Quoted post said:Originally Posted by kssz2 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG] ...if power and speed are increased HR goes up, so would it not make sense to train at a slightly higher HR till comfortable then move HR up again?...
Karlos,
It might seem that way, but no in general that's not how it works. In the early stages of training a rider's HR to power or even HR to blood lactate relationships might change and not always in the way you've described. Many folks find their HR drops for the same power or blood lactate levels if tested in the lab due to increases in heart stroke volume.
But get past that initial six to eight weeks and changes in HR to FTP or HR to a given blood lactate level slow down considerably. After that point what happens is with additional training adaptations your HR stays pretty much the same but the actual power at FTP or power associated with a certain blood lactate level increase. So your speed in similar conditions may increase for the same HR although there's also a lot of day to day variation in HR to take into account so a single day where your HR is higher or lower than usual vs. speed in similar environmental and terrain conditions doesn't tell you much.
As jhuskey says, increase either total ride duration, intensity (not necessarily measured in HR) or both over time and your body will continue to adapt to the increased training stress. That assumes you don't try to increase either or both forms of stress too rapidly or without sufficient recovery in which case your body won't be able to adapt quickly enough and you'll just get progressively more tired.
The less obvious part is that you can increase power and speed with a steady diet of sub-Threshold work. You don't need to regularly push past your FTP to see FTP increase. Yeah, that's not all that obvious but it's what SST (Sweet Spot Training) is all about. Sure sooner or later you'll have to increase intensity as you become more fit, the body has no reason to adapt if not challenged by additional stress, but that stress doesn't have to be always or even regularly above your Threshold power and it definitely doesn't need to be at ever increasing heart rates.
-Dave
