Low heart rate

Wheely33

After piling on the pounds(102kgs) after a prang resulted in a rotator cuff injury that saw me not ride for most of 2015, I'm now down to a respectable 78kg (5'11") and riding reasonably well. My problem now seems to be that most of my rides fall into the endurance/moderate HR zones, and I can't seem to get it(HR) to "rev" as freely as when I was still Chasing fitness a few months back.
Back then 170bpm was comfortable and now it feels like an effort and is rarely seen...My average speeds seem to have hit a plateau also... Circa 17/17.5mph, though now achieved at much lower average HR for the overall ride, over the same routes as before.
I'm wondering how to train to push on to the next level, or whether, though my CV system appears to have adapted to cope with the workload in a more relaxed manner, that's really all she wrote as far my potential for getting quicker is concerned ? Help !

maryka

Ride easier for a while... much easier. It will actually be hard to do that if all you've been doing is "comfortably hard" in recent months.

Then after a few weeks of that, ride harder, MUCH harder (for shorter intervals, of course). Ride easy between them. Resist the desire to ride "steady-hard" or "this feels like I'm working hard", that's the no-man's land of too hard to recover from, too easy to make real adaptations (given that you've probably already made everything you're going to get from that intensity).

Your body has plateaued because it got good at doing the same thing day after day. If you want to make improvements you need to change it.

This is why people periodise their training.