bruce19

I don't.

livedarklions

Basically, I think you and I are doing about the same thing, just at different distances and, I suspect, speeds. Don't get me wrong, I do some high intensity riding, I just don't monitor the heart rate, time it, etc. I just ride hard when I feel like it and slow a bit when I don't.

I cannot tell you how much I admire that your riding ability is improving at age 74. Truly impressive.

I find there's a sense of adventure and fun in solo riding that I just don't get with a group, and that motivates me to do more than I otherwise would. I really don't like to have to decide everything by committee or deal with other people's expectations, insecurities, etc.

burritos

Hills=HIIT.

Richard Cranium

There's no easy answer. All of these studies are biased by the necessity of their suppositions and perspectives of their creators.

In other words - can we really ask the right questions to obtain really objective results?

As it happens I was part of several studies having to do with types of exercise and disease prevention. I saw first hand how researchers prioritize results that enhances their hypothesis.

In the case of the above comments - there's some truth - to all of them......

livedarklions

That's not true. HIIT is a system of timed periods of high intensity alternating with timed periods of less intense and also specifying a maximum cardiac effort. If you can find hills that perfectly attune to those specified intervals, enjoy. But if I'm not wearing a monitor to confirm I'm hitting the targeted heart rate, I am not engaged in HIIT. That doesn't mean that none of my riding is intense. I hit 30 mph on the flat during an 80 mile ride last Sunday.

burritos

You're probably right. I don't wear a monitor, but for me when I go up hills of various grades and I have to downshift cause I'm fatiguing, I figure, that's good enough.

livedarklions

That's always been my logic. I'm going to do that at least a couple times on any 100 mile ride.

I once got so annoyed with an argument I was having on BF with a guy who was attacking my gearing choices that I went out and climbed a pretty good sized hill in a 53x11 gear combo just because he said it couldn't be done. It actually was easier than I thought it would be, but not easy enough that I ever want to do it again.


Never underestimate spite as a motivator.

frogman

Same here, on the really tough hills where I have to downshift, If I am not at the 85% heart rate, I must be close to it. I am breathing very heavy and my tongue is hanging out.

burritos

When the sweat is just raining down my face and stinging my eyeballs and it's only 65 degrees out, I don't need a heart monitor to tell me my mitochondria are redlining.

wolfchild

No it doesn't....The intensity and duration of your effort determines if something is HIIT or not...I've climbed many hills in zone 2 which is an aerobic zone and not even close to HITT.

burritos

Ok.

frogman

This discussion has me curious if I am getting up to 85% heart rate on my "tough" climbs that I think I am. Don't have a heart rate monitor, maybe I should get one..............

PaulRivers

Classic "is correlation causation" problem...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet

Quote:

While the traditional diet has been subjected to repeated claims, population surveys by the Statistics Bureau of Japan reveals that, of all 47 prefectures, Okinawa has the single lowest average intake of vegetables and fruit, and the single highest average intake of beer, KFC, and raw meat.

Some people believe it's the diet...but living on islands it could be genetic...or lifestyle...

Joe Bikerider

I’m still trying to figure out “methylate your DNA”. What a bunch of nonsense and supported with no science at all. I suggest you go out and ride.

aclinjury

The "famed" Okinawan diet is mostly during the time of WW2 (when they were first observed) till about the 80s. Then came the progressive "Westernization" of the Okinawans, and Japan, and the rest of Asia, and thus started the declined of the metabolic health of virtually all Asian countries.

South Korean soldiers during the Korean war era had their metabolic markers compared to their counterparts the US soldiers at the time. And the South Korean soldiers did better in every aspect. In addition, South Koreans civilians at the time also had quite a healthy metabolic panels compared to the American civilians. In the South korean countryside, where food (particualy animal sourced proteins), an average South Korean male farmer had a cholestrol reading of 120; today this would never happen.

China, same thing. China before their cultural revolution, was an agregrian society, meat was a luxury. Heart disease was unheard of. Today in China, with their embracement of Western fast food culture, 1 out of 5 kids in major cities is considered obese.

India, same thing. Rich city dwellers vs farmers. Similar observations to the rest of Asia. Eat a lot of processed food, fat, and animal protein, you die sooner.

The "Mediterranean diet". People from the Mediterranean region had (past tense) a healthy diet back in the 1950. They didn't consume olive oil like the Westernized version of the "Mediterannean" diet of today. Seems that any diet that comes in contact with the West, especially America, will go down the loo.

The Seventh Day Adventists study is probably the best study of comparing meat-eating population to a semi-meat-eating to a totally vegan population. Their vegans are doing better than their meat-eating cousins, and because the 2 groups share a lot of similarities due to religious practice, the only major variable to their health is their diet (which their religion does not mandate what to eat).

On "island life". Let's examine the Polynessians. They weren't always fat and diabetic like they are today. Once they came in contact with the West, it's now fast food culture. Many of these islanders are exactly your model of great metabolic health.

Unfortunately, in nutritional science, there isn't many high quality prospective studies due to the difficulty and time need to conduct prospective studies. But this doesn't mean we should say "correlation isn't causation" and discount observations either.

u235

Really? I've done 8 hours rides with a 80-85% overall average based on my theoretical max Thought that was normal. My guide for long days riding is try to stay under 80%. Most of my rides for that matter are 80-85%. One long HIIT I guess.
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wolfchild

HR monitor isn't a necessity. I will use one occasionally but majority of the time I just go by feel....People were getting fit long before HR monitors were invented.

wolfchild

Those are just marketing buzz words used by lifestyle gurus to sell anti-aging programs and longevity workshops.

wolfchild

I am also 100% certain that none of these centenarians count calories, weigh themselves on a scale 3 times per day every day and use apps to tell them when to eat and what to eat.

burritos

https://www.bicycling.com/health-nut...u-young-study/I suspect we all kind of know this.

basscadet

Most people who think they're doing HIIT are not doing HIIT. HIIT is not climbing a hill, it is max effort sprinting every 1-2 minutes until your legs are jelly. If you can sustain what you think is HIIT for more than 10-15 minutes, it ain't HIIT. Your HR will be maxed and you will be gassed, not really safe to do on a bike IMHO.

livedarklions

No idea about comparative safety, depends on road/track conditions, but otherwise THIS.

And this is why I don't have any interest in doing it. Sounds like about as much fun as a surgical procedure, and my entire reason for preferring cycling to other forms of working out is because cycling is fun. If my primary concern was "efficiency", I'd be doing something other than cycling.

YMMV--if you find HIIT cycling fun or you don't hate it, I'm not going to argue with you. My whole argument in this thread has been that personal preferences are as important as any "science" because the scientifically perfect workout is perfectly useless if you can't make yourself do it.

burritos

So when I'm climbing a hill with 10-15% grade at a snail's pace with sweat just pouring down like a faucet and HR is around 160-180(cause you can count it in your eardrums), this isn't high intensity? You're right, I'm not collapsing but when I first started biking, I did feel like vomiting when I would reach the top of the hill.

Milton Keynes

I love it when you talk dirty.

Milton Keynes

If you come close to getting hit by a car while riding, you might empty the bowels during the workout.