M.Lou.B

Hi there,


for the past 3 months I have been training for a voluntary fire fighter health checkup/test after 10 months of illness. I'm not a super-fit athlete but was fit enough before getting sick.
The test is a simple ramp test with 10min warm up at low watt, then 5 "steps" of 3min each with the last one being 3 watts per kg for men and 2.5 watts per kg for women, followed by another 10min cool down.
The whole thing takes 35min total. The goal is for your Max HR to remain below 170bpm while also not running out of strength to pedal. Dedicated cyclists might laugh at this as well as my low wattage but it's a basic fitness test to determine if you're suited to use the breathing apparatus.

So for me this would look as follows:
10min warm up at 50w
3min at 55w
3min at 85w
3min at 115w
3min at 145w
3min at 175w
10min cool down at 50w

I had started training at 185w for the hardest interval, training 3x/week (Mo, We, Sa), using a smart trainer, but I've been noticing something weird. Instead of improving, my Max HR keeps getting higher.

Feb 4th: Max HR 178 at 185w
March 7th: Max HR 181 at 185w
March 26: Max HR 184 at 185w
March 29: Max HR 186 at 185w
lowered the watt to 170
April 1: Max HR 172 at 170w
April 8: Max HR 172 at 170w
April 12: Max HR 176 at 170w

So it is clearly getting worse. I'm a healthy 32yo female, don't take any medication, blood pressure 100:80, I don't smoke or do drugs, I ride my bike to and from work every day which takes about 20 min, and I tend to do a longer ride on the weekend. I try to eat fairly healthfully, lots of fruits, veg, iron, vitamin C, protein.

I don't understand why/how this is getting worse instead of improving. What am I doing wrong?
At this point it's just demoralizing and frustrating.