"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - LTHR - What am I looking at here?

I did the 2x20 field test in Feb. My LTHR was 168. Same in June

I raced my first crit last night and dropped out after twenty minutes. Ave HR was 171; max 184. The two 180 degree turns at each end was brutal going 0 to 25+ each time on the 1.4 mile course. It wore me out. Leading me to believe that LTHR is fixed for my fitness level.

1. Am I supposed to be able to get my LTHR higher? Or do I just get stronger and faster at 168 bpm?

2. On that note, when I train intervals ... do I train at 168? Or shoot for a higher heart rate?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Let's see. What's your Max HR? If your LT is pushing 88-89% of your MHR then it's probably pretty difficult to go any farther.

Intervals will raise your VO2max, which in turn will make you stronger at LT. You'll see improvement in your RHR after a very short time which is an indicator of your overall fitness.

Start with 4x1 minute intervals at 90%. Ten days later do your second interval session. Increase frequency and duration gradually.

My max HR is 191 according to results from a previous race. 186 if I use MHR=217 - (0.85 × Age). I will use 191 as MHR since it was a "real" result, not a calculation.

Thanks for the 4x1 suggestion. I'll give that a try. (And I'm guessing 1 minute recovery between efforts?)

Just make sure you're ready and psyched to do the next interval. The normal recommendation before HR monitors was 2:1 rest to work ratio. Just let your HR come down to 60% or something.

You need to find your RHR if you're gonna find your percentages. Suppose your RHR is 45, then your 85% (according to to the Karvonen formula) is 169. I like to use Karvonen for determining my percentages, Maffetone for determining my recovery HR.

My advice, and I don't use a HR monitor so this may be worthless, is to stop using the HR monitor. Start doing a local sprint ride. You get used to repeated leadouts and sprints. You get used to going hard, going harder, sprinting and then recovering. And it did wonders for me. I still suck, but I can finish with the group now. There should be one near you somewhere.

Edit: And doing these sprints/intervals with other riders forced me to go faster - faster than I probably could on my own. It has to do with riding in others' slipstream, but also not wanting to get crushed each time. For some reason, if I'm riding with others, and I don't pay too much attention to my computer, I have an easier time going fast.

Oh. Good. I thought percentages were based off max alone. MY RHR is 54, so now I know what to use. Thanks.

Cromulent has a good way too. Sort of like this quote:

“Competition is painful and wonderful and insane and ugly and beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Forget magazines and how-to books. The fastest, best way to get in touch with pure physical exhilaration and hardship of this sport is to race. The fastest way to go faster is to race.” - Dan Koeppel

I doubt very much that your reason for having to drop out was because of your lactate threshold. It was more likely due to your lack of anaerobic work capacity (AC). You need to do 20-second sprint drills or 1-minute all-out intervals and HR is not a factor in either of those workouts.

--Steve

I doubt very much that your reason for having to drop out was because of your lactate threshold. It was more likely due to your lack of anaerobic work capacity (AC). You need to do 20-second sprint drills or 1-minute all-out intervals and HR is not a factor in either of those workouts.

--Steve


+1. Training at LT threshold is important, and does a lot of good things for you. However for crit racing you've got to be able to go anerobic, recover, and repeat over and over. Shorter power intervals help with that (whether they're structured intervals, or races, or competitive training rides.)