Heart Rate Training: Zone 4/Threshold training?

Have you found your own personal max heart rate or are you using generic equation?

For example if you have a high heart rate like me for my age, my zones are different than the norm, so I'm not actually in a high a zone as it seems.

How did you set up your zones? (The best way to do it is as a % of your lactate threshold HR. To find it, ride for 30 minutes at the fastest pace you can maintain, and take your average heart rate over the last 20 minutes of the exercise.)

I use the 20min method, and then uses these zones, so technically I have 6 zones.

http://lwcoaching.com/power-level-heart-rate-zone-calculator/

One thing a lot of people don't take into account is that LSD training doesn't work if you don't put in the hours. Polarized training only works when you use the easy days to recover. If you are truly able to hammer out zone 4 rides day in day out that says to me you are recovering enough to be able to do this. I am guessing this isn't the case because you say that you have to stop quite a bit in the areas where you ride. Every time you stop you are recovering. The bottom line is performance. When you ride the same routes, are you faster? all things being equal. That is the only measurement that matters when it comes to training. Or you are having more fun. To me these are one and the same.

amandaeve wrote: »

I recently bought a heart rate monitor, and after tracking several work outs I am surprised to find that I naturally spend more time in the anaerobic/threshold zone than the other zones. On average, about 30% of a typical workout is spent in the 4th zone, with the runner up being zone 2 (fat burning) at 25%. The percentage of time spent in zone 4 is about the same whether it be a 5-hour bike ride or 1 hour at the gym. It’s not clear to me what it means to spend so much time in that 4th zone- What are my advantages now knowing that I am strong in that zone? How can I use this knowledge to my benefit?

We all geeked out on how to set your zones and didn't bother to answer the stuff you want to know. Sorry.

Using an HRM is as much art as science. It'd be neat to see the HR chart. It'd be one thing if you spend the first 30 % of your ride in Z4 and then tapered off after that, vs you constantly moving in and out of Z4. The first one would be fatigue, the second one is more like a cyclist in a hilly place.

Here are some ways you can use your HRM to your benefit:

(1) For pacing. Riding a bike is harder at 175 bpm than it is at 100 bpm, so you can't do it as long. If you pay some attention to the numbers while you ride for a while, you'll get a sense for how long you can stay in each zone. My instinct is to ride really hard when I approach a hill and build up momentum coming in, then push until I run out of gas and limp up to the top; if I pay attention to the numbers I'll start slower and finish in good form, not out of breath. Same thing on a longer ride on flat ground, sometimes dialing the intensity down by 10 bpm will help you a lot an hour later.

(2) Avoid bonking. The "fat burning zone" doesn't mean anything to most people but if you're doing 5 hour rides, you need to fuel them mostly with fat and only burn glycogen when you really need to. (This is just long-term pacing.)

(3) Targets for workouts. Zone 2 rides improve cardiovascular function, don't create much hunger, improve your body's ability to use fat for energy. Zone 4 & 5 rides improve your ability to use glycogen for energy, can raise your FTP, etc. A good training plan will have a mix of both, with specific goals for specific workouts. Heart rate and power give you targets to help you do the type of workout you set out for. And then the opposite of this is the time-in-zone chart at the end of a workout helps you evaluate how you.

You bike commute year round? My hat's off to you!

Ouch, pretty bad *kitten* (rule #9, velominati). Think I only been in the rain three times this year, one extended; one night ride; and one pre-dawn ride. Cold, wet and darkness is not my cup of tea (hope to avoid a soaking Saturday, my last century for the year). I stick with the trainer as soon as daylight savings starts and only venture out weekends. Be safe.

This is Kind of an interesting thread. I am trying to remember how long I have been going to spin class or how many HRMs I have burned out (corroded with sweat). I have always had a HRM for that exercise. Sportline 660 was my favorite. I kind of didn't know much about zones but my HRM had a percent of max HR so I always went by that. Presumably max was computed by 220 minus age.
But for spin I would always try to get an average of 90% for 50 minutes or so. I don't know why I did it that way or even gave it much thought.
Beauty of that whole thing though was I learned to regulate my breathing. I could spin at 90% more or less continuously with regulated breathing. I could max my heart out before losing my breath.
This season I moved outside in the spring and I kind of lost my obsessive HRM habit. So I did a lot of riding without monitoring. I am a climbing guy and I especially like climbing in rarefied air. So I would put my tent at like 10,000 feet and climb upwards from there. I have ridden up to 14,000. Sweet eh?
Now I got me a gps watch called garmin vivoactive so I can kind of substantiate some of my claims. I spent $50 to get the chest strap that goes with it. So after having spent the whole summer doing preposterous climbs without a monitor, now I have that going again.
Yesterday for my morning climb I wore two HRMs. I wore my old Sportline and my new garmin chest strap. They both work good like you would expect from chest straps, you know, no latency but they each compute calories differently.
One thing I always liked about the sportline is that it gave me an estimate of the calorie value of my exercise. You know, then I could kind of keep a grip on my eating.
Yesterday's experiment showed a big disparity between garmin's and sportline's computation of the calorie value. Garmin gave me like half of the credit I got from Sportline. I guess since my diet is more or less calibrated to the Sportline, I am going to give it the most credibility.
Anyway, it is getting cold on my morning climb. I am going to move back indoors as soon as snow sticks to the road. Climbing in the cold is kind of weird when you think about it. You get drenched with sweat then you got to turn around and descend. I take off my clothes and put on dry from my pack. Brrr. Makes the descent a little more fun. Anyway, I am having fun and I like my little gadgets.
Anyway sorry for getting carried away. Zones I figure are just ten percent steps down from Max HR. I used to train at and upwards of 90% but realize that was for 50 minutes or so.
If I want to do a "meander" climb, I do that in the low 80s. But I kind of lost track not wearing a monitor all summer. But I think I know what it feels like.