Heart Rate

Karstens Rage said:

Im a 38yo male that loves biking. I like to climb a lot. Every Wednesday
I do a spinning class. Today I was particularly aware of my HR (I wear a
monitor) within the context of a trip report I read somewhere.

Someone had gone 115 miles from SF to Point Reyes and they did it with
an average of 16.something with an average HR of 106!!

Now I know that MaxHR is supposed to be 220 - age but I also know that

Quoted message said:

Am I not training right? Should I just stick to 140 to build my aerobic
base (Id have to stop climbing altogether which is hard to do where I
am)? Im not shooting for racing or anything. I just want to know if I'm
doing this "correctly" (whatever that means)?

I'm not an expert and a doctor should probalby evaluate your health
before judging any of this to be safe. I'm also just a recreational
rider who like long (100+ miles) flat routes (flat like the Jersey
shore).

Having said that my heart rate routinely rises in the 140's when
cruising at 17 mph. It goes up when I work harder and on a couple of
climbs it's skyrocketed. One time, when out of shape, I took a
serously steep short hill at 198. A few weeks later after getting a
few more miles under my belt I did the same hill in the 180's. When I
ride with a another fellow (we both train close to the same amounts)
I'm cruising along at 148 and he's at 138. When we're working hard I'm
in the 160's he's in the 140's. Basically I use it to tell me where I
am in my training and how hard I'm working, relative to recent
observations.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry [email hidden]
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 17:02:06 -0800, Karstens Rage <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Im a 38yo male that loves biking. I like to climb a lot. Every Wednesday
I do a spinning class. Today I was particularly aware of my HR (I wear a
monitor) within the context of a trip report I read somewhere.

Someone had gone 115 miles from SF to Point Reyes and they did it with
an average of 16.something with an average HR of 106!!

Now I know that MaxHR is supposed to be 220 - age but I also know that
is just a bell curve. Some are much higher than that some are lower. I
have actually seen my HR go to 210 with the HRM on but that didnt feel
good. So I use 200 for my Max most of the time.

With MaxHR at 200 then
60% = 120
70% = 140
80% = 160

My RHR is around 52.

The problem is that at 120 I dont feel like Im even moving. When I get
into a "groove" my HR seems to like being around 172 but thats breathing
evenly and well and I could maintain that for a long time.

Am I not training right? Should I just stick to 140 to build my aerobic
base (Id have to stop climbing altogether which is hard to do where I
am)? Im not shooting for racing or anything. I just want to know if I'm
doing this "correctly" (whatever that means)?

k

I'm a 40 yo male, and my max HR is about 180. On my century last year, I
spent about 3.5 hours of the 8 hours it took me to ride the century at 90%
or above my max HR. My average HR for the entire 8 hours was about 85% of
my max HR. My normal training rides are easier, though: My average HR is
about 75-80% of my max HR and I typically spend about 20-25% of the time
at 90% or above.

Personally, I don't have any areas around my house that are flat, so I
don't worry too much about having too high of a HR.

--
Bob in CT

Bob M said:

I'm a 40 yo male, and my max HR is about 180. On my century last year, I
spent about 3.5 hours of the 8 hours it took me to ride the century at 90%
or above my max HR. My average HR for the entire 8 hours was about 85% of
my max HR. My normal training rides are easier, though: My average HR is
about 75-80% of my max HR and I typically spend about 20-25% of the time
at 90% or above.

90% is a very high rate and difficult to ride in for longer than
several minutes. That's above lactate threshold for even the best
trained pros. I suspect your max. heart rate is higher than you
think it is.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Terry Morse said:

Bob M said:

I'm a 40 yo male, and my max HR is about 180. On my century last year,
I
spent about 3.5 hours of the 8 hours it took me to ride the century at
90%
or above my max HR. My average HR for the entire 8 hours was about 85%
of
my max HR. My normal training rides are easier, though: My average HR
is
about 75-80% of my max HR and I typically spend about 20-25% of the time
at 90% or above.

90% is a very high rate and difficult to ride in for longer than
several minutes. That's above lactate threshold for even the best
trained pros. I suspect your max. heart rate is higher than you
think it is.

That could be true, but the maximum I've ever seen on my HR monitor was
182, and that was riding as hard as I could ride up a very steep (but
luckily relatively short) hill. I've hit 180-182 several times doing the
same (always a steep hill). I've never seen a higher HR (and this goes
back YEARS of riding). How else can I test what my maximum HR is? I
mean, if I'm going as hard as I can and see 182, what HR could be higher?
And how would I achieve that HR? I could guess that my max. HR is 200,
but if I never ever come close to 200, then what good is that guess?

--
Bob in CT

Bob M said:

That could be true, but the maximum I've ever seen on my HR monitor was
182, and that was riding as hard as I could ride up a very steep (but
luckily relatively short) hill. I've hit 180-182 several times doing the
same (always a steep hill). I've never seen a higher HR (and this goes
back YEARS of riding). How else can I test what my maximum HR is? I
mean, if I'm going as hard as I can and see 182, what HR could be higher?
And how would I achieve that HR? I could guess that my max. HR is 200,
but if I never ever come close to 200, then what good is that guess?

You've hinted at the problem with the max. heart rate estimate: the
number doesn't mean much. Lactate threshold and VO2max heart rates
are much more useful, but determining them requires testing. Most
coaches base their training zone recommendations as a percentage of
threshold heart rate, or sometimes VO2max heart rate.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bob M said:

Terry Morse said:

Bob M said:

I'm a 40 yo male, and my max HR is about 180. On my century last year,
I
spent about 3.5 hours of the 8 hours it took me to ride the century at
90%
or above my max HR. My average HR for the entire 8 hours was about 85%
of
my max HR. My normal training rides are easier, though: My average HR
is
about 75-80% of my max HR and I typically spend about 20-25% of the time
at 90% or above.

90% is a very high rate and difficult to ride in for longer than
several minutes. That's above lactate threshold for even the best
trained pros. I suspect your max. heart rate is higher than you
think it is.

That could be true, but the maximum I've ever seen on my HR monitor was
182, and that was riding as hard as I could ride up a very steep (but
luckily relatively short) hill. I've hit 180-182 several times doing the
same (always a steep hill). I've never seen a higher HR (and this goes
back YEARS of riding). How else can I test what my maximum HR is? I
mean, if I'm going as hard as I can and see 182, what HR could
be higher?

_ There are tests, if you really want to know then get a VO2
max/lactate thresold/maximum heart rate test from a
specialist. There's lot's of interesting reading here

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/hrm2.htm

But basically, if you could keep going after hitting 182 then
that wasn't your MHR. If you could sustain that effort for more
than a minute it wasn't your MHR. Hitting your maximum heart
rate reqires a hard anaerobic effort. Imagine climbing at 180 bpm
and then sprinting... hard. I've done the hill sprinting test
listed at that web site and if you can walk after the sprint
you didn't sprint hard enough. I would not reccommend anybody
do these tests on their own, unless you've had a recent checkup.
It's not something to attempt until you've got a good amount
of training under your belt.

Quoted message said:

And how would I achieve that HR? I could guess that my max. HR is 200,
but if I never ever come close to 200, then what good is that guess?

_ Your lacate threshold is a lot more interesting and useful as
a training measure. From what I read maximum heart rate is
determined by mostly by genetics, but the lactate threshold
responds to training. Getting to your lactate threshold is
pretty stressful as well, but not as bad as MHR. It's also
relatively hard to measure accurately, but with practice you
can get an rough idea of where it is.

_ Lastly as a data point, I'm 44 have a tested MHR of 200
running. I have yet to see any formula that even comes close
to those numbers.

_ Booker C. Bense

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Quoted message said:

90% is a very high rate and difficult to ride in for longer than
several minutes. That's above lactate threshold for even the best
trained pros. I suspect your max. heart rate is higher than you
think it is.
--
terry morse

Terry: This may be one of those your-mileage-may-vary things. My absolute
max heart rate is 177 (although it's virtually impossible to get it past 172
without doing something really stupid, like the previously-mentioned
sprinting after a hard climb). Yet I can ride for well over half an hour at
160, which would be just over 90%.

If I were to hold my heart rate to 142 (approximately 80%), I'd be dropped
like a rock in any group I ride with. I could probably ride several hours
(in fact, thinking about it, I have) at 150 and feel like I'm working, but
at a very efficient, sustainable level. I'm not sure what my resting heart
rate is these days, but right now it's sitting at 52. Is that normal for an
almost-49-year-old-male? Maybe one of these days I'll get a physical and
ask. I've always thought a stress test might be a fun thing to do (and
besides, it's not like I haven't heard of enough people my age dropping over
dead for no good reason).

In my case, if I can't get my heart rate up fairly quickly, it's an
indication that I'm not feeling very well and will be pretty sluggish for at
least the first part of a ride.

All that aside, I will say that getting a heart rate monitor was one of the
greatest things I did for my cycling. It really "exposed" where I was
putting in a hard effort vs not, and in particular dramatically improved my
speed on the flats as I learned that there was obviously a whole lot more
left in the engine since my heart rate was so much lower than when climbing
(even though I *thought* I was pushing as hard as I could for a sustainable
effort).

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Bob M said:

That could be true, but the maximum I've ever seen on my HR monitor was
182, and that was riding as hard as I could ride up a very steep (but
luckily relatively short) hill. I've hit 180-182 several times doing
the same (always a steep hill). I've never seen a higher HR (and this
goes back YEARS of riding). How else can I test what my maximum HR
is? I mean, if I'm going as hard as I can and see 182, what HR could
be higher? And how would I achieve that HR? I could guess that my
max. HR is 200, but if I never ever come close to 200, then what good
is that guess?

I got to 192 on a steep hill (49 year old woman) and my doctor wanted
tests. I'll spare you the long story, but on the stress test on a
treadmill I got to 201. I wasn't at exhaustion, but I didn't want to
push myself too far as I was afraid the cardiologist thought I was just
a hot-head.

That said, I don't seem to go higher than the low 180s on hills now that
I am in better shape, even ones where I am puffing harder and harder.

I would suggest making up your own scale of effort, based on hill
climbing. The highest heart rate you can reach when you climb a hill
puffing harder and harder--call that 95%. The heart rate where you can
feel you are working to climb a hill but can still comfortably carry on
a conversation--call that 70%. Calculate equal zones in between and use
those for training. I would say pitch the whole thing and just go by
perceived effort, except that I too have the experience that the heart
rate monitor helps me keep pushing myself instead of settling into a
touring pace.

Pam