65% MHR is tough!

cojosurfer said:

At 65% MHR with Heart Rate Monitor I find it difficult to keep my pace and effort so low. Should I go to a lower gear or just discipline myself to keep it low?

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

You may want to re-check your MHR. 65% shouldn't be that hard.

cojosurfer said:

At 65% MHR with Heart Rate Monitor I find it difficult to keep my pace and effort so low. Should I go to a lower gear or just discipline myself to keep it low?

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

I can't recall exactly where I read this, but I understand 70% of MHR ('FatMax'😉 is optimal for fat utilisation, but that 10 BPM either side is 90% as good. Also that disproportionally more fat is used in the 2nd and 3rd hours of such exercise than in the first hour.

65% of MHR. I forgot the OF. 65-70% is my low and high range I set on my HR. I was planning on 3-4 hour rides. Thanks guys.

cojosurfer said:

65% of MHR. I forgot the OF. 65-70% is my low and high range I set on my HR. I was planning on 3-4 hour rides. Thanks guys.

What's the actual HR value? As one poster said, it might be too high. Try to re-evaluate the values so you can hit your target zones correctly and prevent injuries. Good luck.

I find it virtually impossible to ride in Zone 1/2 on the road unless I am going 10-12 mph. On the trainer I find it easier, but I think you will be all set and burning fat in Zone 3. As long as you don't feel the burn in your legs and you can maintain a conversation you should be in your target area.

cojosurfer said:

At 65% MHR with Heart Rate Monitor I find it difficult to keep my pace and effort so low. Should I go to a lower gear or just discipline myself to keep it low?

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

Ride with someone for company, I know that for me unless I am "Bonked" riding slow is harder than riding fast.

cojosurfer said:

At 65% MHR with Heart Rate Monitor I find it difficult to keep my pace and effort so low. Should I go to a lower gear or just discipline myself to keep it low?

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

65% should be easy to maintain on level ground as long as you forget about speed. Suggest you change down to a gear that will allow you to keep an 80-90 cadence and just concentrate on staying in the 60-65% zone.

In his LA Performance Plan book, Lance says he does his long (4-6 hr) endurance rides strictly within a range of 60-62% of his max HR (201).

cojosurfer said:

At 65% MHR with Heart Rate Monitor I find it difficult to keep my pace and effort so low. Should I go to a lower gear or just discipline myself to keep it low?

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

By the way, how did you determine your MHR??

Yeah.. what's the proper way to measure Max HR?

When I do my fast workout, my heart rate goes upto 190 easily.. (I'm 20) I believe it went upto 200ish during the race..

dhk said:

65% should be easy to maintain on level ground as long as you forget about speed. Suggest you change down to a gear that will allow you to keep an 80-90 cadence and just concentrate on staying in the 60-65% zone.

In his LA Performance Plan book, Lance says he does his long (4-6 hr) endurance rides strictly within a range of 60-62% of his max HR (201).

Of course for LA that equates to about 20 MPH. He's able to generate quite a bit of power at those low heart rates.

cojosurfer said:

At 65% MHR with Heart Rate Monitor I find it difficult to keep my pace and effort so low. Should I go to a lower gear or just discipline myself to keep it low?

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

Aerobic endurance training heart rates for most of us (read: those who are not regularly on the bike for 5+hrs) range from 65-85% of MHR. At RST, our first quality endurance zone begins at 75% of MHR, bearing in mind that our percentages are based on our specific MHR test protocols.
The rate and overall percentage of energy coming from fat metabolism is ultimately determined by many factors, but generally speaking, the total contribution/hr of fat continues to rise until 80-85% of MHR, or basically a little before you reach your long TT threshold (usually 88-92% of MHR).

I did it on a trainer. Push the big ring in the front and one of your easier gears in the back. Warm up with this at 70-80 rpms. Once you have a real sweat going, start shifting to a bigger gear every couple minutes while maintaining the cadence. Repeat until you get to your biggest sprinting gear (52x12/11 for example) and go nuts as long as you can. Sprint til you puke and/or can't breathe. When you can see again, look at your heart rate. That's your MHR. It's fun...really!

in.10.city said:

By the way, how did you determine your MHR??

cojosurfer said:

At 65% MHR with Heart Rate Monitor I find it difficult to keep my pace and effort so low. Should I go to a lower gear or just discipline myself to keep it low?

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

You can go as high as 85% MHR to lose fat. I did this last year on most of my fat burning rides and lost 33 lbs in 2088 miles last year. And I mostly did most of my fat burning rides at 85% MHR on 38 to 56 mile rides. Of course I also had to watch my diet.

Although I ride quite regularly, I have not really bothered with a heart rate monitor or gone into the science of different rates etc, one thing I noticed reading this thread is the zone for fat burning, I'm not trying to lose weight but I was fascinated to read about the upper limit, am I correct in thinking above this rate [wasn't it 70%] fat burning is no longer so efficient or is it that riding for 2 or 3 hours above 70% is more difficult to maintain and therefore makes fat burning more difficult?

cojosurfer said:

Just interested in shedding fat, do a century or two solo, interval sprints up some hillsides, and look at a possible race.

Doing recovery rides is one thing, but if your aim is to burn fat, I'm afraid the "fat burning zone" is a bit of a myth. At best it's a "bigger piece of a much smaller pie" scenario.

"If you have ever worked out at a gym you may have noticed treadmill ergometer notations of "fat burning zone" in the area of 65% of maximum heart rate. And if your workout is generally at a higher intensity, you may have wondered whether you may be running too fast to burn fat. Nothing could be more ridiculous.............
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NHF/is_6_18/ai_86649652

Do a Google search on "fat burning myths", and you'll find plenty of info

Boubepo said:

Although I ride quite regularly, I have not really bothered with a heart rate monitor or gone into the science of different rates etc, one thing I noticed reading this thread is the zone for fat burning, I'm not trying to lose weight but I was fascinated to read about the upper limit, am I correct in thinking above this rate [wasn't it 70%] fat burning is no longer so efficient or is it that riding for 2 or 3 hours above 70% is more difficult to maintain and therefore makes fat burning more difficult?

As I noted above, the total contribution of fat increases up to 80-85% of MHR. This is different from the highest *percentage* of fuel coming from fat, which is at lower intensities. However, it's the combination of more Kcals used per minute and a still relatively high percentage of fuel coming from fat at 80-85% of MHR that results in the highest overall contribution of fat/min (i.e.: highest total calories used from fat). This is why medium intensities are the most productive for weight loss, not an intensity associated with the higher percentage of fuel coming from fat.
I also said that this depends on several factors, but did not elaborate...so, here ya go:
Diet (high fat diets result in more fuel coming from fat...but also reduce the ability to produce power) - Hydration (more dehydrated, more carbohydrate utilization due to decrease in aerobic capacity) - Duration of workout (the longer the workout, the greater the concentration of fat in the blood stream, which equals a greater contribution of fat to fuel exercise for all submaximal intensities) - Core Temperature (unusually high or low body temp equals greater use of carbohydrate) - Nutrition during your workout (eating carbs increases the use of carbs while training) - Individual training status (the more fit you are the more fat you use for any given power output) - Initial muscle glycogen status (low glycogen stores at the onset of exercise will increase the use of fat earlier in a workout) ... think that it!

BanditManDan said:

You may want to re-check your MHR. 65% shouldn't be that hard.

guess that depends on if you intend on keeping that pace but can't help but step it up to a tempo ride, i have found this i try to keep the hrt rate down for 1 hour before i start my tempo rides, but it always seems to end up 45minutes of tempo / race speed instead and recoving at my intended speed and the training scedual goes out the window.