Am I overdoing it?

[clearz]

I used to cycle a lot last year but to be honest I've been pretty lazy this year so far. That was until this week when I said to myself I'll spend the next month building up my fitness. I'm 26 years old. I've started a routine of 16 miles a day over part hilly, part flat terrain which I've done since Monday last. This usually takes me about 1 hour 15 mins and my heartrate averages 165. My Resting heartrate is about 65 and my max is about 200 I'd like to do the 6 days a week for the next month to build back up my fitness level (and shed a few pounds in the process) but I was wondering would this be overdoing it. I have no heart problems but I read that you shouldn't go over 80% of your max heart rate while doing cardio, thing is I feel really comfortable training at 165 HR which is 83-84% my max rate, any less and I feel like im not pushing it at all. Any advice would be great.

 

[Sillyoldtwit]

I used to cycle a lot last year but to be honest I've been pretty lazy this year so far. That was until this week when I said to myself I'll spend the next month building up my fitness. I'm 26 years old. I've started a routine of 16 miles a day over part hilly, part flat terrain which I've done since Monday last. This usually takes me about 1 hour 15 mins and my heartrate averages 165. My Resting heartrate is about 65 and my max is about 200 I'd like to do the 6 days a week for the next month to build back up my fitness level (and shed a few pounds in the process) but I was wondering would this be overdoing it. I have no heart problems but I read that you shouldn't go over 80% of your max heart rate while doing cardio, thing is I feel really comfortable training at 165 HR which is 83-84% my max rate, any less and I feel like im not pushing it at all. Any advice would be great.

If at 26 years of age you're worried about your HR, then at almost 65 I should be absolutely terrified. 80% would mean me doing my workouts at 136 or under. I do most of my workouts at between 143 and 156BPM and at least once a week I'm working at around 160 plus.
In fact I now cover up the display on the trainer in the gym as I'm not interested in my HR. I look at my HR at the end of an interval to see how fast it recovers as this a true measure of the health of your heart.
As the immortal words uttered by RapDaddyo (also 64 years of age) state:

Forget your heart rate - your heart will take anything you throw at it!!

Tyson

 

[clearz]

If at 26 years of age you're worried about your HR, then at almost 65 I should be absolutely terrified. 80% would mean me doing my workouts at 136 or under. I do most of my workouts at between 143 and 156BPM and at least once a week I'm working at around 160 plus.
In fact I now cover up the display on the trainer in the gym as I'm not interested in my HR. I look at my HR at the end of an interval to see how fast it recovers as this a true measure of the health of your heart.
As the immortal words uttered by RapDaddyo (also 64 years of age) state:

Forget your heart rate - your heart will take anything you throw at it!!

Tyson

Haha silly your right. I just read somewhere the other day that you shouldnt do cardio more than 5 days a week but I feel totaly fine doing it. Last summer I used to do 16 miles Mon, Tue Thurs and Fri. 27 Mile on a Wednesday and 40-50 mile on a Saturday and had no problems.

 

[Sillyoldtwit]

Haha silly your right. I just read somewhere the other day that you shouldnt do cardio more than 5 days a week but I feel totaly fine doing it. Last summer I used to do 16 miles Mon, Tue Thurs and Fri. 27 Mile on a Wednesday and 40-50 mile on a Saturday and had no problems.

Clearz, I think you misunderstood what I was saying. I didn't say blast away 6 days a week. If you do some reading in these forums you will see many riders who know what they're talking about advocate adequate rest and hence recovery. This of course varies from individual to individual. The older you get the more rest you require between hard workouts (unless of course your name is RapDaddyo )

So I suggest you read around, structure your training to suit you, be careful not to overtrain as that can take weeks if not months to recover from.
One　proviso here; I have no idea what intensity you are doing the above rides at, however, if it is mostly L2/L3 'leisure cycling' then fine carry on.
Enjoy your cycling. TYSON