Heart Rate

[RubyCycle]

Can I ask what people with HR monitors find their HR is during a ride
I just got one and find my HR is around 140 average on a 50k ride (I'm not fit)

Thanks

[roshea]

Without knowing your maximum HR, your absolute HR is about as useful a data point as eye colour. What matters is how much power you can put out at different percentages of your maximum HR, and how long you can sustain that power. It's difficult to compare from one person to the next, since maximum HR varies a lot between people and is NOT defined by an age-based formula or altered by fitness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_rate ... heart_rate

An important section from that link:

Maximum heart rates vary significantly between individuals. Even within a single elite sports team, such as Olympic rowers in their 20s, maximum heart rates have been reported as varying from 160 to 220. Such a variation would equate to a 60 or 90 year age gap in the linear equations above, and would seem to indicate the extreme variation about these average figures.

Figures are generally considered averages, and depend greatly on individual physiology and fitness. For example an endurance runner's rates will typically be lower due to the increased size of the heart required to support the exercise, while a sprinter's rates will be higher due to the improved response time and short duration. While each may have predicted heart rates of 180 (= 220 − age), these two people could have actual HRmax 20 beats apart (e.g., 170-190).

Further, note that individuals of the same age, the same training, in the same sport, on the same team, can have actual HRmax 60 bpm apart (160–220): the range is extremely broad, and some say "The heart rate is probably the least important variable in comparing athletes."

My advice would be to do some reading about HR zones and work out your lactate threshold / anaerobic threshold, and go from there. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hrm1.htm

For me (max HR of ~205), a HR of 150 is "ride all day" pace. If your maximum HR is 160, then 150 is a serious effort! The important issue is how much power you can put out at a given % of your maximum HR.

[barefoot]

Like Roshea, I have an unusually high max HR (200+), so my zones are higher than most.

I can _just_ maintain ~170 BPM for a 25 minute mountain bike crit race.

When I did the 250km Around The Bay a few years ago (on very low training), I set my HRM to beep at me if I went over 150 BPM. Staying under 150 allowed me - quite literally - to ride all day.

More recently, I'm better at pacing myself without watching the HR monitor. On a 150km solo ride last year, I recorded but didn't watch my HR. Looking back at the data, I sat on 140 most of the day, with one long hill (up the rail trail into Beechworth) holding 160-170 for about 40 minutes (I had to, because there was beer at the top).

Work out your max heart rate, and estimate your HR zones. It can be a very useful tool to learn how to pace yourself, once you work out how long you can maintain what %HRmax.

tim

[RubyCycle]

Thanks guys that was really helpful

[Atomic Kitten]

Another metric I have used is breathing:

if you can breathe through your nose - you're typically doing recovery --> endurance
If you have to breathe through your mouth, you're typically doing tempo --> threshold
if you can't breathe you're underwater or in space.

assuming you have no nasal issues, or cold, etc, of course.