Training & Nutrition - Training Without a Heart Rate Monitor

I've read a lot about HRMs and can see their value. But my life is already got enough high-tech gadgetry in it. I want to keep my cycling relatively simple.

Anyone have SPECIFIC TIPS for developing a training program without an HRM?

Sure..in a nutshell, base your training around the terrain you have available and rate of perceived exertion. For instance, my basic training schedule typically looks like this:

M -- Off / active recovery. Meaning 20-40 miles on flats, never really working up a sweat.
T -- Hard intensity for an hour. This is easiest to acheive by doing mountains, so I do mountains! I try to ride for ~2 - 2.5 hrs, so the difference is at an 'easy' exertion level.
W -- Hard intensity for an hour. However, after cresting mtn #1 (and mashing in a big gear to the top), I descend and crest #2 spinning like a madman.
TH -- Hard intensity for an hour. Do intervals during this hour. Continue to ride for another hour or so.
F -- Off / active recovery. Again, 20-40 miles on flats.
S -- 4-5 hr ride, not worrying about effort. Just riding to enjoy myself.
S -- Climb for an hour or two, then turn and spin home.

Basically, if your training says to stay in your lowest heart rate zone or what have you, you need to realize that it probably won't happen going uphill, so stick to the flats. Likewise, if you have trouble pushing yourself on the flats and getting the heart to go up, then look to the hills to provide that for you. Obviously when your heart rate goes up, you're going to feel like it's harder and so your rate of perceived exertion goes up. You need a few days that feel hard, and a few that feel easy.

Hope that helps.

Thanks!

Yeah, get to know your exertion levels and vary your routine from day to day. A couple of days a week (but NOT in a row) do hills fairly hard at a difficult, but sustainable level, and at least one day where you go long but at more of a jogging pace. Include a recovery day (easy ride) after a hard day, and remember to take a couple of days per week off to do something different - hike, swim, work out, etc.

Also, a tip if you're over 45 like me - do not ramp up too fast or you can injure yourself. Had a shoulder injury this spring and had to cut way back on riding for three months, jumped back in too fast in July-August and hurt my Achilles tendon from cranking up the hills hard two days in a row. Darn! Luckily I caught it in time and after a week off, some icing, and another very easy week, I am working back into it - gradually. I learned a lesson with that.

BTW, I often ride without my HRM, especially when I just want to cruise around for an hour on a recovery day. Just bikin', without any concern for the clock, or heart rate. Very enjoyable and suprisingly effective for weight loss, too. Good time to ride with others who are not into the heavy exertion of riding fast.

IMO, you can guesstimate 4 zones very easily:

1 - Recovery - breathing is very, very comfortable.
2 - Steady State - breathing is at a level that you can talk in full sentences.
3 - LT - your breathing shifts to higher level; sentences are choppy; perceived effort is "comfortably hard". Riding just over this level for longer than about 20 minutes results in premature muscle fatigue and performance degradation from a drop in muscle ph (so the theory goes).
4 - Anaerobic - breathing is very hard/labored. This level can not be sustained very long without muscle ph levels dropping too far causing performance degradation.

Anyway, these are some of the 'flags' I use for endurance training, whether it's cycling or running.