Training & Nutrition - Can't get HR over LT on Spin Bike

Hey guys,

I thought I had seen a thread on a similar subject a few days ago but couldn't find it using the search. I apologize if this has already been discussed.

My coach has me doing over/under interval workouts during the week day for which I use the spin bikes at lunch that are in our office gym. I'm about 3 months into my training and I'm finding that I can't get my heart rate to go anaerobic on the spin bike. I've hammered as hard as I can, tried holding a crazy high cadence and even cranked the resistance up as far as I could. No luck. I have no problems on my road bike - I can go anaerobic pretty easy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-spessx

Do you mean it's easy with your road bike on a trainer? In that case, I think it has to be position. Take plumb bob and measuring tools with you and set up the spin bike just like your road bike.

If you mean it's easy with your road bike on the road, I'm the same way. I don't climb well until I've been on my bike for an hour. It takes that long to get my juices flowing. On my rollers with resistance, I warm up for a 1/2 hour in zone 2, including 1.5' intervals in the gear I'll use for my real intervals at 20 and 25 minutes. After that warmup, I can usually go anaerobic after 5 minutes of high cadence hard effort. And after that effort, it gets easier. If my legs aren't up to that first 5 minutes of hard effort, I bag it and try again the next day.

I neen 20-30 min warmup (up to 72% of MHR) and then only after 2-3 intervals, I can bring my HR to that level 82%+).

You may need to do long intervals 3-5 min in length each to up that HR.

huh??? Do you really have a spin bike (huge/heavy flywheel and no coasting allowed) at work? Or is it an exercize bike a la most health clubs?

Spin bikes should be easy to get over LT by cranking up resistance and/or cadence. Many exercise bikes just suck.

Hey guys,

Thanks for the responses so far.

These are real spin bikes. We even have spin classes 5 days a week. The gym has those regular "lazy-boy with pedals" type exercise bikes as well but I don't use them.

I don't have any problems getting over LT on my road bike when out on the road. I haven't tried doing intervals on the trainer because my trainer is old and rickety.

-spessx

Do you mean it's easy with your road bike on a trainer? In that case, I think it has to be position. Take plumb bob and measuring tools with you and set up the spin bike just like your road bike.


Shoot setup his road bike like the spin bike and he'll be a monster! :D

Shoot setup his road bike like the spin bike and he'll be a monster! :Dyeah huh? Spinning out his road-bike in top-gear is like what... 50mph?

How long are your intervals? I notice on my VO2 max intervals, my heart rate won't even go above threshold until a good 3 minutes into the interval.

Also, how is the ventilation and air circulation? Heart rate seems to respond differently indoors, especially if either of those two are sufficient.

I don't have any problems getting over LT on my road bike when out on the road. I haven't tried doing intervals on the trainer because my trainer is old and rickety.Yup. This is why we ride. It's exciting. The spin bike is not exciting. And if you're not excited, it's hard to get it up - your heart rate, I mean. It just takes more work that you'd believe. It will come up, however. Try keeping your cadence high - say an estimated 100, and go a little easier. Don't break your legs. The right effort level will feel like you could keep it up for quite a while. Except that your legs will load up after a few minutes of that, and your heart will come up soon after. Probably you're rushing it. More foreplay. But once you get the hormones flowing and your heart rate up, you'll be able to do those intervals.

Maybe you just need a good-looking coworker to watch you. I know it helps to have my wife on her trainer, too, when I'm trying to do intervals. Something about not wanting to die alone.

Is it a spin class, or just tooling around on a spin bike on your own? When I go spinning I usually warm up for a while by myself and even if I push hard I can't get my HR up as easily as during class, and even then nowhere near as high as I can get on the road.

On interval days its typically using the spin bike by myself and not in a spin class. This week my interval workout was supposed to be 15 minutes warm up/endurance, 30 minutes of intervals (alternating 2 minutes at LT+5 and LT-5) and then 15 minutes of endurance/cool down. Maybe I need to warm up longer before doing intervals?

-spessx

On interval days its typically using the spin bike by myself and not in a spin class. This week my interval workout was supposed to be 15 minutes warm up/endurance, 30 minutes of intervals (alternating 2 minutes at LT+5 and LT-5) and then 15 minutes of endurance/cool down. Maybe I need to warm up longer before doing intervals?

-spessxAh, short intervals. Yes, I'd warm up longer, including a couple of these intervals in your warmup. But no big deal. 15' might be enough. Then don't expect your HR to come up to the LT+5 level in 2 minutes. It's probably not going to, especially if you have good base. You'll just have to judge it by the feel in your legs. For the "over" part, set your legs to feel like max speed on a 200' climb. Same cadence and effort. For the "under" part, set your legs to feel like your best pace on a 3000' climb. By the end of the 30', your HR should be somewhere in the right area.

OK, I think I understand. As long as I'm going all out for 2 minutes and then slightly less for 2 minutes that should be considered an interval even if my heart rate doesn't reflect it within the first few intervals
.

-spessx

OK, I think I understand. As long as I'm going all out for 2 minutes and then slightly less for 2 minutes that should be considered an interval even if my heart rate doesn't reflect it within the first few intervals
.

-spessxYes, but don't go "all out" for 2'. LT+5 is not all out. That's about 1/3 of the way from LT to all out. These are carefully measured intervals designed to have a specific effect - accumulation and then consumption or clearing of lactate. Don't obsess. You'll get the idea after you've completed a couple of these 30' sessions. The completion, without a break, of these sessions is the major goal. By the time you're halfway through you should have some idea of how to meter the effort for completion. The first 15' will be the worst, or that's the way it is for me anyway. Then I have about 10' of fun and 5' of pain. Or maybe that's 5' of fun and 10' of pain. :)