racing and HRM

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by shming123
how many of you wear a HRM when you race?

always.

yes. a polar 720i, but i use it for analysis rather than prescription. I like to see how many times i hit my red zone and at which stage of the race. (Altitude distance etc.) i love it!

me too...

I usually ride the course hard as many months/weeks as possible before the race and guage where my heart finds the course difficult and train according to that.

The race data is always good to use for the same course/race the following year as well.

If it's a long race (100km) I make sure I'm running 1 beat under my estimated lactate threshold until the last 20% of the race. By then I should have enough power left to use up my blood sugar and I don't mind going anabolic at the end of the race. Without my monitor the guess work is much more difficult....

It's good to say to your self...When my heart drops to 177 beats or whatever to go for it again and then watch it climb again.... slowing up when you need to.

If you're in a group and the race is short, you don't really want to look at the HRM at all. Just go with the flow and read the stats when you get home that night.

😄

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by shming123
how many of you wear a HRM when you race?

Always. Polar 720i w/ cadence sensor. Keeps me from maxing myself out too early and pushes me when I'm slacking!

Tend only to look at my HRM if I have time to do so (in training and rarely in some races). What are you going to do if you find your heart going pretty hard? Not much really cos you better get back to work if you don't want to get dropped!
Dropping of because your HR is high is not an option because that's not why you race. You'll never win if you race like that.

I look down: Woah! Thats high! Oh well, back to the coal face!

I found the stopwatch ticking over invaluable in criteriums especially....and also, if you managed to make the split, you can ration your workload more effectively if you know your limits....no point sitting on 100% of your max for 5 minutes and exploding when you know you can handle 20 minutes at 90%.

Foxing to miss the occaisonal pull during the break to let your HR settle a bit may mean you have enouigh in reserve in the final.