

Try and ride as flat a route as possible, as hills will push your HR up.

mattshrops

if your fairly new and your talking about trying to do some zone 2 work?i live in a slightly hilly area and initially couldnt go any where without hitting zone 4 or 5 and then because youve gone there you end up having to back off and end up in zone 1. i found the only place i could stay in zone 2 was on the turbo during the snow, 60 mins zone 2. anyway just keep trying to hit it as best you can, now im managing 90%+ on a 2 hr run. im starting to learn if your new aim for hitting those training targets but dont sweat it too much if you cant. keep trying-and you will get there. wow i went a bit hollywood there, can i get a yeehah?

cyco2

littleking02 wrote:

I have Edge 500, and the other day I set a workout and one stage I was to keep my heart level between 130-140 bpm. But after a exhausting exercise before that I just simply couldn't keep to that heart rate for long amount of time. So whats the best way to keep the heart rate within a zone for a certain amount of time?

If you had got it right for the first time out you should have called in for a lottery ticket on the way home.
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niblue

After finding it easy to keep a consistent 130bpm on the turbo-trainer I had my first try on the road doing the same this morning and that was much harder. It'd have been a lot easier if it was flat where I live, but it's fairly hill and even using my lowest gear of 34x25 my heart rate was up over 150 on a few of the climbs. For the ride as a whole I averaged 135bpm though, with 61% of the time in HR zone 3 and 22% in zone 4 - so I'm reasonably happy with that as a first effort. The last "normal" ride I did 22% was spent in zone 3, 43% in zone 4 and 32% in zone 5 with an average HR of 154 and a peak of 178.

Despite the much lower HR today my average speed was down by less than 1mph - although the routes were different the average amount of ascent wasn't too different.

For me doing a ride mostly in zone 2 is going to have to wait until I'm a bit lighter and fitter I think. I found it also helps if there aren't many other cyclists about. The only time I saw other bikes going my way was on the last climb today - and that's also the only time my HR touched 160 as I caught and passed them (couldn't help myself as they were on mountain bikes!)...

Alex_Simmons/RST

I wouldn't be concerned about trying to be a "zone drone". Hills and a higher level of effort are normal. Just go with it. The idea is that the ride, overall, is about the right level of intensity. Occasional efforts long the way are fine.

Garz

Very true Alex, it's similar when trying a high/low cadence ride you aim to keep it at a certain level but no harm in going hard on sections or hills.

littleking02

thank you for clarity. I managed to hit the target 70-80% times, during the workout.

cheers again