ChamoisDavisJr

278 for 180 minutes is freakishly good! What was your HR during that race? When I do long hard pushes with higher watts like that my HR will really climb. Actually if I ride for 3 hours, even at a lower rate like 200ftp, my HR eventually drifts up and the effort becomes much more difficult. With 278 over 3 hours I'd guess your FTP would be in the high 300's range.

Hell, my best 90 minutes of power was 250 and that was on a climb! No way I could have done another 25+ watts and for double that time frame. Sheesh.

You easily have a Cat 1 racing FTP you'd be good in time trials and longer road races where you could just pull away from people.

How much training do you do? Sounds like you probably do 80/20 training?

MoAlpha

It is and it isn't. It is probably a somewhat fixed quantity, but you need to have the trained muscular and neuromuscular capacity to put that much demand on your heart. The other thing is that it's easier produce a high HR late in a workout because of fatigue, dehydration etc., but you have to have the legs to make it happen. I think this is the main reason why fit people appear to have higher HRmax.

I am Medicare years-old and regularly hit numbers in the 170s on steep climbs in hot weather.

spelger

thanks for this article. That is the sort of stuff i like to read rather than the stuff you find in any various cycling or running websites. i just can't recall where i read what i mentioned. the summary chart really demonstrated what a load of horse s*** the formulas are. i always figured that they were not that bad because mine fit in pretty well and i assumed that i was one of those "most people" i had read about.

spelger

i'll test that after work todya. i have a little 100ish foot hill to climb and i'll climb the heck out of it. supposed to be 100 today, will it have an effect or not? hard to say.

GhostRider62

I found the file, my average HR was 131 BPM. I am just a tall guy. Never more than Cat 3. Most Cat 1 of my size have FTP closer to 400 watts. Plus, I am old.

Pre-Covid, I rode 10-16,000 miles per year. Lots of volume. Mostly steady rides in zone 2. I also do VO2 max type intervals on hills, 5 minutes of pain and ride back down and do it again. I'll also do 6 x 20 intervals at Sweetspot or just below that (high tempo) but never do intervals to often. I was a Polarized guy but it stopped working for me, so, I add the 6 x 20 and also Tabata intervals to mix it up and those helped.

Troul 

Riding in the upper 170s is easy & i can ride a while, but it takes a good ride to get my 183 max, & it isn't going to be for too long. When I'm not doing anything the resting rate seems to be at around 45.

genejockey 

It is amazing how often something poorly supported becomes part of Canon.

RChung

Here's a NYT article that discusses how the formula came to be, and the population that was used to derive it.

genejockey 

I'm thinking yes. I find I'm able to ride harder and at lower HR in temps between 60 and 80 than over 80, especially over 90.

caloso

It reminds me of the "you must drink 8 glasses of water per day" mantra.

Koyote

Last year, I was 57 yrs old, so the formula predicts a max HR of 163. b/c there were no races due to Covid, I did a couple gravel time trials: first was 1:43 at an avg HR of 164, second was 2:27 at an avg HR of 162. And I occasionally hit a max of 186.

So, yeah, that "formula" is whacked.

spelger

i guess this is similar to why there really are no dumb questions, often the statement "everybody knows that" is often not far behind by when in reality not everyone knows. here 10 studies turned into "most people."

thanks for the link. i had seen in on the web but dismissed it because it was not a medical journal, lesson learned.

Bearhawker

lol

I'm in my 50's. Short rides I avg 180+ bpm. Long rides 5+ hours I avg 160+

In either case I'm likely to exceed 200 at some point on the ride. I only know because of the HR monitor - I never feel any ill effects.

Resting HR is high 40's/low 50's. I can hit 120 walking to the kitchen. HR tables are useless for me.

ofajen

From the HR data I’ve gotten from using our elliptical machine and when I’ve borrowed a Fitbit from someone in the family and used it biking (and it decided to actually detect my HR), I’d say the canonical calculation of HR zones for my age rings true to how I feel when working out. Nothing unusual.

Otto

Eric F 

In my early 30's - when I was the fittest I have ever been - I saw a max of 207, and could ride extended climbs at 192.

20 years later, my max is 189.

caloso

I posted this in the 50+ subforum, but it's worth reposting here. If you're one of those people for whom the 220-age formula underestimates your MaxHR (like me), this helps demonstrate how you won't be pushing yourself hard enough to evoke the best training response. That is, you'll be cheating yourself:



This is from a ramp test I did where the target wattage increases every minute. You go till failure, so it is truly a max effort. You can see how the red line (HR) and the magenta line (power) ramp up. I drew a line where my HR crossed the 220-age predicted maximum. If I had quit there, and set my workout zones accordingly, I'd have left a whole lotta watts on the table.

zilauk

I am a new town rider and I notice that my heart rate is a little bit high when I ride. Do you know if this will change in time when my body gets used to riding? thanks!

genejockey 

That depends on many things, including what 'a little high' means. If you're older and haven't been exercising, you should probably talk to your doctor.

livedarklions

I'm sorry, but did you just indicate you're 90 years old? 220-age=130?

spelger

well plans changed a bit so i had to nix the hill. i did ride what i considered all out on a 2 mile stretch, hard as i could on the bars, then sprinted like a mad man for the last 150 yards or so. i started to sit because i was getting tired but then got right back up and sprinted quite hard. heart rate peaked at 153. it was quite hot today.

it is usually my lungs that make me slow down. must be that hot/thin/dry reno air. 101F, 6% relative humidity.

spelger

i recall this image from that thread. i meant to ask, is this an FTP ramp test or a MaxHR ramp test? i've done the FTP ramp test in zwift and read about a maxHR ramp test, they were essentially the same.

GhostRider62

No.

The treadmill formula is a percentage of MHR.

livedarklions

Oh. I thought it was what you fed baby treadmills.

LSUFANDAN

When I got my bike computer(Wahoo Element Roam) I decided to get a Wahoo TICKR X heart rate monitor also. I never really used heart rate on rides. I just used my Apple watch to track my rides before. I am 44 years old. I noticed that I start to get fatigued when my heart rate gets up over 180bpm range. I know the info is good to have but I am not really sure if I am limiting myself with it. During my ride if I notice my heart rate climbing up near that 180bpm range I find myself slowing down a bit to try to keep it below that mark. At the end of my ride I will push myself and not worry about it really. I guess I need to research a better way to use the info. I am using it to pace myself so I don't burn myself out too early into a ride.

One thing I noticed with the heart rate monitor is the affects of caffeine before a ride. After work one day I was feeling a little sluggish. I decided to buy a energy drink and chug it before my ride. I don't know if me being tired was the bigger factor or the energy drink but I had a hard time keeping my heart rate in check. For almost the entire 15mile ride my heart rate was high. Hovering around the 180bpm mark. Now I just try to get hydrated and maybe eat a snack. No more energy drinks before rides lol.

caloso

FTP test. I still track HR on my rides, but mostly to track recovery response. I’ll use HRtss as calculated by Training Peaks on my CX or MTB where I don’t have a power meter, but I think it estimates a little high so I’ll manually adjust it down.