Is HR training useless for shorter rides?

[jsull14]

When going pretty hard on a short climb maybe a quarter mile long I can only get my HR to about 170 even though I'm huffin' and puffin' and hurting bad. But on a longer ride I can easily work it up to 175 or beyond.

So is there a rule to follow as far as time or distance when using HR for training.

Thanks

 

[Simone@Italy]

When going pretty hard on a short climb maybe a quarter mile long I can only get my HR to about 170 even though I'm huffin' and puffin' and hurting bad. But on a longer ride I can easily work it up to 175 or beyond.

So is there a rule to follow as far as time or distance when using HR for training.

Thanks

I don't know if there are rules, but usually I don't care about HR monitor for intervals shorter than 3 minutes. Even for longer intervals, I usually pay more attention to my breath than to the HR monitor, I check it only to understand if it's a good day or I'm tired.

 

[G@ZZ@]

I don't know if there are rules, but usually I don't care about HR monitor for intervals shorter than 3 minutes. Even for longer intervals, I usually pay more attention to my breath than to the HR monitor, I check it only to understand if it's a good day or I'm tired.

I think you're not getting warmed up enough when doing shorter rides.
It usually takes me around 45 mins to truly warm up.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

I think you're not getting warmed up enough when doing shorter rides.
It usually takes me around 45 mins to truly warm up.

Gotta agree with the previous poster, HR is all but useless for short interval work. Plotting HR against steady power output for a 5 minute VO2 Max interval shows that HR never even reaches my average for an easier L4 interval by the time 5 minutes is up. Even during 20 minute L4 intervals my HR takes 6 to 7 minutes to reach the average for the interval and continues to rise all the way to the end if I hold steady power. The only time my HR finds steady state and becomes useful as a gauge is when I do half hour or longer Tempo or endurance work. For anything shorter I'd either start much too hard gauging on HR or have to back off before the end to avoid an arbitrary HR limit or most likely both.

Short interval work really isn't well monitored by HR, a power meter and simultaneous plots makes that real clear.

-Dave