Heart rate threshold test today

rouleur23

Hello,

Today I did my first FTP test but not with a power meter. I have been reading that you can do a field test on the road to find a 'rough' heart rate threshold level.

Anyway, I warmed up at a very sedate 65% of MAX HR for an hour. An hour to get myself to the only climb that would take 30 mins. Once there I rode hard for 10 mins then (still rolling and pedaling hard) put the Garmin back to zero and carried on up. Ave HR rate kicked in at 89 then rose to 90 in seconds and after 20 mins was 92 bpm average. But...if asked if I could hold that for an hour I would say maybe not. So did I go too hard then?

What I found was 89 and 90% of max were just about ok and I thought that was where i could bang out an hour. 91? But 92, 93, 94 and 95 (which i got to a couple of times) were flooding the legs with acid too much and I would not be able to go for an hour at that pace. And I was nearly sucking the tarmac off the road by now! The article I read said to do this test at a pace you can hold for one hour.

Does 89/90% sound about right?

How often and how long should a person train at this level in order to get in shape to race?

Thanks to any person taking time to answer this.

Paz


www.famouscyclingcols.com

napoleond

I find the best threshold HR test outside of a lab is the Carmichael 2x8min test.

simon_masterson

FTHR is generally set as the pace you can sustain for an hour, yes. It needs to be a steady effort. Personally when I test I ride on feel and look at the numbers afterwards.

rouleur23

NapoleonD wrote:

I find the best threshold HR test outside of a lab is the Carmichael 2x8min test.

Thanks
I will take a look at that.

rouleur23

Simon Masterson wrote:

FTHR is generally set as the pace you can sustain for an hour, yes. It needs to be a steady effort. Personally when I test I ride on feel and look at the numbers afterwards.

Yep I was never a numbers guy myself and rode for years with no info in front of me. But I am hooked on getting a number by which I can start a plan. Raced as an average guy for years but my 'inner self'' tells me that if I apply myself and try the 'science' angle....maybe I can will a race and bring home some flowers to the Mrs!
Thanks for the reply

simon_masterson

rouleur23 wrote:

Simon Masterson wrote:

FTHR is generally set as the pace you can sustain for an hour, yes. It needs to be a steady effort. Personally when I test I ride on feel and look at the numbers afterwards.

Yep I was never a numbers guy myself and rode for years with no info in front of me. But I am hooked on getting a number by which I can start a plan. Raced as an average guy for years but my 'inner self'' tells me that if I apply myself and try the 'science' angle....maybe I can will a race and bring home some flowers to the Mrs!
Thanks for the reply

The point is that when you're doing an FTHR test, you really need to be riding as hard as you can for the duration - having the live number in front of you might skew your judgement. Obviously when you've done this, you've got something to work with.

napoleond

Yeah, don't look at it as you tend to back off. Well, I do anyway. The 8 min test is good as it's quite short, just have time showing and bury yourself!

imposter2.0

Assuming your HR max is accurate, then 89/90% of MHR is typically where you would expect threshold to be...

rouleur23

Imposter wrote:

Assuming your HR max is accurate, then 89/90% of MHR is typically where you would expect threshold to be...

oh good. Thanks

markhewitt1978

Either you need to add 100 to all of those numbers or you have a freakish heart rate.

northcliff66

pastryboy

markhewitt1978 wrote:

Either you need to add 100 to all of those numbers or you have a freakish heart rate.

Pretty sure he's referring to % of max.