rsbob 

What zones range do you find optimal for your training?

At 66 I find my sweet spot in the 150s on the flats. Find I am efficient there without over taxing.

colnago62

To be honest, I rarely wear my heart rate monitor anymore, especially on endurance or sweet spot type rides. I find that I ride much more steady using power than heart rate. When I first started riding with power, I noticed my heart rate was more stable with less peaks and valleys when I used my power meter to determine pace/effort. I do use my heart rate monitor when doing to determine proper recovery before the next interval.

caloso

There’s no single best training zone. Some days are threshold, some days are VO2max, some days are recovery. There might be 90bpm difference between what’s optimal for what I’m trying to do that particular day.

frogman

So you don't monitor your heart rate then ?

rubiksoval

I usually wear a hrm but I never train by heart rate. Too fickle, way too many factors affect it, and it doesn't tell me much. One day 230 watts might give me a heart rate of 150, another day it may give me a heart rate of 130.

Power all the way.

WhyFi

What?

You're asking the wrong question.

gregf83 

Training what?

seypat

Training? I'm just out riding one of my bikes. I have a watch the captures the data. I might glance at it some during the rides, but I don't crunch the data afterwards.

MoAlpha

The premise of the question is faulty. I suggest reading a book on training with HR.

caloso

I do, but not to train on. I monitor it mostly to see how closely it tracks with power, how quickly it recovers after a hard effort. I don’t train by it because it lags behind power and because on a long interval it doesn’t change much once it reaches LTHR.

Carbonfiberboy 

One wants to train in all the zones. Though it is said that too many riders train neither easy enough nor hard enough. Try riding so that on the flat, you're breathing through your nose and on the climbs, you're panting. See what that does to your HR. That's what you really want to look at, how you want to ride. Try riding away from home until you are really tired, then ride back. See what your HR is at the end. That's probably what it should have been at the start if you've stayed well hydrated and fed on the ride..

deacon mark

Your poll does not work for me. I rarely average over 120. I am almost 60 years old and resting HR is 40. I go between 110-125 tops. I also don't think it means a huge amount either but interesting.

MoAlpha

Yeah, it adds an important element of physiological reality testing to power-based training. Intervals.icu will also build you a regression model from the database of rides with power and HR to estimate stress load for rides with HR alone. I find that very nice for commuting my X bike, which doesn’t have a PM.

HR was a lot more useful to me back when I was running competitively and the dynamic range was 150 BPM instead of the lousy 120 I’m
now.

Sy Reene

Sounds like the intent of the question may be more along the lines of "What is your tempo HR range", otherwise yeah, the question doesn't make a lot of sense.

frogman

OK, I get it. BTW, I love to ride the American River Trail up in your area. Hope to ride it this year again. Its about an hour drive from here in Napa but worth it. Just beautiful...........

alcjphil

I am 71 and I'm not really warmed up until my heart rate goes over 145

Koyote

As has been noted, the question makes no sense. Training by HR is pretty crude -- but if you are going to do it, each individual's "zones" will differ (because threshold is an individual thing), and the optimal zone for a workout depends on the goal for that particular ride.

Seattle Forrest

Like most cyclists, my HRM stopped having a great deal of value once I got a power meter. The HR I target when riding is "whatever it comes out to." Some days I use power to measure my efforts, some days I'm a Fred "just riding around" as they say.

I wear a chest strap on every ride, it doesn't cost much (a new $0.50 battery a year) and the data can be useful. I enjoy a lot of non bike activity, unlike most cyclists, so HR is the lowest common denominator, and gives me an idea about my recovery needs.

MoAlpha

HR has been supplanted by power as the basic measure of output for obvious reasons, but HR is the only direct measure of the physiological stress which meeting each power level is imposing on the system, that day or over time. Without that it’s all modeling pegged to an estimate of FTP, which is a somewhat theoretical notion in itself. That’s my take, anyway.

Sy Reene

Agree. I us HR monitor at least in part to know I'm not in dangerous territory. My HR for a given effort seems to be about 10bpm+ higher once temps exceed 85 or thereabouts. Just going by power I imagine could, for some, be a bit dangerous.

SapInMyBlood

I used maffetone method to get mine and it's served me really well.
155 max for aerobic all efforts. It's my "go forever speed"
Edit: 26 years old

MoAlpha

Sounds about right, but don’t worry: Any of us could drop at any moment, but high HR, per se, during exercise poses no risk to a trained individual. This season, at age 63-64, my max was 177. I don’t look at HR much on the bike, but if I saw 170s in the numbers for a ride, especially a TT, I was happy I could still push myself that hard and had left it all on the road.

Koyote

Do you have a heart condition? Aside from that, is it dangerous to raise your HR to a high level?

rsbob 

Ok it was a totally crackpot question made by someone who can’t justify the price of a power meter and the computer to read it. As a former runner, I used a HRM consistently to improve my time, evaluate my splits, etc but now see it is an outmoded method for evaluating the zones each of us train in. My bad. But appreciate the responses and seeing how training can be more meaningfully measured.

canklecat

After two years with a Tickr chest strap, I can't say it's indispensable for training. Way too much variability depending on my meds, caffeine intake, etc.

Taking a Sudafed for sinus congestion or ephedrine for asthma will spike my heart rate for two or three days -- my resting HR is around 90 and the slightest effort will peg around 160 bpm. Same but opposite effect if I take a beta blocker for occasional migraines/cluster headache -- I won't be able to get my HR above 120 for two or three days, regardless of effort. Coffee and other caffeinated beverages and snacks have a similar effect to Sudafed, but slightly less exaggerated. I've cut way back on coffee and caffeine in general but it hasn't had any effect on reducing my heart rate.

And my heart rate tends to run 20-30 bpm higher outdoors for the same effort, compared with indoors on the trainer. So even if I tried to follow a training program that recommended, say, 80 percent zone 1 and 20 percent zone 4, I couldn't do it outdoors. According to the usual charts, graphs, tables and practical tests for my heart rate zones, my zone 1 should be 100 bpm or below. In actual practice my HR is seldom below 100 bpm even during a casual walk, and *never* on a bike ride, even if I'm just coasting. There's a quarter-mile 2%-4% downhill grade from my parking lot to the main street where I turn off to my usual riding/jogging routes, and my HR is 130 bpm just coasting. Because so many drivers in my neighborhood are murderous imbeciles who should never be permitted to drive, the most stressful part of every ride is the first mile from my door. After that drivers are a bit better and my heart rate settles.

I check my HR trends after rides and jogs but other than responding more or less appropriately to the effort, terrain, etc., the information isn't particularly useful.

I've also noticed on long rides or indoor trainer sessions that I experience the same heart rate drift/creep many people do, but after 2-3 hours, it drifts back downward for the same effort. I do 3-5 hour indoor trainer sessions once in awhile because it's the only way I can consistently stay in zone 1/2, per the usual suggestions for training according to heart rate. And consistently after about 3 hours my heart rate drifts downward a bit and it takes a bit more effort to reach zones 4 or 5. Outdoors on rides of 2 hours or less I routinely reach zones 4 and 5 on sprints and climbs. Very rare indoors. So I'm not even sure "my" heart rate zones are anywhere near accurate.

Mostly I just train by how I feel. While the HRV app I use seems to correlate with how I feel, heart rate alone hasn't been useful.