Crash course in heart rate %s and training zones

As the title says really. My goal is to increase my endurance capacity with the goal of completing my first 100km Peak ride.

So, talk to me about heart rate %s and training zones and what I should be doing to increase my endurance capacity. Just long hard rides or short sprint sessions too?

I read that your max HR is 220 – age and that a good cardio workout is training at 75-85%. of that max. Is that correct or a load or cobblers?

What are these 'zones' that people are talking about? On my new Garmin toy I can set up different zones as percentages for example Zone 3 as 75-85% of my max. Sounds like it could be really useful if I knew what it meant!

I'm a little new to all of this so pardon my lack of knowledge!

Well I think the 220 minus age is wrong. I got 182 bpm up a particularly nasty long draggy hill on Sunday, about half an hour into my ride, which is probably a good way to calculate your max HR.

Wrong by 19 years.

No I'm not 19.

Everybody else will now rip each other's pet bunkum theories apart, and accuse each other of trying to sell something.

IIRC you need to be doing
80% of your training time in the aerobic zone 70 – 80%.
10% of your excercise time in the anerobic zone 80 – 90%
4% in the red line 90 – 100%

http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/hrtp.php

And this time I'm 25% sure

I'd buy a book if you really want to take it seriously.

Take the lowest reading you can manage (just after you wake up), then the highest (on a hill as above).

E.g 65 – 185 = 120

85% = 120 * .85

= 102

65(resting) + 102 = 167

So to train at 85% aim for 167bpm

so who has the lowest resting heart rate? done mine last week as it was the start to a new training pyramid and mine was 49 bpm!

I read somewhere that a genetic predisposition to having lower resting heart rates correlates with lower testosterone levels, which correlates with smaller genitalia. Do you drive a BMW?

220- your age is an approximation. You can ascertain your own max heart rate using a monitor, However be careful especially if you ra a bit older or unfit as attempting to hit your max heart rate could (unlikely) make it go pop.

Big Johns method is probably fair enough so long as you don't push yourself to your heart goes bang.

The various % make some sense ( I don't know the numbers) however treat it as a guide not a bible and basically there is no substitute for miles

tinribz i dont drive and im only 18 so i can assure you there is plenty of testosterone

PMSL at tinribz will steal use taht line one day 😆

Ive been riding and climbing for years but I've never 'trained by the numbers'. I thought I'd better give it a go and try and get to the next level of fitness.

Thanks for the info and links. I'll do some more research and start with the most common methods I think!

@abducte

What about the other 6%? 😉

220 – age is cobblers. I think any estimation based on age is. My max HR has hardly changed in 16 years.

You can measure Max HR with a monitor but the method that makes the most sense to me ignores Max HR altogether. Look at Joe Friel's books or his blog. He wants you to estimate your threshold HR (ave HR for the last 20 mins of a 30 min time trial) and work from there.

Have a look here – http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/11/quick-guide-to-setting-zones.html

Look at Joe Friel's books or his blog. He wants you to estimate your threshold HR (ave HR for the last 20 mins of a 30 min time trial) and work from there.

My coach used to make me do it like that. If nothing else it's a bloody grim way to ascertain your zones, especially on the turbo! I used to just about fall off the bike after! 🙂 Switched back to the good old 'hill sprint' etc method of calculating maxHR now.

Totally agree try Joe Friels Mountainbikers Bible. It has some very usefull info in it.
Im reading it second time around and must admit it is a lot to digest but worth trying to understand and train by.
Joe says that most athletes will train hard when they should be training easy and train easy when they should be training hard !
Periodization is one of the key factors he talks about in his books and im definitely starting to feel the "Force" now i am trying to apply this method 🙂
A must buy for any serious endurance cyclist.

PlumzRichard – Member

so who has the lowest resting heart rate? done mine last week as it was the start to a new training pyramid and mine was 49 bpm!

I have seen mine down at 40 to 42. Im 27 and 15 stone with **** all fitness. (and I drive a 2000 plate corsa).

I didn't think that resting heart rate had any relation to fitness? Is it not recovery time that counts?

@Stevie

I said I was only 25% certain to allow for the 6%

Just for fun I'm really going to put the cat amongst the pigeons now: working muscle mass.

Maximum Heart Rate is just that, the hardest your heart will ever work. In order to achieve this the entire body should be working as in swimming or perhaps also running. In cycling the legs are the primary muscle groups at work and since the upper body is used to a far lesser extent one's cycling maximum heart rate is likely to be lower than one's actual maximum heart rate. Everyone with me so far?

As a test for one's cycling maximum heart rate, complete a 20 minute warm up at an easy pace arriving at the bottom of the kind of hill that makes you think twice about whether or not it's really the best route anywhere. Ride up said hill three times as hard as you possibly can. Cry at the top if you need to. Vomit at the top (you probably will if you're doing it right…) The highest figure you recorded is your MHR. It's not a fun thing to do and if you're in any way unsure about how healthy your heart is there is no way that you should be attempting to find your MHR using any method.

Anyway…to answer the original question…to increase your capacity for endurance rides…go for long bike rides. Some might suggest that going out without anything to eat would be of benefit but I'd hesitate before reccomending that because you need to have some fuel to burn to fuel you for the ride…all you'll achieve by eating nothing is making yourself hungry more quickly.

As a rule of thumb if the event is 100km aim to be able to ride 120km without flinching. That way when you get to the start line of your event you KNOW that you can cover the distance.

Regarding efforts and intervals and heart rates…such sessions are good and valuable sessions in their own right and as part of a correctly structured training programme. But from your original post I'd suggest that distance work is where it's at for now.