Training & Nutrition - Newb with a Polar CS100

Hi All,
I have been cycling about 1 year (although not during winter) and I bought a Masi Gran Corsa with Ultegra components last year. I haven't done a group ride yet, but I have ridden with some friends on several occasions who are experienced. For the longest time I just tried to keep high cadence and pushed like heck to try and keep up. Now that it's warmed up a bit, I went and got a Polar CS100 with HRM. I did my first ride today with it.

20 miles in 15-20mph winds! (sucked when I was going into the wind).
avg HR 163
max HR 185
avg spd 15.3
max 31.2
time 1:19 total

I am 32 and weigh about 170. I workout in the gym all year 3-4 days per week. So I'm in decent shape..

My question is about my avg HR and max.. the Polar has an OwnZone setting and it autoset me between 122-160. I was way over the top for that range during this ride. Am I going at it too hard? I mean, I felt winded at times, but comes with the territory. I just don't want to over do it.

By the way, this is my first post. I had been looking for a good bike forum, and I love this one, information overload :-) Anyway, Hello from DFW, Texas!

I do think you went too hard, but it's the same problem I have on the road too. They say most people work too hard on their easy days and not hard enough on their hard days. 163 is 88% of your max HR, if 185 is actually your max. To over-generalize you want to limit your time in the 80-88% range. Some people call that the dead zone. In that area you're working too hard to improve aerobic capacity but not hard enough to improve AT & lactate thresholds. You'll get better riding that way, but not as much as you would training strictly. I ended up buying a quality trainer so I could control the variables more. It works for me.

Try to stay below 148 on your easy and long distance rides. For interval training try to work between 165 to 175'ish then recover to below 150. It's pretty hard to do in a group so try to ride a lone a couple days a week to avoid the testosterone. :)

I returned a CS200 to buy the CS400. I wanted more features and the autostart was a lil sketchy.

Thanks for the response, I hope I didn't confuse anyone about the Max HR of 185. That was the maximum my HR reached on this specific ride, I honestly haven't ever tested to see what my absolute max is...

Don't worry about testing your max HR. Do the 2x20min threshold test (see sticky). That will give you an idea what your LT is. Your LT will give you the base point from which to determine your proper HR zones. Also, do a search this forum looking up training and HR zones, you will find tons on that. Dub is right on the point that you should do hard hard and easy easy. Otherwise you will get caught in the middle and after a while you will stop making gains and just plateau--or so they say (hasn't happened to me). I always go by what they say, unless they are idiots--remember *everyone* is an expert trainer here on BF!

Yeah, I love riding into the wind at like 95% of my LTHR then turning around and picking up like 5-6mph and dropping the HR down to 75-80% LTHR! Wind sucks, but makes you tough!;)

Thanks for the response, I hope I didn't confuse anyone about the Max HR of 185. That was the maximum my HR reached on this specific ride, I honestly haven't ever tested to see what my absolute max is...
You didn't but you said you were 32 so I figured 185 had to be pretty close.