Black Hole, revisited



anonimo

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Dec 19, 2009
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I just read the "Black Hole" article, and did some testing, and am now totally confused. In one section it defines the black hole as 75-80% of max hr. For me (173 max, last I checked), that's 130 - 138 bpm. I then did the TT test, which yielded and ave of 153 bpm; adding 6% (9) gives a range of 153 - 162 bpm! HUH?!?!?! How in the heck can there be nearly 25 bpm difference in the results for the same zone?! Was there some kind of typo in the article? Or did I do something wrong? (I didn't think to try the "talk test," but there is absolutely no way I can complete a sentence at 153 bpm . . . heck, I'm breathing so freaking hard at that point, I don't think I could utter TWO words!)
 
Yeah it seems like a typo and on top of that what they are asking you to do confuses things with the way the article is written. They are asking you to find your LT, which for most people is between 80-90% MHR (for me it is around 87%), then they ask you to ADD 6%. I think they meant to say subtract, they then further confuse things by continually referencing this 75-80% zone, when they really mean a zone just below your LT, the zone hard enough to require recovery, but not hard enough to result in gains (the "black hole"). For a lot of people the LT is greater than 80%.

Besides the article being written poorly, I don't generally agree with the idea of a "black hole". The zone below your LT is the zone, myself and most others target when doing LSD training, a proven method to improve riding. The only thing I take from the article is that anyone who wishes to get the most from their training needs to have an awareness of their HR levels. To gain a better understaning I would much prefer this test over what they are asking:

http://www.mastertheshift.com/masters/carmichael/workouts/downloads/chris-cts-test.pdf
 
As an update, I just did the "talk test." Seems to be around
140 bpm for me, making the black hole about 141-149 . . . so now I have THREE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT "black holes!!!!" Sheesh! (Maybe I should just make my black hole 130-160 bpm to be safe?!?!?
 

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