Base building for endurance - heart rate training

dubcat

Hi, if my max heart rate is 185 am I right in saying that my best bet for building base endurance is to ride at 130bpm for long periods of time? If I have this wrong could someone set me straight please?
Thanks
Dub

pilch

Its about right, you can go a little higher say 138 I did all my base 1 training 65-75%, my MHR is the same as yours, I found it easier to work in % bands rather than numbers....

You dont need to ride at that rate all the time, just stay in the zone

Base is normally the winter months though, build late winter/early spring to peak summer - are you training for something specific?

dubcat

Yeah - it's Ramadan at the moment so I don't want to ride in the day as i can not eat or drink. I am not comfortable riding at night. So, next best thing is the turbo trainer.

I am trying to get in to some kind of condition for the London to Brighton off road ride of 75 miles in September. I fear i am going to be VERY unprepared for it and starting to get rather worried

pilch

You may be cutting it a little fine

Whatever you can do now will help to a degree but make sure you have regular rest days, to let your muscles repair, then do hardly anything a week before the event (tapering).