I'm finding that I can ride a lot longer/farther than I could when I picked the bike back up 4 months and 625 miles ago. BUT I'm also discouraged by the way my heartrate isn't much lower than before.
My HR is definitely the weak link. I can charge along for awhile at 170-185 bpm, and still have something left, still not be out of breath, and could even sprint a little. Based on what I see in my friends, this is not normal!
How do I train to get my HR down? Is that the combo of mixed intensities, or just more long, slow distance?
your training intensity might be too high. if you're always in the red, your aerobic system isn't getting a workout. do a field test -- go absolutely flat out for three miles on a straight, flat road and find your avg hr during the ride. then do the vast majority of your riding at about 88% of that number -- i'm talking about two hours at a whack. ride hard on the weekends with your buddies, but spend the week training at a lower intensity. make sure you're recovering correctly and watch your resting hr each morning before the coffee. next step: get a book or a coach and take it to the next level. if you get Chris Carmichael's new book, it comes with a free month of coaching! Good luck!
Keep riding and don't worry about it. As you get fitter, your heart rate will settle down and stay lower. It might sound confusing, because proper training will increase all thresholds to higher heart rates the fitter you get.
The more unfit you are, the higher your heart rate goes for any given speed. As you get fitter, the heart gets more powerful through increased stroke volume, which is the amount of oxygenated blood the left ventricle ejects with each beat. Increased stroke volume means the pump is more efficient and powerful so it doesn't beat as fast for a given speed.
All thresholds, LT/AT/OBLA/VT/etc. shift to higher heart rates as you get fitter which means you can go faster before you start accumulating lactic acid.
So in time your heart rate will go down and be more stable resulting in overall lower pr's when riding, and your thresholds will shift up to higher pr's as well.
