Hikebikerun

So I’m trying to incorporate a more “tiered” approach to my training, with mostly long low-effort rides and less frequent very high intensity interval/sprint rides (rather than what I was doing for the past couple months which is constantly riding at moderate intensity).

My question is, on these longer low-effort rides, is average HR the important thing or do I need to actively try to never breach a certain max HR threshold for the whole ride?

There are some decent little 2-3min climbs on my usual long rides, and I really don’t like cruising up them slowly trying to maintain my HR around 130-140. It’s fun to get out of the saddle and light the fire a bit for a few min (HR up to around 170), then cool it and drop back to 130-140.

Is doing this a few times going to be detrimental to the overall goal of the ride which is training the aerobic system? I’m still maintaining an overall average HR about where I want it to be, and the majority of the ride is in the correct “zone.”

rubiksoval

Detrimental? On a one-off ride? No. Repeatedly, depends.

Effective? Depends.

The entire point of structured training (I'm not sure what "tiered" is) is progressive overload and recovery, in which the training stimulus increases such that your fitness can also increase when adequate recovery is allowed.

If you're planning an easy z2 ride, and then a workout, and you uncork a bunch of efforts in your easy z2 ride to such an extent that you can't do your next workout, then you're shooting yourself in the foot a bit and doing this over the long term is going to hold back potential progress.

If none of it really mattes and you just want to have fun, then just do what you enjoy.

Also, sprinting is a 5-20 second effort. 2-3 minute efforts are an altogether different thing, and more difficult to recover from when done on a continual basis. Whereas a z2 ride with 3-4 5-10 sec sprints isn't likely to affect you much differently, a z2 ride with a number of 2-3 min efforts is essentially a fartlek workout. And your aerobic system is always contributing to energy production, so any ride you're doing is training your aerobic system.

And finally, I've never ascribed to average hr or average power telling the whole story of the training ride unless it was deliberately steady. Average hr/power doesn't mean anything if you're continually doing efforts above and recovery below whatever zone you're shooting for.

Doubly finally, if you're doing structured training, after a couple of weeks your workouts will be such that you might just relish the thought of a z2 ride with zero accelerations. Doing proper workouts can leave you hurting and really zap that "fun" part of punching it up every hill you come to.

Drew Eckhardt 

That would be better. Recruiting your fast twitch fibers is sticky and reduces the training load on your slow twitch fibers.

canklecat

There's almost nowhere in my area where I can consistently hold zone 2 so when I do a real recovery ride I'll use the indoor trainer and watch a movie or two, or binge watch TV series. I'll do that when the weather is bad, or too hot, and I need a consistent effort recovery ride.

I've tried every possible route in every direction from my home and there's always at least one traffic merge area that demands sprinting to merge safely. So even if I'm willing to crawl up the climbs at 5 mph to keep my heart rate down, I'll need to hit zone 4 on a traffic merge sprint, which means 160-166 bpm for 30 second to 3 minutes. Effectively, every outdoor ride turns into the fartlek session mentioned above, which is usually fine with me. Seems to work for some marathon runners, although I haven't heard of any cyclists officially adopting or proclaiming it as optimal for them.

Does it really hinder my training? Dunno. At 62 I'm not that fast anymore anyway. But it takes very little effort to bump my heart rate from 90 to 150 in summer. Unless I ride at dawn or sunset it's always 90-100+ F here. So any ride of at least 90 minutes turns into a tempo pace at minimum. The only time my heart rate stays in zone 1 and 2 riding outdoors is when I take a beta blocker, which only artificially decreases my heart rate.

burnthesheep

Agreed on the 5-20 second sprint thing during a Z2 ride mentioned above. Very often on indoor ride days, I'll pick a Zwift route with a couple sprint banners with good Z2 time in between. Just my jam, but I'll usually lower the Z2 target a bit if I'm going to do some sprints.

Riding Z2 near my house is a tough ask to "do it right". The hills are short and all steep enough that with a 39/30 my easiest gear that I'm always going to be certainly out of Z2 going up them if I have a cadence of 80 or more. Then I would have to absolutely ride the downhills and sharp neighborhood corners like a madman to remotely be near Z2 going down. Plus the stop signs. I don't like driving to go ride, it wastes my family time. So, sometimes Zwift it is.

My Z2 rides aren't Z2 rides outdoors. They're my mind-clearing "me-time" rides. Is what it is. I like doling out power when I want, then easing off to look at some sights. I realize there may be implications to that training wise, but it keeps me sane.

ZHVelo

I started doing 15 second sprints on my zone 2 Sunday ride. I increased my max wattage by 70. Next block will be more climbing but I think I will return to this again later in the year. Feels good to learn to go all out. I have not felt like it has hindered my otherwise zone 2 ride at all.

Carbonfiberboy 

I never "sprint" during Z2 rides, only during specific sprint training. However going a bit out of zone for a few seconds or even a few minutes, is perfectly fine IME. During say an hour's Z2 ride I might do 3 small efforts on little bumps or short hills.

OTOH, those small efforts will introduce some lactate into the bloodstream. I don't know if the science is completely clear on the issue of whether or not lactate must be completely banned during low effort rides. I for one don't have or should I say don't choose to have low enough gears to be able to do a 3 hour ride in my area without getting some lactate while riding up unavoidable hills, though I do try to keep it down.

rubiksoval

Your body is essentially always making lactate (anytime it's breaking down carbs), even at rest.

sirjag

Hi Sir, question: when you say "moderate intensity" do you mean the Z1-Z5 bands calculated by your max heart rate? as shown here on one of my recent rides?
https://www.strava.com/activities/3912194107/heartrate

JAG

wolfchild

A couple of 8 - 10 second efforts and stopping just before going into glycolytic zone can be very useful during an aerobic lower intensity ride. It allows you to train your ATP Phosphocreatine energy system and your aerobic system and leaves your glycolytic system mostly at rest...It's called alactic training or anti-glycolytic training. The idea is to avoid " the lactic acid burn" and only train your aerobic energy system and your ATP Phosphocreatine system... I practice this type of training a lot, not only on a bike but also during my strength training and conditioning workouts.