Do you coast ?

The heart responds slowly enough to changes in effort, that it doesn't make much sense to coast to "let your heart rate return."

The terrain I ride not only requires that I coast but also to brake at times. Steep hills with hairpins, welcome to East Tennessee.

Coasting is fine on a road bike; that's what the freehub is all about. It's a lot more work to ride a fixed-gear bike that doesn't allow coasting on a long ride.

If you need to coast just to let your HR come down and get breathing under control, you're likely pedaling too hard. Rather than on/off efforts, it's easier and more efficient to keep the workload as steady as possible throughout a ride. Lactic acid doesn't come from stopping your legs, but from hard efforts. Keep your intensity and HR below your "lactate threshold" level and you'll have no worries about lactate accumulation.

I coast down some of the steeper hills when there is no more speed to gained by pedaling, or when I think it isn't safe. I also stand up on the pedals and stretch sometimes, so I'm coasting briefly when I do that.

If I've been pushing hard enough that I need to recover, then I usually just reduce the amount of effort I'm putting into pushing the pedals and shift to easier gears if needed, but I keep pedaling.

So lactic acid builds up with a sustained higher HR ?

105k said:

So lactic acid builds up with a sustained higher HR ?

Yes, when we exceed a certain HR or level of power output. lactic acid is generated faster than we can "recycle" it from the blood. This HR or level of effort is commonly called the "lactate threshold", or "onset of blood lactate accumulation". Most trained cyclists can continue to ride at this level for a long time, just enduring some slight-to-moderate levels of muscle pain.

For most people, the LT is around 80-85% of maximum HR, maybe higher in a well-trained cyclist. Your specific threshold can be determined accurately by a "lactate tolerance test". It's done on a treadmill by increasing loads every few minutes while monitoring your HR and power output, with blood droplets collected and measured every few minutes. Believe the specific LT point is defined as a lactate level of 4mmol/dl. The test is stopped when the subject can't handle any more, often at a lactate level of 12-14 mmol/dl or higher :eek:.

dhk2 said:

Yes, when we exceed a certain HR or level of power output. lactic acid is generated faster than we can "recycle" it from the blood. This HR or level of effort is commonly called the "lactate threshold", or "onset of blood lactate accumulation". Most trained cyclists can continue to ride at this level for a long time, just enduring some slight-to-moderate levels of muscle pain.

For most people, the LT is around 80-85% of maximum HR, maybe higher in a well-trained cyclist. Your specific threshold can be determined accurately by a "lactate tolerance test". It's done on a treadmill by increasing loads every few minutes while monitoring your HR and power output, with blood droplets collected and measured every few minutes. Believe the specific LT point is defined as a lactate level of 4mmol/dl. The test is stopped when the subject can't handle any more, often at a lactate level of 12-14 mmol/dl or higher :eek:.

Thanks for the info.

105k said:

So lactic acid builds up with a sustained higher HR ?

Actually no.

Blood lactate which is a sugar and a fuel does accumulate during higher intensity efforts and is commonly used as a marker for exercise intensity.

'Lactic Acid' is a transient byproduct of metabolism and doesn't accumulate or linger in the body but the term is so steeped in tradition that you'll see it used everywhere.

But that's mostly semantics and dhk2 has summed it up nicely although the 4mmol threshold is fairly arbitrary and folks typically look at 'thresholds' like MLSS or OBLA where Lactate production and consumption are balanced or simple relationships like 1mmol rise above baseline levels as markers for various intensities of interest.

Here's some articles on the subject of Blood Lactate vs. Lactic Acid:
Lactic acid, myths,legends and reality - the ABC - A Time-to-Run - Exercise Physiology scientific aspects of various topics that interest runners
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/health/nutrition/16run.html
Lactic Acid & Blood Lactate

-Dave

I coast to catch a small break after climbing a long hill.

I do but start pedaling towards the end to gain more momentum for whats to come.

Hasn't lactic acid been demonstrated to be a good thing? It's a build-up of calcium (I believe) that hurts.

Coast if you like, just not too often. Coasting is akin to sitting on the sofa - it doesn't stress or stimulate improvement.

64Paramount said:

I also stand up on the pedals and stretch sometimes, so I'm coasting briefly when I do that.

+1. And I also coast when I take a drink from my water bottle. It just seems easier to me to do that instead of continuing to pedal while doing it. For me, that usually ends up with the majority of the water going down the front of my shirt instead of down my throat. 😎

stevegreer said:

+1. And I also coast when I take a drink from my water bottle. It just seems easier to me to do that instead of continuing to pedal while doing it. For me, that usually ends up with the majority of the water going down the front of my shirt instead of down my throat. 😎

You need more practice at drinking😄

DJA said:

You need more practice at drinking😄

Don't we all!

briricap said:

SPAM Removed

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