Optimum race heart race

What would be the optimum heart rate to complete a 100km race?

It depends on YOUR MHR (don't do the 220-age thing; you need to really know what it is), your training and your goals. My guess is around 80-90%MHR? (L3-L4 effort)

Ok, first off (and I'm not trying to be insulting here) this is not the right question to be asking.

Boiling down any type of race (even a time trial) to a single heart rate does not make sense.

Secondly, you should specify what type of race you're talking about.

If a time trial, an approximate (but not a great) answer is: the highest heart rate you can maintain for the duration of the race.

Heart rates are extremely variable over a number of dimensions:
- Different people have different heart rates
- Temperature affects heart rate
- Fatigue affects heart rate
- Hydration affects heart rate
- Level of training affects heart rate

This means that you just can't use a single number.

If not a time trial, heart rate is a very small part of the equation.

If you post more information, I'll try to give a more specific answer.

Forget all the calculations of age-number pulled outa a$s yada yada yada... If you want to compete a 100km event pacing by heart rate you need to know what you can ride at for a couple of hours.

Years ago, my max heart rate was 217. 10 mile tt's were done at ~195bpm on warm afternoons and evenings and ~190bpm on morning and early/late season events. 50 mile tt's were ~175bpm. 25 m tt's were closer to 190bpm.

If some of the guys that were similar age to I tried to ride at that heart rate, they'd keel over at the end of 2 minutes and puke on your shoes...

It's all individual even down to the point of how you react to heat, cold, altitude, prolonged hard effort (head wind, long climbs) long periods of butt in saddle, dehydration, lack of (or even too much) food...

Good luck with the event... and no, I wasn't being my usual sarcastic self...

swampy, did you really race tt's by HR, ie, look at your monitor to tell you when to speed up or slow down, or were the numbers you quoted just a result to review after the fact?

I can't speak for the swampster, but I was coached to time trial 'by' HR back in the day. My coach was very clear that I should hit a certain HR (~ 175 bpm for me back then) and hold it till the end. If I exceeded 180 I was supposed to back off until it came back down. I finished TTs feeling great...after riding lousy times. That was the paid coaching advice I got on TTs and HR back in the day.

I think I finally scrapped that advice and began questioning the use of HR for pacing when I lined up at a big race with an announcers stand, lots of hype and blaring rock music and saw my HR was over 180 standing still waiting for my start. It was pretty clear that something other than exercise intensity was driving my HR way up but it wasn't till I tracked power and HR side by side and plotted them together that I started to understand the ways HR can be misleading.

-Dave

Good info Dave. Guess that experience would tend to put you off the use of an HRM for pacing! I asked the question because our local hero mentioned a couple of years ago that he trained with an HRM, but taped it over in events because it was "too distracting": he only looked at the HR data afterwards.

At the time we talked, he didn't own a PM either. Said he thought they were "nice to have", but more of a luxury item. Considering he's won the World Master's TT event (30-39 age group) three times now, as well as some US Natl Elite RR this year out in Bend, OR, have to think whatever he's doing works for him

Yeah, it get's back to what Andy has reminded folks of many times. Some athletes have figured out pacing and training with no special tools and power meters won't necessarily make the fast guys faster.

But for those of us that lacked the instincts to pace and train well these tools can be pretty damn useful

-Dave

Thanks for the info guys, I guess a HRM is great for training but not all that usefull for racing, I have noticed that as the event goes on the heart rate rises but the speed remains the same (more or less), that is why I asked, I wanted to 'preserve' myself earlier in the race and give some stick towards the finish. Currently I go too hard in the beginning and fade towards the end.

If watching the HRM early in the event helps you too avoid going too hard early in your events, would say keep using it for that purpose. I rode century events for a few years with the HRM for exactly that reason, ie, to remind me to take it easy for the first half in order to avoid the slowdown and suffering from mile 60 to the finish, but rarely use it now. I've found paying attention to breathing and legs accomplishes the same thing without the constant distraction of looking at the HR.

The key objective is to avoid going "anaerobic" early in long events. The old expression was "save your matches", using the analogy that we've all only got so many to burn before the legs give up or cramping starts and we're forced to slow down.

For me, it's the hills that demand discipline on a long ride. Last week was riding with a faster buddy on a hilly 80 mile loop. The first steep climb was around mile 20. It was a beautiful blue-sky early fall day, I was feeling good, so I thought I'd try to stay as close as possible. Was soon at "redline" on the breathing/legs exertion scale, and he was pulling away as usual, but decided to push it all the way to the top just to keep his lead down. It was maybe another 5 minutes of hard effort, but it felt pretty good in the cool dry air so I just kept pushing.

Problem was that there were dozens more climbs to go that day over the next 60 miles, and I paid big time the rest of the day. The BBQ sandwich and sweet tea lunch on the square in Lynchburg didn't even seem to help. Of several of the last climbs, he was circling back down the hill to pick me up......I hate it when that happens

At least you didn't have to get of and push your bike!! I promised myself long ago if I ever have to get off and push my roadbike it will be in the classified ads the next day.