Training & Nutrition - CTS Foundation Miles question

I've decided to try out the CTS program laid out in The Ultimate Ride and am looking for some help on figuring out my FM heart rate. I have a heart rate monitor but it doesn't have an Average HR feature...

My Max HR is 198 and I know I can ride in the 175ish range for 20+ minutes. Doing some really crude estimating the time required for a 3 mile TT and assuming a couple minutes to spike my HR up to the 180 range I estimated an average of 170 BPM (170 x 0.86 = 146 BPM). I also figured out a WAG high estimate as well of 176 and that works out to 151 BPM.

I've seen other threads about how Foundation Miles seem like such easy peddling (which is the case for me given my estimate above ). I ended up riding in the 148 - 152 range. Does this sound about right or should I scale back to 146 - 150?

I've decided to try out the CTS program laid out in The Ultimate Ride and am looking for some help on figuring out my FM heart rate. I have a heart rate monitor but it doesn't have an Average HR feature...

My Max HR is 198 and I know I can ride in the 175ish range for 20+ minutes. Doing some really crude estimating the time required for a 3 mile TT and assuming a couple minutes to spike my HR up to the 180 range I estimated an average of 170 BPM (170 x 0.86 = 146 BPM). I also figured out a WAG high estimate as well of 176 and that works out to 151 BPM.

I've seen other threads about how Foundation Miles seem like such easy peddling (which is the case for me given my estimate above ). I ended up riding in the 148 - 152 range. Does this sound about right or should I scale back to 146 - 150?CTS is the only coaching group that advocates using two 3 minute or two 8 mile back to back Time Trials to calculate an AvgHR. Three minutes or 8 miles is just not long enough to get one's HR high enough to reflect an accurate average. You may want to follow some of the more conventional methods and use a 30 or 60 minute TT effort to obtain your AvgHR. I've used the CTS method and a 2 x 20 TT and my AvgHR results were higher for the latter.

It's also a little late in the year to just be starting your FM. According to CTS you should be on Endurance Rides with a few Tempo efforts by now.

It's also a little late in the year to just be starting your FM. According to CTS you should be on Endurance Rides with a few Tempo efforts by now.

For the last two years I've just rode recreationally (2k and 2.5k). I plan to upgrade my bike this spring and to help justify this to myself (and my wife) I have decided to do some local club races which is why I'm interested in a more formal training program. I checked out the Training forum and saw info about CTS having a 7 week program which I figure will work out for me as I live in Upstate NY and we tend to not see good riding weather until mid April (or you have wait until then for all of the salt to wash off the roads). I've been on my trainer 4-5 days a week so I'm not totally out of shape but was just hoping to get others' impressions about my WAG FM HR as I'm hoping to start out in the appropriate HR range without having to borrow or buy another HR monitor.

I've seen other threads about how Foundation Miles seem like such easy peddling (which is the case for me given my estimate above ). I ended up riding in the 148 - 152 range. Does this sound about right or should I scale back to 146 - 150?
I'd say... Yes. The 2 heartbeat difference in those ranges isn't going to amount to much difference. And considering that it's all based on highly variable data, you're in the right ballpark.

I've decided to try out the CTS program laid out in The Ultimate Ride and am looking for some help on figuring out my FM heart rate. I have a heart rate monitor but it doesn't have an Average HR feature...

My Max HR is 198 and I know I can ride in the 175ish range for 20+ minutes. Doing some really crude estimating the time required for a 3 mile TT and assuming a couple minutes to spike my HR up to the 180 range I estimated an average of 170 BPM (170 x 0.86 = 146 BPM). I also figured out a WAG high estimate as well of 176 and that works out to 151 BPM.

I've seen other threads about how Foundation Miles seem like such easy peddling (which is the case for me given my estimate above ). I ended up riding in the 148 - 152 range. Does this sound about right or should I scale back to 146 - 150?

Don't get too caught up in the numbers. I coach for CTS and always make sure that my athletes don't focus too much on that HR. Essentially, the FM is one of those workouts where you're just putting in the miles early in the season. I like to look at it like this - if you're able to have a fun ride and hold a conversation (theoretically) the entire way, then that's a good foundation ride. The range you mentioned above (148-152) is fine. But you may see that some days you don't feel like riding at exactly between 148-152, so you can drop it back or pick it up a little bit. That's not a problem at all. Just use those workouts to enjoy the time outside...you'll have enough time later in the year to focus on HR ranges, etc. ;)

Don't get too caught up in the numbers. I coach for CTS and always make sure that my athletes don't focus too much on that HR. Essentially, the FM is one of those workouts where you're just putting in the miles early in the season. I like to look at it like this - if you're able to have a fun ride and hold a conversation (theoretically) the entire way, then that's a good foundation ride. The range you mentioned above (148-152) is fine. But you may see that some days you don't feel like riding at exactly between 148-152, so you can drop it back or pick it up a little bit. That's not a problem at all. Just use those workouts to enjoy the time outside...you'll have enough time later in the year to focus on HR ranges, etc. ;)

Absolutely. I would DEFINITELY recommend you go out and do the 3 mile time trials. On one hand you are estimating your LTHR and on the other you are trying to get scientific with very speicific heart rate ranges. If you want to be precise, go out and do the time trials.

Having just done them this weekend I strongly disagree with the person who says 8 minutes is not enough time to get the HR up. If you are properly warmed up with at least 30-45 minutes of riding interspersed with some short intense efforts, you should be able to get the HR up immediately.

Additionally, all of the percentages that Carmichael uses are based on the 3 mile test. Yes, getting the HR up to max will use a larger percentage of the test, but that is already factored in. CTS says that your LTHR is 91% of your average HR for the test. If you do a longer test, your LTHR will be a higher percentage of the resulting average HR. Either way, your personal LTHR is the same and is estimated by these tests.

I'm curious. Is there supposed to be some equivalence between a 3 minute TT and 8 miles?

I'm curious. Is there supposed to be some equivalence between a 3 minute TT and 8 miles?
Yes, but it's supposed to be 8 minute/3 miles...
On a trainer: 2 8 minute TTs as hard as you can sustain, 10 min rest in between
or
On the road: 2 3 mile TTs on flat road, hard as you can sustain, 10 min rest in between

The highest AHR of the two efforts is what CTS uses as the basis for training efforts.