A 43 year old roadie back in the saddle (last summer). Thus far in 2005 I have 900 miles on bike. My question is this. Do I get the same benefits from training if my average HR on 90 minute ride is within my zone (for that ride) or do I only get the real benfits of the amount of time I'm actually in the zone? for example. I ride 90 minutes in zone 155-166. I'm not always IN the zone but my average over the 90 min time is 157. Is this ok as a basis for training or must I stay IN the zone the whole ride? (some hills just don't make sense to "ride down" and HR drops off.)
Do I get the same benefits from training if my average HR on 90 minute ride is within my zone (for that ride) or do I only get the real benfits of the amount of time I'm actually in the zone? for example. I ride 90 minutes in zone 155-166. I'm not always IN the zone but my average over the 90 min time is 157. Is this ok as a basis for training or must I stay IN the zone the whole ride? (some hills just don't make sense to "ride down" and HR drops off.)
Thanks
A few minutes below or above your zone won't matter too much. Once you get above Tempo is when you'll want to keep track of your time out of zone as that is where you will need extra recoup time.
155 - 166 BPM for 90 min sounds kind of high for a 43 year old unless you're getting adequate recovery time. Are you doing that every day? 3 times a week? Also, how did you determine your zones? Max heart rate or some kind of time trial effort?
I agree with Dr. M. For the upper zones (4+) it's less important whether your time in a zone is continuous than it is how many total minutes you spend in the zone. For example, if you were doing intervals of 10 minutes at 175+bpm and 10 minutes recovery at 125bpm, you wouldn't count it at the average (150bpm). What's more important is the 10 minutes at 175+. In zones 1 & 2, it really doesn't matter at all because it's recovery. And, btw, your 90 minute ride does sound a bit high. What's your max HR?
A 43 year old roadie back in the saddle (last summer). Thus far in 2005 I have 900 miles on bike. My question is this. Do I get the same benefits from training if my average HR on 90 minute ride is within my zone (for that ride) or do I only get the real benfits of the amount of time I'm actually in the zone? for example. I ride 90 minutes in zone 155-166. I'm not always IN the zone but my average over the 90 min time is 157. Is this ok as a basis for training or must I stay IN the zone the whole ride? (some hills just don't make sense to "ride down" and HR drops off.)
Thanks
A HR zone is defined as some % of your max HR, which of course means you need to know your max HR fairly accurately. Most training stuff I've read defines between 3 and 6 or 7 HR zones, all the way from 60-65% Recovery (Zone 1) up to 100% max.
A training program is usually prescribed in a mix of zones, depending on your goals, fitness levels, time of year, and ability to recover. If you've only ridden 900 miles this year, would say you need more base endurance miles, rather than 90 minute rides at or above 80% of your max HR all the time. Don't believe Lance trains or even races this hard everyday in the TdF. Maybe one day or two days a week could be at this higher intensity for 30 minutes or so, but the rest should be recovery or base endurance mileage. You've got to let the body get stronger in response to training, not just hammer yourself into the ground constantly.
