HR zones??

markchalmers

So I just got myself a Polar HRM and I plan to use it to make my commute a bit more of trained activity. Is there any advice or tips that you guys have about using them, what zones to sit in or any other tid bits would be much appreciated.

Wrath Rob

One for the training forum? However, in short you need to work out your max heart rate and ideally your lactate threshold heart rate. You can then set your training zones around them. There are a few calculators out there that will do it for you if you Google.

Personally I don't find my commute to be useful training. Its good in the sense of getting out on the bike and to keep a general fitness level up, but if I'm doing something specific it really doesn't cut it. For example, if you want to do a Zone 2 workout, the commute is too short. If you want to do a Zone 5 workout, there are too many dangers or interruptions to really drill it. I generally use the commute to get to where I want to train and then do a proper workout. That way you spend the maximum amount of time in the right zone, i.e. biggest bang for your buck.

meanredspider

Wrath Rob wrote:

Personally I don't find my commute to be useful training. .

Yup - it obviously depends a huge amount on your commute. Mine is 15 miles but infinitely extendable, nearly all on open roads and with as many hills as I want to include. I actually find I'm using the HR monitor to keep my HR down else I will happily go as fast as I can nearly all the time which isn't very effective.

daviesee

As said above and most importantly you have to find your maximum heart rate.
Basically go up the hardest hill you know as fast as you can without keeling over.

As a rough guide from my experience:-
<1 = At rest.
1 = Warm down.
2 = Warm up, or calorie burning long ride, or pootling.
3 = Usual zone.
4 = Hard workout, or a climb.
5 = Sprint to a finish or top of hill, or interval training.
6 = Ease up! :shock:

il_principe

I'm not sure that trying to do HR training works on anything other than the Turbo, unless you are very lucky with your local roads. What are your training goals?

markchalmers

There are a few 2-3 mile cycle specific paths and the times I cycle there are no others commuters about. Then after a quick dash via a town center i have another 2-3 miles of open country road.

my goal would be to increase my avg MPH on my commute so I could make it quicker I've taken it from 13MPH to 15MPH but cant get it past that without killing myself.

il_principe

markchalmers wrote:

There are a few 2-3 mile cycle specific paths and the times I cycle there are no others commuters about. Then after a quick dash via a town center i have another 2-3 miles of open country road.

my goal would be to increase my avg MPH on my commute so I could make it quicker I've taken it from 13MPH to 15MPH but cant get it past that without killing myself.

I wouldn't worry about getting scientific. Just warm up, then hammer yourself on the 2/3 miles, rest through the town and then hammer the next 2-3 miles. If you really push hard then you should get fitter. Although if you really want to train more effectively then you're going to need good long rides - so minimum of 1 hour. Set yourself an average mph target and try to stick to it over the course of a ride.

vermin

Il Principe wrote:

markchalmers wrote:

There are a few 2-3 mile cycle specific paths and the times I cycle there are no others commuters about. Then after a quick dash via a town center i have another 2-3 miles of open country road.

my goal would be to increase my avg MPH on my commute so I could make it quicker I've taken it from 13MPH to 15MPH but cant get it past that without killing myself.

I wouldn't worry about getting scientific. Just warm up, then hammer yourself on the 2/3 miles, rest through the town and then hammer the next 2-3 miles. If you really push hard then you should get fitter. Although if you really want to train more effectively then you're going to need good long rides - so minimum of 1 hour. Set yourself an average mph target and try to stick to it over the course of a ride.

+1

Your commute is about 12 miles each way isn't it? You aren't going to be able to do any effective HR training on a run that short and, frankly, if your aim is to get faster on a run of that distance, HR training isn't really going to be effective. Just keep the hammer down as long and hard as you can and the times will come down. Improvements will plateau in any event, but that should be temporary.

simon_e

vermin wrote:

Just keep the hammer down as long and hard as you can and the times will come down. Improvements will plateau in any event, but that should be temporary.

+1 to this. You increase your speed by going faster, so just ride faster. HRM isn't necessary or desirable on a commute IMHO, just watch the road and gauge your effort using RPE.

Can you safely do two hard 'intervals' with a rest period (an easier 10 mins or so) in between? Alternate between that and consciously maintaining a generally high effort all the way on others. Practice pedalling smoothly, without too much rocking hips and with a light grip on the bars.

Can you find a longer route to do once a week?

Wrath Rob

THe biggest improvement to my commuting times was when I started doing 2 1 hour rides every week in addition to the commute(3 laps of RIchmond Park on the way home in my case). The extra fitness means that you can go harder for shorter intervals, which is what IP is saying.

tetm

If you've got 2-3 miles of cycle specific paths then there would be no harm in just going up and down them on the way to work if they're empty. It may get boring but would give you the option to hammer it for the length of one, turn around and recover/do some single leg spinning/Tabata intervals, then turn around and gun it for 2-3 miles again. Doing this you'd be able to extend your commute to as far as you like...

meanredspider

Simon E wrote:

vermin wrote:

Just keep the hammer down as long and hard as you can and the times will come down. Improvements will plateau in any event, but that should be temporary.

+1 to this. You increase your speed by going faster, so just ride faster..

I don't agree with this. If you just ride as hard as you can all the time (my general approach as it happens) you just get knackered. You don't actually get the opportunity to replenish your glycogen reserves and you lack the energy to do any real work.

The approach I've used (with quite some success when I can be disciplined enough) is to alternate hard days with very easy days. It's an approach I learned from "Heart Monitor Training" by John L Parker Jnr. The idea of the "Slow" days (below 70% HRmax) is that you allow your body to rely more on fat for energy which has two benefits:
1. You don't deplete your glycogen reserves anywhere near as much giving them the chance to recover
2. You drive adaptations that increase your fat burning capability. The better it is, the more it will help you on the "Hard" days.
(don't confuse this with any weight-loss ideas from the "fat burning zone")

The hard part (and I find it particularly hard with my hilly commute) is to keep your HR below 70%. Honestly, it's pretty boring - especially because you need at least an hour to make it worthwhile.
The good bit is that you do really get faster and you have the energy to ride more frequently so you actually do more exercise overall.

Wallace1492

My take on the training is simplistic. Hammer it when you can, put in plenty of extra miles on way home (or way to work), but listen to your body, if you don't feel up for hammering it, then don't, your body and mind is best placed to tell you when to slow down rather than some computer. But constant mileage really helps. Oh and don't forget to vary training, some running, gym work, other sport, especially core work really helps.

Make training fun, go Mountain biking, seek out new hills, new challenges.

When I changed my commuter to a single speed, my fitness really improved.

Another trick I used was to try and not slow down or change gear down when I came to hills, I tried to keep the power going for al long as possible.

Enjoy.

meanredspider

Well your HR is your body "talking" and a monitor is only a (marginally) sophisticated way of taking your pulse. It's just a slightly more objective way of doing it (especially for those of us that are prone to saying "Fork it" and riding hard anyway)

daxplusplus

meanredspider wrote:

Yup - it obviously depends a huge amount on your commute. Mine is 15 miles but infinitely extendable, nearly all on open roads and with as many hills as I want to include. I actually find I'm using the HR monitor to keep my HR down else I will happily go as fast as I can nearly all the time which isn't very effective.

Hey - that's me that is

meanredspider wrote:

The approach I've used (with quite some success when I can be disciplined enough) is to alternate hard days with very easy days. It's an approach I learned from "Heart Monitor Training" by John L Parker Jnr.

Would you recommend the book? I've just gotten a Edge 500 with HRM/Cadence and looking to become more systematic with my approach to ultimately going faster for longer

markchalmers

I think im going to play with zone training and see if i can increase my max/top speed and also endurance.

meanredspider

DaxPlusPlus wrote:

Would you recommend the book? I've just gotten a Edge 500 with HRM/Cadence and looking to become more systematic with my approach to ultimately going faster for longer

I think it's worth a try. Don't expect too much from the book itself because I've pretty much described the key concepts. Take a look on Amazon - it gets well-reviewed

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heart-Monitor-T ... 478&sr=8-1

Id only buy it used (at £10) too as it has a cover price of $12 or something (I'm guessing it's out of print).

Finally, I got it when I was running and it is more running focused (most of the book is training plans) but it does nod at cycling and frankly the two aren't that different. If I lost my copy, I'd buy it again.

vermin

I don't train properly for cycling, as I don't race, but I used to train properly for rowing. I would find that the first half hour would be spent essentially warming up, even though I had already completed a normal warm-up session and was putting in effort and going at steady state. It wasn't until after that half hour that my HR would settle down into a rhythm steady enough for proper HR training. HR sessions would then last up to a further couple of hours if just working at steady state for endurance, or less if doing higher rate work. That's why I suggested going all out for a commute of just 12 miles - you might as well treat a short commute as a fartlek session because, as others have said, it's not long enough to gain a real endurance training benefit. Of course the greater benefit will come from extended rides of an hour or more, and that's where a HRM will be beneficial.

rick_chasey

I definitely see some improvement from smashing it on a half hour commute, but I feel much bigger improvements after longer club rides. Also you notice on those rides how much easier it is to open up the efforts after the first hour or so.