Cadence/Speed/Hr Q

[Veronica]

Yeah but if you are using your HRM as a guide and not by RPE or Power, then you'll have no way of knowing any better. If the original person wants to ride above say, 150 bpm, and she's having trouble getting past 140 while at 6000 feet - what does she do? Try to get up to 150? Or does she ride at 140? How is she going to know the workout is having the desired effect if all she does is look at the HRM? Without RPE, it is just a number.

They are all just numbers.

I don't know how you could ride without thinking about your perceived exertion, unless you're totally disconnecting from your body as you ride.

BTW my experience at altitude has been the opposite. My HR gets higher, not lower.

V.

[SadieKate]

The heart rate calculation of 220 - age is complete and total nonsense. It is not based on any science and should be ignored. (It is loosely based on the fact that newborns have a normal heart rate up to 220 - which is true. To which there is nothing to say but "so what". This has abolutely nothing to do with the maximal exercise heart rates of adults.)

You can find lots of discussion here about testing for your own max heart rate with maximal effort.

Go through your Polar book. The software should set up the computer with the max HR based on your age and gender but that is just an estimate. Each one of us has a different max HR. To get accurate you need to do a field test. I think roadbikerider.com had one. Sally Edwards has them. Every coach who works with an HRM has one.

Sheesh, doc, thanks for making it look I said the 220 thing was a rule set in stone.

[doc]

Sheesh, doc, thanks for making it look I said the 220 thing was a rule set in stone.

SadieKate - Please do not take that at all personally. It is one of my pet peeves (i.e. it's my issue not yours). The 220 - age thing is offered up like law all over the place and I try to debunk it whenever I can. Used to be one could find the 220-age poster in every gym and in every aerobics class room etc.

As for perceived exertion, now that has been studied. Research has shown that when the exerciser can no longer speak in sentences, that is, he/she has to take a breath every few words, they have passed their anaerobic threshold.

What others have said about HR varying with altitude, a night's sleep, dehydration etc is also true. But perceived exertion will be still be "correct" despite those individual and day to day changes.

[Dogmama]

Crazy C - I always adjust HRM's upwards by 10-20 BPM. According the the scales, my 75% is 139BPM. As Cassandra & Veronica have said, my perceived level of exertion is different - I feel like I'm just getting warmed up at 139BPM. I perform best at 155 - that HR feels more like 75% to me.

Your mileage may vary. I think those of us who are more fit can handle a higher heart rate. I have no scientific basis for that other than my own gut feeling.

I love gadgets, but for me, I need to make sure I'm not turning my cycling into a science project.

[crazycanuck]

Thanks ladies,

SK-I understood what you meant by max HR but couldn't respond as i was lurking whilst at work...
Doc-that's the number I was referring to(220) and now understand it could be/should be/can be bunk.

Dogmama-you could be right about me turning my cycling into a science project...some days it seems that way...

I guess the main reason for me asking about cadence is I wonder if i'm improving or not. As i normally cycle on my own the answer lies only with me.
It's just annoying having people fly past me when there's a strong headwind along the swan river cycle path..

Perhaps my thread should have been about cadence & headwinds....

c

[Dogmama]

Perhaps my thread should have been about cadence & headwinds....

c

"Spin, spin, spin in the wind!"

[maillotpois]

Is that like "Roll, roll, roll in ze hay!" ?

[Dogmama]

Where wolf?

[maillotpois]

There wolf!

(In your avatar.... he's SO cute!)