Heart rate - hard to get it up on "hard" ride
 

I'm trying to pay more attention to heart rate training. I'm not following a specific plan yet, but here is what I did end of last week:

Thurs - 20 miles at a fast pace
Fri - 16 miles at recovery (70% MHR)
Sat - 20 miles at recovery (70% MHR)
Sun - 40 miles at a fast pace

For recovery rides (Fri/Sat above) I find it hard to keep my HR down below 70%. I'm just getting into HR training, and I am more used to a "push myself" riding style.

On Sunday I found it harder to get it above 70%. I'm curious why that would happen. Were my legs too worn out on Sunday from my supposed "recovery" rides the previous days?

Cheers,
Jason

The goal for recovery rides is to be SLOW. Little girls on tricycles should be dropping you. On my last recovery ride my average HR for the ride was 98. My max is 192.

If you can't get your HR up, it's because you are tired, or sick.

Wow, that's really low for me. My max HR is about 188 or maybe a little more. I was shooting for 145 on my recovery rides, but as I mentioned it is difficult for me right now.

Anyway... just curious. Thanks!

keep the chain in the small ring in the front and the big cog in the back. that will force you to stay slow. Just keep your cadence at your normal pace.

The best way to do HR training is based on a field test - you'll find a sticky post that explains how to do this. Zones based on MHR aren't very useful.

"Fast pace" riding doesn't really do a whole lot for you - your body rapidly adapts to the amount of load you put on it, and you plateau. To progress beyond that, you will need to do specific workouts.

Friel and Carmichael both have good books about training that you might want to read.

+1 on slowing down your recovery days.....you should find it embarassingly slow on your rest days.

your recovery ride is too hard. make it painfully slow. like you might as well be walking.

i agree with finding the heart rate zones a different way. the mhr works great for running but isn't exactly tailored as well to cycling. 70% is too high any way. it should be 50-60% theoretically. 70% is the top end of the aerobic zone/ low end anaerobic generally.

as for not being able to get high/low - adjust your gearing. as somebody mentioned, small ring, big gear for recovery will force you to keep a consistent cadence and slow things down. otherwise you'll be spinning so fast you won't be able to control it. on the other end of the spectrum, throw the big ring into a small gear. if you're not hitting your target drop it to a smaller one till you're there.

when you are suffering from too much training, you will find it harder to get your HR into your max HR zones.. I find when I ride too much, my max HR will be at least 10 beats lower than normal..

Ditto for slowing down the recovery rides. They should be at a pace where you could very comfortably talk with a riding partner.