calamarichris

So I quit drinking all beer & wine about 6 months ago, lost 30 pounds, and got my legs spinning fluidly and the FTP back up over 300W.
The only limiting factor appears to be heart rate (tickling 175bpm when going hard, which is fairly high for a 49-year-old with a leaky heart valve) and the general sick feeling in my guts during sustained FTP efforts.
Will losing more weight help this?
Maybe upshift and decrease cadence to let the legs bear more of the burden?
Will beating on this leaky old heart whip it into better shape?
Have been staying pretty well hydrated (drinking two bottles over a 20-minute effort with 10-minute warm-up and cool-down. Any ideas?

Carbonfiberboy 

Yeah, 2 bottles in 40 minutes would make anyone's guts uneasy. You don't need to hydrate at all for efforts under an hour under most weather conditions. I'd drink a bottle of sports drink an hour or so ahead of time, long enough to be able to pee and then nothing until I got thirsty if it's a long ride, or after if it's just a test. Lots of aerobic hours will strengthen heart muscle. Beating on it maybe not so much. If you're doing an FTP test and this is what your question is about, use a cadence which gives you the best result. Everyone's different. I'm strongest at about 96 rpm. Many spin much faster, some slower. 175 HR isn't all that fast for someone only 49.

Machka 

Two bottles of water in 20 minutes? Blerg! Sloshy!


I usually recommend one 750 ml bottle every 1 to 1.5 hours.