A first!

Well, I still have a lot of "firsts" since I just learned how to ride in December, but something happened last night that I thought was just plain cool :D

I was doing hill practicing and intervals in my favorite park last night - I do this once a week and focus on endurance/distance for my other rides. I just installed a mount for my HRM on my bars so I can use this for intervals. I found that my heart rate actually DROPPED when climbing most of the hills in the park - they tend to be quite steep but short outside of one. It didn't fall on the steepest part of THAT hill, but it didn't do too badly.

I interpret this as, perhaps, making progress in learning how to use the shifters for climbing. I am sure that long and less steep hills probably require a different shifting pattern, but this small sign of progress makes me happy :D

Either that or my HRM is just wacky like its owner :)

Any sign of progress is always a great thing!!!

I'm glad you brought this up, Catrin...as I've been wondering about my HRM on my Sigma cycling computer. When I remember to wear the strap, I noticed that my HR has never gotten above 136, even on the steepest of climbs. It usually hovers around 108-110, which I think is fairly low...considering that I'm usually working up a decent sweat. It takes a LOT out of me to get my HR up with this monitor. Either my heart is in terrific shape or that HRM is totally wigging out on me. After seeing how low it's registering on the monitor, it sort of makes me not want to wear it, because then it makes me feel like I'm hardly doing anything...even though I know I am. :confused:

Linda

I can certainly see a difference in the heart rate when I am just trying to power through mashing gears compared with TRYING to spin in an easier gear. Granted, since I don't yet clip in I am always "mashing" to some degree, but can tell a big difference in my HR.

Where I can really tell the HR difference these days is in spinning class. No matter how hard I hit it, I am rarely able to get it above 144 these days. Of course that is only a 45 minute class and the periods of effort are much shorter than they are on the bike...I just remember last fall when those same efforts in class sent it soaring to 168-170 :o

nscrbug, I could only dream of a low HR like that... my average for a ride is 136 and that includes a lot of hill climbing.