Notices
Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) Looking to lose that spare tire? Ideal weight 200+? Frustrated being a large cyclist in a sport geared for the ultra-light? Learn about the bikes and parts that can take the abuse of a heavier cyclist, how to keep your body going while losing the weight, and get support from others who've been successful.

Pushing to hard?

Old 10-17-12, 08:02 AM
  #1  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: West Haven, CT
Posts: 15

Bikes: 1990 Cannondale SR600, 2014 Giant Defy 1

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Pushing to hard?

Hi new rider here. I'm male, 47yo, 5'10", 240 lbs and have been riding my bike for the last 4 months after not really riding for years.

I'm averaging about 60-75 mi per week. I use a HRM when I ride and have question. Looking at the zones over my last 20 mi ride I see that I was in Zone 4 - Zone 5 for about 90% of the ride. There is no dizziness or anything while riding. I experience burning in my legs from trying to keep my cadence up.

I guess I'm looking for info on whether I'm pushing myself to hard? Thanks.
TripletakeTTT is offline  
Old 10-17-12, 08:38 AM
  #2  
Senior Member
 
IBOHUNT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Western Maryland - Appalachian Mountains
Posts: 4,026

Bikes: Motobecane Fantom Cross; Cannondale Supersix replaced the Giant TCR which came to an untimely death by truck

Mentioned: 35 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 126 Post(s)
Liked 26 Times in 10 Posts
Welcome to 'the club'.

This will probably turn into one of those 'what's your Lactate Threshold and unless you know what it is we'd all be guessing' threads.

A link - take it for what it's worth

https://www.bicycling.com/training-nu...-threshold-101

So unless you know what your LT is... we'd be guessing.

As for HR zones - don't go with the 220-age deal. I can ride at my 220-age = MaxHR for 30 min+

One calculator I looked at told me my 'target for vigorous exercise (70-85% MaxHR) ' is what Mr. Friel is calling my Zone1 and 4 bpm into Zone2. That's a 'dude, wait, what?'

Advice I could give would be to keep ridding and get as many miles in as you can. Your fitness will improve, probably by leaps and bounds at first, as you put miles on and the weight comes off.
Ride hard when you want and then ride casually when you need to recover.
IBOHUNT is offline  
Old 10-17-12, 08:41 AM
  #3  
Senior Member
 
BaseGuy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 196

Bikes: 2013 Cannondale CAAD10; 1987 Cannondale R400/600; 1997 Specialized Rockhopper Homemade Hybrid

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
TTT,

You and I are similar, so I'll take a shot at an answer. I'm 45, 6'2", 225 lbs., and have been riding for four or five months after five years of inactivity. I ride 60-90 miles a week. Overall, we've pretty close.

No, I don't think you're going too hard. First, I'm assuming you have a healthy heart. If you do, your body won't let you hurt it. Second, if you can sustain 20-miler at a decent pace (which your HR-monitor confirms), you are maintaining elevated HR for an hour or more, right? That's another data-point that says you're not going too hard.

As you know, when you burgeon into the anaerobic zone, you're beginning the slide to conkville. When your muscles burn on a sprint or climb, yes, there's some anaerobic respiration going on in there, but once you sit down and regain your normal pace, your leg muscles to aerobic again, and the blood flow flushes out much of the lactic acid the anaerobic bit just produced.

The slide between aerobic and anaerobic is not an absolute line. It's a gray area, and some muscle and subsets of muscles are anaerobic at the same time others are not. So use common sense as your guide. If you can sustain a strong pace for 60 minutes, I don't think you're going too hard. If your legs are sore or tired the next day, then go light that day to recover.

As we get older, the adage "listen to your body" is a good one. If you have any doubts about heart health, see your physician for a check. As you keep this up, you'll be dropping some pounds, right? You'll get fast and faster. Have fun!
BaseGuy is offline  
Old 10-17-12, 08:41 AM
  #4  
Galveston County Texas
 
10 Wheels's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: In The Wind
Posts: 33,221

Bikes: 02 GTO, 2011 Magnum

Mentioned: 18 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1346 Post(s)
Liked 1,236 Times in 617 Posts
75 miles is not enough miles.

Jump it up to 150-200
__________________
Fred "The Real Fred"

10 Wheels is offline  
Old 10-17-12, 11:19 AM
  #5  
Senior Member
 
mkadam68's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Eastern Tennessee.
Posts: 3,694

Bikes: 2012 MotorHouse road bike. No. You can't get one.

Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Liked 9 Times in 6 Posts
Originally Posted by TripletakeTTT
Hi new rider here. I'm male, 47yo, 5'10", 240 lbs and have been riding my bike for the last 4 months after not really riding for years.

I'm averaging about 60-75 mi per week. I use a HRM when I ride and have question. Looking at the zones over my last 20 mi ride I see that I was in Zone 4 - Zone 5 for about 90% of the ride. There is no dizziness or anything while riding. I experience burning in my legs from trying to keep my cadence up.

I guess I'm looking for info on whether I'm pushing myself to hard? Thanks.
Two possibiities:
  • Your zones are incorrect
  • You're reading it wrong.

I'm thinking you're probably in z3 ("burning legs"). I'd recommend doing an actual test to more accurately determine your zones. In z4, you'd be breathing really hard and unable to converse well (z5 not at all). That said, assuming you're in z3, yes, it sounds like you are pushing yourself too hard, too often.

To be simplistic: Zone 3 is sort of a no man's land that's somewhat useless in training. The adage is, "Go really hard when you're supposed to go hard, and go really easy when you're supposed to go easy." Right now, you're going middle of the road. It's not training your top-end at all. And then, when you try to train top-end, you're too tired from all that z3 work to get to your top-end. When you go easy, you should be z1 (occasionally z2) & that's it.

Depending on how you define it, zone 4 is when you crossover your lactate threshold, meaning the level at which lactate starts accumulating as your body can't get rid of it as fast as it is produced. (Some define it as anaerobic threshold, but this can be artificially low.) You're close to working anaerobically (if not actually are) and can only sustain z4 for short durations (couple minutes).

To determine z4, find a flat-to-gradual-2%-hill (no downhills!), one that will take you ~25 mins to complete at a good clip. Warmup. Ride the course as fast as you can sustain for the entire 20-mins. Then, over the last 1/4-mile, go all out and go as fast as you can. Really max yourself out so you can barely dismount the bike.

Take your average HR from the last 20-mins of the ride. This HRavg will be your threshold (z4). From this, you can then accurately compute zones 1--3. Zone 5 will be 1-2 bpm higher than your HRmax at the end of the test.

Good luck.
mkadam68 is offline  
Old 10-19-12, 04:47 AM
  #6  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: West Haven, CT
Posts: 15

Bikes: 1990 Cannondale SR600, 2014 Giant Defy 1

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Thanks. I'll give the test a shot and see what happens.
TripletakeTTT is offline  
Old 10-19-12, 10:23 AM
  #7  
got the climbing bug
 
jsigone's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: San Diego
Posts: 10,204

Bikes: one for everything

Mentioned: 81 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 632 Post(s)
Liked 908 Times in 273 Posts
IMO riding at near HR max for the entire ride means that your body/cardio is out of shape. As you get more miles under your belt, and get fit you should see the HR drop down considerably. You also need to learn to breath properly that won't elevate the HR. The biggest problem with riding w/ the HR for so long, so high is that your body is near it's ceiling and hard to go fast/harder without hitting the wall hard. Recovery is also harder after hitting the wall.
__________________
Rule #10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster.
jsigone is offline  
Old 10-19-12, 10:51 AM
  #8  
Senior Member
 
adrien's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Alexandria, VA
Posts: 1,210

Bikes: Firefly custom Road, Ira Ryan custom road bike, Ira Ryan custom fixed gear

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 9 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Honestly, there's a limit to how much hand-wringing about this is going to help.

1. Have you spoken to your doctor about your riding, and do you have blessing / guidelines from him / her?
2. Are you smiling when you ride?

As long as those are both "yes", the fitness, the breathing and the lower HR will come the more you ride. The best indicator of this is your resting HR.
adrien is offline  
Old 10-19-12, 05:17 PM
  #9  
Lover of Old Chrome Moly
 
Myosmith's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: NW Minnesota
Posts: 2,949
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 143 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 23 Times in 17 Posts
You are a new rider trying to get into shape, keep it simple. Forget meters and formulas, ask yourself how you feel. If you feel tired and sore after a training ride but recover completely within a day or two, all is good. If you feel severe point pain, have any disability, or feel weak, ill, and poorly motivated for days you are pushing too hard. Your level of effort should be challenging but not overwhelming. When on a training ride I like to push a pace where I can speak in short sentences and am breating hard but smooth and evenly. If you are gasping for breath or feel light headed, back off a bit.

Many fine athletes trained for centuries without the benefits of poser meters, heart rate monitors, Strava and Garmin. Don't get me wrong, they are fine tools, but the key is to learn to listen to your body, monitor your results and then make the necessary adjustments. All the other tools just put numbers to what you should already know (and maybe provide some motivation).
Myosmith is offline  
Old 10-21-12, 03:46 PM
  #10  
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: West Haven, CT
Posts: 15

Bikes: 1990 Cannondale SR600, 2014 Giant Defy 1

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
mkadam68,

I did a lactate test on the bike and found out my zones were incorrect. My HRM had an auto-set zone and that is what I had used. Next ride will be with new zones and we'll see how it turns out.

Thanks,
Trip
TripletakeTTT is offline  
Old 10-21-12, 04:05 PM
  #11  
Senior Member
 
mkadam68's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Eastern Tennessee.
Posts: 3,694

Bikes: 2012 MotorHouse road bike. No. You can't get one.

Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2 Post(s)
Liked 9 Times in 6 Posts
Originally Posted by TripletakeTTT
mkadam68,

I did a lactate test on the bike and found out my zones were incorrect. My HRM had an auto-set zone and that is what I had used. Next ride will be with new zones and we'll see how it turns out.

Thanks,
Trip
mkadam68 is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Idak
Training & Nutrition
36
01-29-19 04:05 PM
MidLife50
Training & Nutrition
3
06-18-15 11:44 AM
MH817
Training & Nutrition
14
07-28-12 09:37 AM
Drumnagorrach
Training & Nutrition
9
03-10-12 11:38 AM
PeterSibley
Fifty Plus (50+)
15
10-18-10 03:11 PM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.