Completed 1st MHR test

Calculated MHR is 195. At gym on spinning bike - got heart to 189 before saying ENOUGH. haha. I *probably* could have gone a tad longer/harder ... and making a mess in the spinning room (if you know what I mean). But I really don't think I could have surpassed 195 by a huge margin. I may use the 195 for my interval training - figuring the max test was performed inside a gym, without any external motivation (i.e. pacing friends), and scared to go 'to the limit'.

What do you guys think?

we are scared! ha-ha ;-)

Well, if you read these forums a bit, especially the Power forum, you'll see that MHR doesn't matter all that much.

Find out our HR at your function threshold, and train using that number. You can find lots of information around here on that if you are interested.

Indeed. I have come to realize that one can spin in circles figuring out how to train on a bike. I recently bought the 'Lance 7 week training book' and will follow the beginning/intermediate workouts.

I agree the heart rate numbers that matter to me are:

20 minute TT last five minutes.............................172bpm aprox 105%FTP
20 minutes at 91% to 100% FTP last five minutes...159bpm to 166bpm for 3x20s
Tempo about 145bpm to 158bpm

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Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. http://www.earnharts.com/html/realau...cific.asp?id=3

A good book for the basics and some info on Lance's training. I didn't care for all the CTS copyrighted acronyms; makes it sound like he invented just about everything.

Don't expect miracles in 7 weeks though....even Lance took just a bit longer than that

haha ... of course. But I figure if I finish both the beginner/intermediate worksouts I'll be in MUCH better shape than before I started.

And during the time period - I'll keep reading these forums about better training protocols.

I just want to start training and stop spending less time on the bike trying to diagnosis the 'best' method when most methods work well. May not be the 'best' ... but works damn good.

Don't spend to much time in L2 unless you are more than 40 lbs over weight or nursing an injury it is not quality riding time. Stay low tempo up to 100% FTP as much as possible.

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Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. http://www.earnharts.com/html/realau...cific.asp?id=3

Def. not overweight. haha. My L2 workouts (from the book) I stay high L2/low L3.

Note though - the program does a lot of L2 in the beginning few weeks. Then afterwards as 20 minutes tempo to the L2 pace (from 45 minutes to 1.5 hrs total time).