HR when riding / racing

RidwarePhil said:

Whats the best way of reducing your HR when riding?

I am curretnly rinding a 20 mph ciruit at 166 bpm as part of a group around an outdoor track @95 rpm. I am 32 with a max of 191.

Is 166 high for that type of speed.

I normally ride alone a lot and typically ride a hilly loop at 18.5 - 19.5 mph at 165 bpm ish and can ride at that pace for 3-4 hrs.
I used Pete Read's turbo programs last year and want to do better this year.

Any tips?

The best way of reducing your HR when riding is to ride easier. However, i'm guessing that's not what you meant! 🙂

Your HR at a given effort will tend to decrease over time as your fitness increases (i.e., you can generate more power).

To get 'fitter' you'll need to alter your training to be inline with your goals so that the fitness adaptations you want will occur. We don't know, at present, what your goals are (are they racing related? what type of racing?) so we can't really suggest anything.

The problem with the book that you used is that it is generic and not tailored to your needs. I don't know if it suggests how to alter training to your requirements or not. If you give us some more info people here may be able to give you some general advice or there is always the coaching route, which may or may not be suitable for you.

Ric

I was thinking that if I reduce my HR when riding for a given pace (improve my fitness) that it will improve my racing etc. But I was unsure of teh best way to do this, speed, power or endurance work etc?

I have been back riding my bike for a few years.
2005 I rode 1600 miles total 50% by MTB and 50% by road
2006 to date I have ridden 3000 miles total to date mainly on the road

I raced 6 crits this year over a spread of months. I did ok in the 4th Cat races I road taking points in both but always got shelled out when racing 2/3 cat races. I had a poor Oct/Nov/Dec last year with illness and work issues which meant I didnt start intervals etc untill later on. When I did start my speed improved and I felt better. I am now concerend that spinning a gear over winter will undo all of teh work I did last year.

I know it takes a while to build a base etc but I want to ensure I am not wasting my time with poor quality training.

RidwarePhil said:

Whats the best way of reducing your HR when riding?

I am curretnly rinding a 20 mph ciruit at 166 bpm as part of a group around an outdoor track @95 rpm. I am 32 with a max of 191.

Is 166 high for that type of speed.

I normally ride alone a lot and typically ride a hilly loop at 18.5 - 19.5 mph at 165 bpm ish and can ride at that pace for 3-4 hrs.
I used Pete Read's turbo programs last year and want to do better this year.

Any tips?

In all honesty Phil I'm not interested in my HR vis-v-vis training. However, before I started interval training 2 mins, 5 mins, 20mins, 30mins. My HR went up at the same rate as the watts. i.e. at 100W my HR was 100bpm, at 120 and 130 my HR was 120bpm and 130bpm respectively. Now 9 months later it just about reaches 120bpm when I'm generating 200Watts!
So there's your answer - hard work!😉