Thoughts on Target Heart Rate?

[Jiffer]

Jiffer, i am also battling adrenal issue due to overtraining except my cortisol pitches up at any perceived stress. My hormones are normal but are behaving as if I have a deficiency.

I was misdiagnosed put on a bunch of hormones that made my symptoms work.

I am now working with a nutritionist as well. He has me riding 6 days on trainer for one hour and one long ride (60 miles) on Saturdays. I have to stay under 130 max heart rate (zone 1 - ability to carry conversation). He went riding with me once (he is a cyclist too and works with a lot of teams), he set my pace at 12 mph and told me not to exceed it. While the pace is excruciatingly slow, I find I run into problems if I exceed this pace or if my heart rate runs beyond 140 (way worse if my hr goes to 160'and beyond). If I don't follow these guidelines, I have insomnia that night and will wake up several times unable to fall asleep and only averaging 4 hours of sleep meanwhile waking up with rapid breathing and sweating.

Also, I have been banned from putting any pressure on my legs so hills are out of the question for now. He said for now the most important thing is to build base. The only way to do this is to ride long and slow at a low heart rate. He cited a 50 mile ride he did with some cat 1's. No one went beyond 18 mph. He said in other sports you can push and stress your body to advance to the next level but you can't do this in cycling without a solid base. He could not stress the importance of long and slow.

Hope that helps.

That does help. Thanks so much. I've searched high and low for anything I could find to help me know what I should be doing when it comes to riding. The first doctor I went to was a cyclist and recommended by a coach. That's why I went to him, but he was a conventional doctor and after he tested for anemia, which I suspected, and said I didn't have that, I didn't have a lot of faith that he was going to get to the bottom of my issues. Going to both my nutritionist and my naturopathic doctor, while I think I got to the bottom of my problems and am getting the help I need for my health, I feel like they don't "get me" with the cycling and don't truly know how to instruct me when it comes to that.

Like I said, now that my fatigue has lessened some, I do feel like the HR my nutritionist gave me seems reasonable, at least for 30-40 minute rides. However, if I could build my base and ride longer distances at a lower HR, then I would LOVE to do that . . . and have wondered if that would be safe for me to do. It seemed like it would, but I've been afraid to try.

I have done many a 30 minute ride between 10-12 mph hour for the past year, so yeah, I get the frustration of SLOW. But if I could slowly build to a lot longer than 30 minutes at that pace, I would be thrilled. And once my health issues are better resolved I'll have the base to build on and I know I need that.

You said some other things that made me go "hmmm". Some things I'll have to pay attention to. I do have high cortisol levels at night, particularly early in the morning around 4 a.m., which wake me up sometimes and keep me from falling back asleep. It comes and goes. Some nights I get a reasonable night's sleep and others I don't. I also get hot and sweaty more some nights than others (but not rapid breathing). I'll have to start paying attention to any correlation there might be with those symptoms and my previous day's bike ride . . . or other exertion.

One of my symptoms is dizziness. My eyes get that black out sensation when I stand, particularly at night or morning when I get out of bed, but sometimes during the day. It used to be all the time, even just getting out of the car, but now it's mostly at night and sometimes during the day. I do notice that my level of exercise affects that. When that happens it's a drop in blood pressure and it's a symptom of adrenal fatigue. The first time I saw my nutritionist she took my BP sitting and then standing. When I stood it dropped 30 points. (It's supposed to go up 3 to 5 points or so.) Now when I have it tested, it only drops a little, so I'm seeing progress.

I find it interesting that your nutritionist has you on a trainer. I suppose that's to keep you from riding any hills. We just moved to about the worse place I could live and do flat rides from my house. I pretty much go back and forth along a very short stretch of road below our house which is "sort of" flat. Or I put my bike in my car and drive somewhere. No matter where I go, there will always be a minimum of at least a 2 or 3% incline somewhere in my ride. And I hate riding on trainers. But I just go stupid slow on those 2%'s, watching my heart rate, and when I eventually turn around, I get to fly down them. My average pace today was about 11.8 going west and 18 or so going east for a 14.2 average. It's amazing the difference in pace on such a minor incline, just by staying at a certain heart rate.

Anyway, thanks so much for your input. I think I'll try doing one "long" ride a week, keeping my heart rate lower than suggested by my nutritionist. I was starting to do some weekly long rides, if you call 10 miles long, but at the end of my second one I wasn't feeling so good. I think I pushed my pace too much on that and a couple of previous shorter rides. That was before my HR monitor was working and, since I was feeling a little better, I was testing my limits a bit. I hate to go so slow, but slow I will go until my health improves.

Thanks again!