heart rate concerns

[spazzdog]

Max HR, training zones, etc is so individual and based on so many different factors (genetics, fitness, etc)...

The old textbook Max HR of 220-age = MHR is a general template that takes nothing BUT age into consideration. A medically administered HR test is expensive, and sometimes hard to find a place that can do it.

I am 49, so using the old method of 220 - 49, my MHR = 171.

My waking HR is 49-54.
My resting HR (just sitting around) is 55-59.

If I'm spinning along chatting with others (or myself), I may crack 113 on the old HR monitor.

If I am pedaling as hard as I can up a big hill on the hottest day in July, my HR might hit 155... maybe. My recovery back down to 110-115 takes about 2 min.

This is now and I'm pretty sedentary.

spazz

[Raindrop]

The age predicted heart rate (220-age) is considered highly inaccurate and is estimated to fit less that 1/3 of the population. There are several other methodologies to determine heart rates and some of the ways can be found in books by the late Edmund Burke (Precision Heart Rate Training), or books by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed (The Heart Rate Monitor Book for outdoor and indoor cyclists). Both not only explain heart rate training, but include several training methodologies.

I'm a Personal Trainer and cyclist and also have been teaching Spinning classes since 1997 and I have taken several classes on heart rate training. You know what my conclusion has been? Use the highest number ever seen as your probably 90% if heart rate max. This is the number you see (after thouroughly warming up), when you are working so hard that you're barely able to breath and feel dangerously close to puking. Most people don't want to work to that level.

Most people will experience high heart rates at the beginning of their workout effort. This is due to the body not being warmed up. The body actually goes through metabolic changes during the warm up that allows the blood flow which is normally centered around your core (where the important organs are), and shifts the blood flow out to the working muscles, allowing those muscles to start extracting the oxegon.

So, when you first start working out it's as though your body is a cold car with all the oil (blood), sitting there in the oil pan. After you start the engine, it takes awhile for the oild to flow to the working part of the engine (the muscles). So working without being thouroughly warmed up means your muscles are not ready to use the oxegon in your blood yet, which forces the muscles to find a different energy path with would be the anaerobic pathways, (without oxegon). That pathway results in the creation of lactic acid .

This may be more than you wanted to know, but in any case, there is a reason we go through a warm up and once your body has made the transition from pre-warm up to post warm up, everything seems easier.

Hope this helped a little. If you get a chance try reading some of the material out there by Sally Edwards & Sally Reed, or just do a Google search on the age predicated heart rates.

[Lynne]

Raindrop-
That explains so much! I have such a terrible time w/lactic acid buildup. I was supposed to try out riding on a car race track tonight for an hour. This would have helped me learn a bit more about my heart rate and warm up style as it's completely flat (and I rarely have a chance to do that, and NEVER when starting out). However, I forgot my shoes (I always do stupid stuff like forgetting my shoes, sigh) and had to go back home to get them. So, I only got 15 mins and I started out in a hard sprint because I was frustrated. Sure enough, the heart rate went to 184bmp again immediately (no, that's not where I feel like I'm going to throw up...that's probably 90% of my max then). So, I guess it's not just hills. It's anything that's a hard fast start for me.

I'm going to go to the track again next week (prepared this time!!) and ride out for 1/2 hr at no more than 10-12mph. Then I want to try and do 6 laps (12 miles) all out. I really hope that I find that the 1/2 hr warmup lets me do killer speed on the 12 miles without immediate painful lactic acid and without feeling like I want to pass out (ok, a bit exaggerated, but you get the point).

If I find this is the case, then I know I need to do a long slow warmup, no matter how time-consuming and boring I may find it.

Thanks again for ALL the tips and help. I have read and pondered every word, read every resource posted and appreciate ALL of the advice. I'm going to be the best rider I can be so much sooner than I could have achieved otherwise! And, if I learn how to draft and whatnot, maybe I can give the 12 mile race at the track a go! I'd love to see how I do on flat if I find the warm up solves my problems (The BF tried it for the first time tonight, his first time ever racing...it was SO fun to watch and he had such a big grin on his face when he was done...it's contagious!)