Training & Nutrition - anyone know how to interpret Hear rate Monitors.

Pretty much I use mine to just get me over my minimum threshold for effort and it's nice to know if I fared better this time , when doing that steep slope. Come down 12 beats, that seems a real feat.
But ok, my resting heart rate is like 75-85, I think is about normal. So I go out for three hours and I see my average Heart rate is like 135-145. What information can be gained from that knowledge? Calories consumed, etc. thanks.

You can use your HRM to gauge recovery and recovery times. After a hard effort you can see how long it takes you to recover (so you can do repeats, or intervals fully rested)

Avg HR does little. Your resting HR is the HR when you first wake up before your head gets up from the pillow.

Know your zones, and try to bike to the zones.
There are tempo rides, interval rides, recovery rides, all out race pace rides. When you are looking at the HR's think in broader strokes.

Recommended books:

Friel's Cyclist Training Bible
Sally Edwards Heart Rate Training for Cyclists

A lot of things you can do with HR. Calorie expenditure is one of the most vague estimates.

Learn your training zones, whoever you're going to use as a reference for this. Nowadays it's either Coggan's zones (check out www.trainingpeaks.com and look around for the data) or Friel's zones. I would personally use Friel's zones if I was going to strictly train with heart rate.

This will help you learn what a "recovery ride" is, and how it should feel. Once you've tested your threshold heart rate for training zones - you'll have numbers that can tell you _about_ how hard you should go to expect certain muscular/cardio-respiratory system adaptation. What does this mean for you? Most training value out of a given amount of time.

What can it not tell you? How hard you should go for less than 3-4 minutes, as your heart rate will typically not completely catch up by the time the interval is over. But it CAN tell you how well you are recovered from those efforts and typically when to start the next interval.

Get the most out of your heart rate monitor by testing for threshold and then setting/using quality defined training zones.

Found this web site for Friel's workout. Looks like an interesting regimen. I'll check out Friel's book to get greater use of my monitor.

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/planpreview.asp?planid=2654

Recommended books:

Friel's Cyclist Training Bible
Sally Edwards Heart Rate Training for Cyclists

+1 I've read them both, and both are required reading! There is so much bogus HR information out there, you really need someone to help you sift through all the HR myths.

... Brad

Pretty much I use mine to just get me over my minimum threshold for effort and it's nice to know if I fared better this time , when doing that steep slope. Come down 12 beats, that seems a real feat.
But ok, my resting heart rate is like 75-85, I think is about normal. So I go out for three hours and I see my average Heart rate is like 135-145. What information can be gained from that knowledge? Calories consumed, etc. thanks.

It depends on what your goals are.

Most systems that are based on HR (friel, carmichael's "ultimate ride" is good as well) use some sort of "field test" to determine HR zones. These zones basically tell you when you are riding fully aerobic, when you're near/at your lactate threshold, and when you are above your threshold. You can then base your training on those ranges. For me, there are two big uses of my HR monitor.

The first is to keep me from riding too hard and to correlate it with my perceived effort.

The second is to keep an easy record of what I've done (my monitor records and downloads distance, HR, speed, altitude, and cadence to my laptop).

My polar also estimates calories used based on my fitness level and the HR measurements. It's okay but not perfect.

Think one useful aspect of using my HRM would be to get my diet in order. My recent vacation was lethal . Vacations w/o my bike is not my first choice. Particularily when delicious Hungarian food is near.

Sorry to butt in here, but I also have a HR question. Earlier this evening I did a short race. Been off the bike for a while and trying to get fit enough to race proper. I recorded the output of tonights race on my Polar CS400 (Altitude, HR, Speed) and I need a little help decoding what it is saying to me.

Now just to point out, on the steep part of the climb where I lost the group my speed bottomed out and my HR hit its highest point (by the way, I am 31, 67kg, carrying a bit of bodyfat). Anyway, I thought I gave up easy and I tried to chase back on by ultimately ended up several minutes down, although I rode the last 30 minutes alone. So what can I read from this ? I guess I can't go up hills like I used to, struggling even at the start yo-yoing at the back, so down on power too. I don't know if the fact that my HR can go so high is good or bad. Probably bad, so overall I am guessing I am just a softy and need to start doing some hardcore training. If there is anything good here, its probably that the high HR the whole way back means I didn't quit !. (Av HR 176, Speed 35.2, there was a stiff headwind by the way for about half of the course)

Any idea's or opinions on what this means or where I go from here, much appreciated, thanks.

http://www.comeraghcc.com/Images/race.jpg

By the way, incase it's not clear. HR is the light red line with the pale background, speed is the blue line, and route elevation is the dark red line with the darker background. Measurements are taken at 5 second intervals.

Sorry to butt in here, but I also have a HR question. Earlier this evening I did a short race. Been off the bike for a while and trying to get fit enough to race proper. I recorded the output of tonights race on my Polar CS400 (Altitude, HR, Speed) and I need a little help decoding what it is saying to me.

Now just to point out, on the steep part of the climb where I lost the group my speed bottomed out and my HR hit its highest point (by the way, I am 31, 67kg, carrying a bit of bodyfat). Anyway, I thought I gave up easy and I tried to chase back on by ultimately ended up several minutes down, although I rode the last 30 minutes alone. So what can I read from this ? I guess I can't go up hills like I used to, struggling even at the start yo-yoing at the back, so down on power too. I don't know if the fact that my HR can go so high is good or bad. Probably bad, so overall I am guessing I am just a softy and need to start doing some hardcore training. If there is anything good here, its probably that the high HR the whole way back means I didn't quit !. (Av HR 176, Speed 35.2, there was a stiff headwind by the way for about half of the course)

Any idea's or opinions on what this means or where I go from here, much appreciated, thanks.

http://www.comeraghcc.com/Images/race.jpg

It seems likely that one or both of the following are true:

1) You don't have enough base miles so that you are going anaerobic often in the early parts of the race
2) You don't have enough tempo and intensity training, so you can't recover enough from the anaerobic sections.

While intensity training will make you faster, it won't help your base, and it's possible you'll have to back off and work on that to get back to where you want to be.

Hi Eric,

You have hit the nail on the head. Last year I did a lot of base mileage, did the etape du tour etc... with the plan that I would put in a proper winter this year and race for the first time. I got ill in November and did not get back on a bike until 8 weeks ago, so you are correct, my base miles are non-existant, maybe 2000km this year. And I also don't have a lot of intensity training either, about a few weeks ago I started doing mid-week league races, short efforts on rolling roads of 35-40k on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have done 8 races and my results are as follows... Race 1 - Finished in middle of group, Race 2- Dropped, 6 minutes down, Race 3 - Dropped 5 minutes down, Race 4 - Finished in middle of group, Race 5 - Won ! (handicap group I was in stayed away), Race 6 - Dropped 8 Minutes down, Race 7 - Dropped after 4 miles, Race 8 - Dropped, 5 minutes down.

I am inconsistent to say the least. I usually stay with the handicap group (lower cat riders) and get dropped when the fast guys catch up (including a couple of pro's sometimes). I was thinking of keeping up the Tuesday and Thursday races, doing longer club rides Saturday and Sunday (About 3.5hrs - but I find them tough, sometimes getting dropped near the end but completing the distance). With maybe a 3-4 hr slow ride wednesdays.

Would this be a decent program for me ? This year is written off, but I would like to get fit enough by August to do a couple of the last few races of the year, no particular aim, just to hang into the bunch and finish. Hopefully just introduce me to proper racing before I begin the winter training !

How old are you?

31. I had another race last night, same average 176, max 193, but this time finished in the bunch and took several turns on the front. I couldn't help but feel that whilst I was near death, most of the others were cruising !

I couldn't help but feel that whilst I was near death, most of the others were cruising !

Trust me. They were feeling the same way.

... Brad

Pretty much I use mine to just get me over my minimum threshold for effort and it's nice to know if I fared better this time , when doing that steep slope. Come down 12 beats, that seems a real feat.
But ok, my resting heart rate is like 75-85, I think is about normal. So I go out for three hours and I see my average Heart rate is like 135-145. What information can be gained from that knowledge? Calories consumed, etc. thanks.

Here is a link to a chart showing resting heart rate.
http://www.netfit.co.uk/fitness/test/resting-heart-rate.htm

I am 55 and my resting heart rate is about 52 :D

Hi Eric,

You have hit the nail on the head. Last year I did a lot of base mileage, did the etape du tour etc... with the plan that I would put in a proper winter this year and race for the first time. I got ill in November and did not get back on a bike until 8 weeks ago, so you are correct, my base miles are non-existant, maybe 2000km this year. And I also don't have a lot of intensity training either, about a few weeks ago I started doing mid-week league races, short efforts on rolling roads of 35-40k on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have done 8 races and my results are as follows... Race 1 - Finished in middle of group, Race 2- Dropped, 6 minutes down, Race 3 - Dropped 5 minutes down, Race 4 - Finished in middle of group, Race 5 - Won ! (handicap group I was in stayed away), Race 6 - Dropped 8 Minutes down, Race 7 - Dropped after 4 miles, Race 8 - Dropped, 5 minutes down.

I am inconsistent to say the least. I usually stay with the handicap group (lower cat riders) and get dropped when the fast guys catch up (including a couple of pro's sometimes). I was thinking of keeping up the Tuesday and Thursday races, doing longer club rides Saturday and Sunday (About 3.5hrs - but I find them tough, sometimes getting dropped near the end but completing the distance). With maybe a 3-4 hr slow ride wednesdays.

Would this be a decent program for me ? This year is written off, but I would like to get fit enough by August to do a couple of the last few races of the year, no particular aim, just to hang into the bunch and finish. Hopefully just introduce me to proper racing before I begin the winter training !

I think either Carmichael's or Friel's books will give you decent advice on this.

Without the base miles, you're in what both of them call the foundation period, and that focuses on foundation (aerobic) miles. Which is the opposite of what you're doing right now. I think that if you spend some time doing that, you can build your aerobic base up higher and then get to a better place.

I also think that if you stick with what you're doing now, you'll see some small gains but you won't get a lot more base.