Declining Heart Rates

[Guest]

I have a problem. There are times when I train 3 or 4 days in a row. Usually, I can reach and maintain a 170+ HR (my max is around 201) on the first day, a 165+ HR on the second day, a and a 155+ HR on the 3rd and 4th days. All my efforts are the same (assuming I am doing steady state cycling), with my legs feeling the same amount of burn/pain/tiredness during and after the workouts.

Can anyone explain this? Should I back off during my 2-4th days?

Also, will I be able to finish a 120-160 km flat ride at around 140 bpm (that's around 28-30 kph for me) if I only train for 45 mins. 4 times a week but at an ave. HR of 160+ bpm, usually spending around 10-20 minutes at 170-180 bpm?

 

[Guest]

Why stop? if you have a lower heart rate for the same effort that just means you are improving. obviously only you can tell if you try too hard.

id say a flat ride at 28-30k could easily be done at a average hr of 140.

 

[Guest]

I'd think I was improving IF the heart rates stayed low. However, my HR goes back up to around 165-175 during a workout AFTER a day off the bike. Does this somehow mean that I am weak and my body cannot handle consecutive training days? :-/

 

[Guest]

I've heard that during the Tour De France the riders become unable to maintain their normal heart rates. Their maximum attainable heart rate drops every day due to the extended effort of the tour and the inability to recover sufficiently.

Perhaps you need to recover more between your rides, include some light sessions or crosstraining until your body adapts better to the day to day training stresses. I'm not sure what sort of base of training you have but maybe you need to work on the base fitness a little longer before you do training in the 85% range.

Start slow...... finish strong!

See you on the road!!

 

[Guest]

Now I get it. I haven't done any base training since my days in college 3 years ago....however, during that time, we didn't have HRMs.

What for you is a workout long enough to be considered "base"? What HR should one maintain when doing base miles?

???

 

[Guest]

yes your training sounds strange you say you practice 45 minutes at around 80percent of your max. is this including warmup? if it is this is not good. i take it easy for the first 30 minutes of my training ride to warm my muscles up. If you start your training ride full bast you will be damaging your muscles a lot. a good warmup prevents damage.

it sounds like you are trying to TT every time you go out. thats not good either. YOU ARE WHAT YOU PRACTICE. you should do say 50k-60 medium pace rides too with intervals of high pace. i only do a TT pace twice a week at the most.

 

[Guest]

What for you is a workout long enough to be considered "base"? What HR should one maintain when doing base miles?
quote]
Altwegg, my suggestion would be to outline a program for yourself incorporating your goals for the season. What I did last year was plan which races I wanted to do, decide which ones I wanted to really do well at and which ones I was doing for the fun of it. Once I had that info, I plotted all the races on a year planner. My base training began in March 2001, my goal race was in November 2001 . My base consisted of TITS (Don't get excited now - Time In The Saddle), I did a lot of riding at 65 to 75% of MHR, I devoted about 65% of my training miles to this Heart Rate Zone, long rides well within my aerobic capacity. Obviously this becomes pretty boring so once a week I would do some sprints or a Time Trial just to keep myself motivated through the cold, dark mornings. The remainder of my training was devoted to my weaknesses, hill climbs and mental focus after the 80km mark. While concentrating on these weaknesses, my weekend rides still consisted of 65% to 75% rides with some 80% to 90% spurts.

Bottom line, do most of your training at 65% to 75% MHR, keep motivated with weekly Time Trials or Hill Climbing (Make the day following your TT a rest day though)

Rest Rest Rest, resting is where you build your fitness, if you don't give your body time to recover, your foundation to build on is fairly rickety.

I'd suggest you have a look at a book called "SERIOUS training for endurance athletes" the training methods outlined in this book are what I have based my training on and it's worked for me so far.

Good luck, the base training may be boring but it works!

See you on the road

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the help guys. Nicholas hit it right on the head when he said it seemed like I was doing a TT all the time. Well, I guess you could put it that way. The reason I train that way is because I heard somewhere (Bicycling magazine I think) that training hard for 45 mins. - 1 hour is a good way to get fit if you have no time in your hands. Well, the demands of my work, relationship really limit my training hours. I could do LSD rides, but that would really put a dent on my sleeping hours. I will have to make some changes in order to put in quality workouts this time.

Thanks again for all the help. The responses I received were more informative than the training books I am reading. ;D