Average Heart Rate zone 5.3 for 1.5 hours?

Mikey4g5

Hi guys,

just a quick one - i recently got garmin forerunner 35. went on a ride yesterday. 25miles 1843 feet elevation. Did it in 1 hr 27 min. Not very testing although some of the hills i would get quite blown out on but would soon recover and be fine. Would have thought this would be at a testing zone, but checked my HR monitor which placed me at an average heart rate of 177 and in zone 5.3 for the near enough majority of 1.5 hours. Max heart rate was 194.

Just wondering if this is normal?? I feel if this was an intense training day I would have pushed alot harder but from reading up on it, zone 5 seems hardly sustainable for that amount of time, especially for a beginner cyclsit. (I've been cycling for about 2 months)

Any advice on whether this is normal, or if I'm just maybe over training for my ability would be really appreciated.

Thanks !

Mike

imposter2.0

No such thing as a 'normal' HR - everyone is different. Unless you know your true max HR, then HR zones are completely meaningless. If you've only been riding for two months, my suggestion would be to ditch the HR monitor and just enjoy riding..

chris_bass

I agree with Imposter, I have a very low heart rate (both resting and during exercise) so my heart rate zones would be very different to yours, especially given your pretty high maximum given you say it wasn't very testing.

cougie

Is the HRM reading correctly ? We've all had rides where the figures don't tie in.

What is your max hr ?

webboo

I am I right in thinking this is a wrist based Heart rate monitor. If so these notorious for being inaccurate.

Typical Analytical

What are your zones based on? Have you done any testing?

Mikey4g5

Imposter wrote:

No such thing as a 'normal' HR - everyone is different. Unless you know your true max HR, then HR zones are completely meaningless. If you've only been riding for two months, my suggestion would be to ditch the HR monitor and just enjoy riding..

Thanks Imposter. I don't actually know my true max HR. I think I may do that for now. I'm still seeing lots of gains in my cycling fitness as it is due to being a beginner to the sport. Thanks for the response and maybe I'll revisit HR monitoring when my newbie progress slows down

Mikey4g5

Typical Analytical wrote:

What are your zones based on? Have you done any testing?

Pre determined zones I'm assuming in my Garmin Forerunner. I think I need to do some proper testing before freaking myself out about overdoing it!! Thanks for the reply.

Mikey4g5

Webboo wrote:

I am I right in thinking this is a wrist based Heart rate monitor. If so these notorious for being inaccurate.

Yes this is a wrist based! Have done a bit of reading since and can see this. Apparently being sweaty doesn't help the reading, and the weather recently has definitely been sweaty... Thanks for the reply.

Mikey4g5

cougie wrote:

Is the HRM reading correctly ? We've all had rides where the figures don't tie in.

What is your max hr ?

I went on a ride today that read 166bpm and was the same sort of intensity. Pushing myself but also just enjoying the ride for larger periods. I've said in a previous reply I think I'll give the hr monitor a rest. especially being wrist based I think it may even be detrimental to my training. Wait until I'm a bit better and in need for some more structured training and then maybe grab a chest based heart monitor. Thanks for the reply

imposter2.0

I was probably a bit 'absolute' in my previous reply. By all means wear it - but don't read much into anything it is telling you at the moment. It may be useful for recording your highest HR on a given ride, from time to time. Make a note of the number, and then if you ever see a higher number, replace it with that. Eventually as your fitness improves you may end up with a reasonable approximation of your max HR which you may be able to set some training zones against..