Fifty Plus (50+) - Heart rate monitors

I am new to biking, as I've mentioned before, and am just wondering if any of the members of this board use heart rate monitors in an effort to keep fit?

Lots of us do. There have been a couple of threads on it recently. The first question to ask yourself is what do you want to do with a HRM? Seems to me the real purpose of a HRM is for training; i.e. setting fitness goals and following a schedule based on HR training zones to acheive the goal. If you are riding for pleasure and general fitness, I'm not sure it would be of much benefit to you.

I use mine everytime I ride. I make sure I keep my HR within certain zones for either improving endurance/performance or for conserving energy for long rides. In my experience HR and cadence are the key things to monitor in a ride.

Yes, I always ride using a HRM. Mine is the timex iron man series.
I also chart my rate on an excel spreadsheet along with ride times and distance.
For example, this morning I noted during my exercise ride that my rate was higher than my norm. I attribute that to being off of my bike for two weeks and having to work a little harder. When I have been riding consistantly my heart rate settles into a predictable pattern.
Some rides I try to keep my rate within a set zone, (comfort or aerobic zone).
Overall I find it a useful tool for my morning exercise rides and on longer rides, it can confirm to me whether I have hydrated enough or taken in enough food.

Lots of us do. There have been a couple of threads on it recently. The first question to ask yourself is what do you want to do with a HRM? Seems to me the real purpose of a HRM is for training; i.e. setting fitness goals and following a schedule based on HR training zones to acheive the goal. If you are riding for pleasure and general fitness, I'm not sure it would be of much benefit to you.

+1 ... I use mine to keep me from over training. That is, on rest days when I'm trying to take it easy, I tend to push too hard. The HRM helps me keep in a specific zone that matches what I want on a rest day.

I have a heart rate monitor and I use it when I ride. I use it mainly to have something else to monkey with. It serves as motivation. It also helps to keep tabs on how my perceived exertion tallies with heart rate. Some days, it takes far more effort to get the same heart rate and on those days I back off a tad.

I have a heart rate monitor and I use it when I ride. I use it mainly to have something else to monkey with.

:lol: Pat, there is much more honesty to this comment than I might like to admit to myself when looking at all the cycling "stuff" I've got laying around.

I am new to biking, as I've mentioned before, and am just wondering if any of the members of this board use heart rate monitors in an effort to keep fit?
As someone reducing his smoking to less than half a pack, I've been wearing one for 6 months every time I ride. I wear a Polar system that straps to my chest & has a wristwatch unit that monitors my heartrate. At first I bought the cheaper unit then discovered it didn't have sufficient features (like keeping all my sessions for a week & giving me a summary). So I went back to Academy & exchanged it. Now I obsessively record how long we ride, my average & max heart rate & the # of calories burned in my Daytimer calender. Whenever I'm tempted to smoke, I look at the records...

I always use a heart rate monitor, whether I am on the bike, or fitness-walking, or using the cardiio machines in the gym. I use a point system to track my workouts, i.e., different zones (beat-per-minute spans) are worth different points. I know how many points I earned in a week, or on a particular workout. The benefit of all this is, I don't waste time "just doing cardio." I have easy days and hard days, and work my most important muscle -- my heart -- in a sane, safe and effective way. My fitness has grown exponentially since I began doing this.

Sally Edwards, Ironman winner several times, author and fitness guru, has written several books on using a heart rate monitor, and she stresses that you do not have to be super-fit or training for a triathlon or race to gain from using a monitor. You can be an everyday couch potato or average fitness enthusiast and use them. The basic book, I believe, is Heart Monitor Training. Google her and you can find it. Good luck!

I use HRM for solo training. It gives me an idea of my effort in addition to see the speed.
Typical warm up for 15 minutes at HR 100 to 110.
Sprint in big gear for 2-3 minutes to get >HR 120.
Steady speed for 30 minutes at HR 120 to 135.
Sprint in big gear for 2-3 minutes to get >HR 140.
Cool down with steady speed for 15 minutes at <HR 120.
Repeat this for another hour if time allows.
BTW, I am 64.

I bought a cheap HRM last season and spent most of the season sending it back to Performance to get a replacement. By the end of the season, I had one that worked:)

Now that I am getting a decent number of base miles this season, I'll be using it to do some structured workouts. I keep an eye on this and my cadence most of the time - it's interesting feedback, and I'm realizing that I'm going to have to go harder if I want to up my speed and endurance.

I think its worth exploring, but Eddy Merckx didn't have an HRM and he did okay.

Several ways of using a heart monitor and for me it helps me to stay with my Working limits. You soon find the rate that you want to work at- tells you when you are not working hard enough- or tells you that you are pushing a bit hard to complete the distance.

Only thing is with monitors- you can pay for the all singing dancing versions or just get a basic one. I have both and to be quite honest- I prefer the basic form that just has an alarm for out of limit exertion- although after about 30 seconds of the alarm I turn that off. All I want from a monitor is my current heart rate. After a ride I can't be bothered to analyse all the data, but if that is what you are into, choose the model carefully to get one that will give you the data you want.

Best training tool I ever used.

I have one and use it intermittently. I use it less now after a few years of riding that I did when I first bought one. I do find the full suite of info helpful but am not obsessive about it.

I have a Nike one that works pretty well (doesn't seem to like cold weather). I concur with what everyone above me has said. My biggest issues sometimes is the same with a HRM or a cycle computer, I get too hung up on where I'm at in terms of rates, too much Type A personality. Every now and then I leave it at home and just go with the flow. It is great for training and also for ensuring you stay in a particular zone. The first time I used one I was amazed to see that on a climb my perception of exertion felt like I was pounding but my heart rate said otherwise and I was actually able to increase my pace and adjust my thinking to what my heart was really experiencing. I take an extreme spinning class in the winter and the instructor won't let you participate without one as the entire workout is based on actual levels of effort as reported by your HRM; she even gets off her bike and comes around and checks that you are in the right zones. All in all a good tool as well as another nifty gadget to play around with.

I use a Ciclo and it provides the basics I need and I got it really cheap on eBay. The features of mine are:

Current HR
Average HR
Maximum HR
3 Zones
Stopwatch
Clock

My normal avg HR for a ride is 150 for a ride length of 3-4 hours. Resting HR is 50. My maximum HR is 194. The numbers are usually about 5% higher in the winter......

Both my wife and I have Sigma PC-14s. We got them from Nashbar for about $35 each. They're great monitors, no problems at all, and the batteries are user changeable unlike other brands, and they have all of the features I could possibly want; you know, like my heart is now beating, etc. Seriously, they have a lot of nice features. I usually don't use mine except during spin classes. They're absolutely necessary for spin classes. My stoker wife likes to use her's all of the time, especially when we're on the tandem. That way she tries to make me feel guilty when we're really hammering and tells me her HR is up to 175 or something astronimical. I just let it go in one ear and out the other.

I restarted cycling 4 years ago after a heart attack. I took a cardiac rehabilitation class, where we exercised with HRMs, and they worked on getting us to certain levels based on HR and perceived exertion. I wear a HRM sometimes, both when riding on the road, and when on the exercise bike when outdoor conditions do not allow me to ride. Something that I have noticed is that for the same 'perceived exertion' my HR tends to be higher on the road than when indoors.

Could be that with the wind going past outdoors, I am keeping cooler, so I tend to work harder, could be that dancing with cars raises my HR for other than exercise reasons.