Lower heart rate

Robert West said:

Can someone explain this to me? I do 4, 20 minute sub lactate intervals. The first part of the work out my heart rate goes up easy but by the end I feel like I really have to put out an effort to get my heart rate up. I've been riding/racing for many years so it's not because I'm new to the sport. Is this normal? Just to avoid the sub-lactate endless debate, when I say sub lactate I mean my heart rate is 15 beats below my TT threshold.

Sounds like you're "super-overloading", even though you are excercising at 15 bpm below AT. Super-overloading is a training method that has been used for many years to build cardio-fitness. The basic principle is to work hard, rest/recover well. It is suggested that this allows you to work a little bit harder the next time round.

Now at 15 bpm below AT then you should be in mid-high E1 zone, which is not normally too stressful. Super-overloading does not normally come into effect until you are in high E2 and E3 zones. It could be that your body needs more rest, or fewer heavy exertion days, or that your HR zones need to be recalculated.

rockmuncher said:

Sounds like you're "super-overloading", even though you are excercising at 15 bpm below AT. Super-overloading is a training method that has been used for many years to build cardio-fitness. The basic principle is to work hard, rest/recover well. It is suggested that this allows you to work a little bit harder the next time round.

Now at 15 bpm below AT then you should be in mid-high E1 zone, which is not normally too stressful. Super-overloading does not normally come into effect until you are in high E2 and E3 zones. It could be that your body needs more rest, or fewer heavy exertion days, or that your HR zones need to be recalculated.

Whats E1 E2 and E3 zones (define please) in relation to Heartrate.

I'm trying to put a training program together for me for this year, i hope to be race fit for next year. please help.

closesupport said:

Whats E1 E2 and E3 zones (define please) in relation to Heartrate.

I'm trying to put a training program together for me for this year, i hope to be race fit for next year. please help.

It varies slighty depending on which text you follow. As a rough guide my zones are broken down as follows:

Re: 60-70% used for recovery
E1: 70-80% base/aerobic training
E2: 80-85% cardio fitness training
E3: 85-90% race conditioning
E4: 90% + max effort/intervals

The percentiles are of your true max HR (not a calculated one), so you need to get a stress test done to work your zones out correctly. These tests are not fun but have to be done if you are going to get the best reusults from any zone based training program.