Trsnrtr

As for days off, three on and one off I'd decent if you're wanting to get back in shape. In fact, if you're really out of shape, it could be too aggressive.

The body needs days off to consolidate training gains and make repairs.

Keep riding and you should only get better and, please, try to enjoy yourself along the way.

BobbyG

Crap! I've been following the wrong zone chart.

JohnDThompson 

I have no clue what this Z4/Z5 stuff is about. What am I missing?

MikeOK

It's your heart rate. Where I live there are NO other bikers around and I use hr in place of another rider to push me. It tells you how hard you are pushing and if you really get into it you can tell if you're over or under training. I may have this backwards but if I remember right if you're overtraining your heart rate will be lower with the same perceived effort. Like if you climb the same hill every day your hr will be lower and that means you're overtraining. Now they use something called lactate threshold to do similar but I think you have to go someplace to measure it. Back in the day all we really had was hr. Z4 is 80-90% of max hr and Z5 is 90%+. Z4 is pushing pretty hard for a mere mortal but in my case I am in Z4 all the time and I think it means I'm fat and out of shape.

TimothyH

Zones need to be adjusted as one gains or looses fitness. Max heart rate never changes or changes very little over time and so zones based on max heart rate cannot change.

Lactic threshold is a great measure of fitness and is highly trainable. Zones based on LT can be adjusted accordingly as fitness improves.

A 10k or 20k time trial can be used to test LT. It is simple and many websites document how to do it.


-Tim-

MikeOK

I plan on reading more about LT. I like gadgets and stats, like I said it takes the place of riding with a friend. I like group rides and riding with a bud don't get me wrong, but the closest weekly group ride is an hour's drive away so I usually ride alone. Riding really is good for you, after a 10 year hiatus my resting hr was 90! It used to be in the 30's when I rode a lot. After just a month or so of re-starting riding my resting hr has dropped 12 points to 78.

caloso

Forget you ever heard of 220-age. It's useless for individual athletes, particularly masters athletes.

It isn't that complicated to find your LTHR. Ride a 30min TT. Take the 20 min highest average HR. Use that as your LTHR and base your training zones accordingly.

MikeOK

My problem is that once I get about 1/4 from the house my hr goes to Z4 and stays there for the entire ride, with short bursts of Z5 on climbs. You're saying I can find my LT with my hr monitor? I'm just riding 30-40 minutes right now.

caloso

Your heart rate goes to some level that you've arbitrarily set as Z4. You don't know if it really is Z4 until you do a proper test.

Yes, you can find your LT with your HRM. Here's Joe Friel's method: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/j...setting-zones/

MikeOK

my hrm shows Z4 as 80-90% of max hr. Thanks for the link.

SylvainG

What he means is your MHR is set too low hence messes up your zones.

MikeOK

There is a long steep hill about 1/4 mile from my house that I have to climb on the way back and I have been up to 163 and being pretty tapped out so I just added a little to it that's how I came up with 165. But it's just a guess, I'm not sure my method is accurate. My actual max may be higher? How else can you find it?

MikeOK

I can set my zones manually, either by % max hr or Karvonen, what is Karvonen?

caloso

After you do the test, you'll want to set the zones manually. I believe that Karvonen is a variation on MaxHR that takes into account resting heart rate.

DrIsotope

When you set out to do an LTHR/FTP test, you need to go all out. Not "pretty tapped out," but "uh oh, here comes breakfast." If you're not questioning all of your life decisions by ten minutes in, pedal harder.

caloso

Oh yeah. There's a whole land of hurt beyond "pretty tapped out."

DrIsotope

Mine is in that flavor country when I start to get that weird dry taste in the back of my throat like I've been eating firecrackers. The sure sign that I'm in that +100% zone.

I actively try not to go to that place most days.

JohnDThompson 

Ah, thanks. I don't even bother with a computer on my bikes, so I guess that's why I haven't missed it.

big chainring 

My goal is the No-Zone. Its the balance of heart rate, breathing, cadence, when all combined, that I drift off mentally. When I come back to my senses I cant recall the mile or miles I travelled.

bobwysiwyg

Old, but interesting nonetheless..

'Maximum' Heart Rate Theory Is Challenged - The New York Times

ironwood

After reading all this, I still have no idea what z4 is about. Just ride a bike and forget about all these gadgets and figures. Some days I ride ten miles ,other days twenty.

SylvainG

See this

Heart Rate Zones | Masters Athlete

DrIsotope

Tell me more about the olden times. Was everything in black & white? I was born after the invention of color.

MikeOK

How do you guys find your mhr?

ironwood

Of course everything was in black&white. You've seen old movies, haven't you?

But to get back to the OP's desire to get in shape, I would simply advise him to be as active as possible; walk and bike as much as possible instead of driving. A lot of my biking is for transportation. I try to walk if my destination is within half a mile; If I have to go somewhere within a six mile radius, I use my bike if conditions and traffic are safe.

The miles add up and eventually help your overall fitness.