Average Heart Rate

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Roscoe

Veteran
Hi guys

Apologies if this has been covered before.

I am 46, 5'7" and 75 kgs. I currently ride 3 times a week, one 20 mile ride and two at around 12 miles. The area I live in is fairly hilly. I've been riding for quite a few years now.

I recently bought a Polar FT1, very basic HRM.

I appear to be averaging a heart rate of 138-141 with a max of 165-171, this was over 3 rides on 3 different routes.

I've looked at a lot of the information online re zones and am a bit confused! I understand the percentages for the different zones, however, here is my main question!

Should I avoid exceeding the percentage for each zone throughout my ride? For example, if I'm looking to stay in zone 2, should this be for the average over my ride or not exceed the percentage at all during my ride? Eg, if looking at 65% of max, should the average for the whole ride be 118 BPM or should I not excced 118 BPM at all during the ride?

Sorry for the long winded question.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
Average HR is generally a pretty useless metric. If the aim of your ride is to be within zone 2, then you should aim to have the highest amount of the ride lay within this zone (it has lower and upper boundaries, i.e. it is a range, not an absolute value), as such a better metric to look at is "time in zone". You will at points drop below your target zone, at others you will exceed it, but you should aim to maximise the time spent in the zone. As such, if you do a 60 minute Zone 2 ride you want the "time in zone" to be as close to 60 mins as possible whilst accepting you will unlikely get it 100%.
 

VamP

Banned
Location
Cambs
It's a good question actually.

The answer, as so often, is that it depends. But before we get to staying in zones, one thing that is really important is that you work out your HR max accurately. I would hazard a guess that it's a bit higher than 171 given that you have based on only three rides, and I am guessing they have been recent ones, i.e. winter rides. Your HRmax should be just that, the absolute maximum that you can reach - if you google HR ramp test it will give you one way to get there. There are others. If you ever exceed your HRmax, you need to reset your zones to fit the new HRmax.

As to staying in Zone 2, the answer depends on what your reason is for wanting to stay in that zone. But in general, I would not limit myself to a particular zone in a ride. The low zones are really of relatively limited use in HR based training, it's the higher zones, and particularly the threshold zone that is helpful in enabling you to pace your effort. You will see people advocating lots of zone 2 miles over the winter, I think this is outdated thinking that relies on people doing ludicrous mileages to build a 'base'. The truth is, not many of us have the time to do huge mileages, and substituting fewer miles at threshold and sub-threshold can be just as effective.
 
OP
OP
Roscoe

Roscoe

Veteran
Thanks guys, interesting answers.

I'm looking to steadily increase my endurance/fitness so that I can comfortably do longer rides of up to 50/60 miles. Current longest ride is 30 miles, which felt tough. Looking at the British Cycling site, it suggested that Zone 2 training would help increase endurance, hence my question.

My main concern was really how detrimental it may be to exceed certain levels of heart rate for long periods. It seems that every time I hit a hill, my heart rate rises from to between 151 to 165 until I get over and hit the flat again. Once back on the flat it comes down 20 or 30 beats within a minute.

One of the websites that I was reading suggested that if you are training to Zones, no part of your ride should exceed the upper limit for that zone. On any route in my area that would be pretty much impossible unless I got off and walked.

I may be getting overly concerned re heart rate, however, I am on medication for High Blood Pressure and don't want to overdo things.

As to calculating maximum heart rate, unfortunately, I don't have access to a turbo trainer for a ramp test, so have to rely on the various formulae mentioned on Google.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
Thanks guys, interesting answers.

I'm looking to steadily increase my endurance/fitness so that I can comfortably do longer rides of up to 50/60 miles. Current longest ride is 30 miles, which felt tough. Looking at the British Cycling site, it suggested that Zone 2 training would help increase endurance, hence my question.

My main concern was really how detrimental it may be to exceed certain levels of heart rate for long periods. It seems that every time I hit a hill, my heart rate rises from to between 151 to 165 until I get over and hit the flat again. Once back on the flat it comes down 20 or 30 beats within a minute.

One of the websites that I was reading suggested that if you are training to Zones, no part of your ride should exceed the upper limit for that zone. On any route in my area that would be pretty much impossible unless I got off and walked.

I may be getting overly concerned re heart rate, however, I am on medication for High Blood Pressure and don't want to overdo things.

As to calculating maximum heart rate, unfortunately, I don't have access to a turbo trainer for a ramp test, so have to rely on the various formulae mentioned on Google.

Great in theory, unlikely to work in the real world :smile:

You can test your MHR on the road. Although with your blood pressure issues etc, you may want to talk to your doctor about this stuff anyway, or do it in a lab environment.
 

VamP

Banned
Location
Cambs
Limiting your rides to Zone 2 is unlikely to be of any practical benefit to you. Feel free to work harder on the uphill sections. As Rob says, if you are concerned about your heart, get an all clear from a doctor first before you get stuck in.
 

uclown2002

Guru
Location
Harrogate
If you want to build up your endurance I'm not convinced you need to focus on HR zones. You will naturally build it up if you (over time) increase the frequency and lengths of your rides.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
If you want to build up your endurance I'm not convinced you need to focus on HR zones. You will naturally build it up if you (over time) increase the frequency and lengths of your rides.

Ultimately I agree, riding your bike more will suffice, regardless of what you are doing if basic endurance is your concern.

Not sure I agree with @VamP re. the zone 2 work though :tongue:
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
Well that depends exactly on that you mean by "Limiting your rides to Zone 2 is unlikely to be of any practical benefit to you", which I why I said I was not sure if I agree :smile:
 

VamP

Banned
Location
Cambs
Well that depends exactly on that you mean by "Limiting your rides to Zone 2 is unlikely to be of any practical benefit to you", which I why I said I was not sure if I agree :smile:

I meant that staying strictly within zone 2 for the duration of the ride was not necessary. I further questioned the value of the zone 2 ride, unless it was a part of a relatively high volume training program.
 

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
Okay, given the above, I agree with the former, not so sure on the latter. I'd say 8-10 hours a week is a moderate training volume, would you agree? In that context, it would seem that a lot of people in the know and getting results (Matt Bottrill being one example) aren't shunning the L2 work even with a moderate training volume :smile:

I have in the past been an advocate of "tempo or nothing" but am beginning to question it.
 
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