KillerBeagle

Being fascinated with numbers I have enjoyed looking at people's Garmin ride records. So, I got one myself, and recorded the longest ride I've done since returning to cycling in September after knee surgery last March.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/64615188

My cycling priorities are to have fun, get exercise, rehab my knee, and my targets are to do a half-century in early March, a metric century in April, and a century by October. I typically ride a stationary bike on Tuesdays and ride on the road on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

What can I learn about my fitness and technique from the data? If it helps, the only time I was "out of breath" and could feel the muscles starting to hurt was the area of where my pulse reached 175. Much of the middle section of the ride was into a 15mph headwind. Can I approximate my different heart rate zones just from this recorded data? I'm 54, male, 6'0'', 170lb. Do the heartrate or cadence graphs help identify any strengths or weaknesses in technique or fitness?

Regarding training, will continuing to ride like this be sufficient for reaching my targets? Do I need to do more formal routines of different types of training days?

Carbonfiberboy 

What can you learn? Not too much. You have a bunch of little peaks at 160, but you say weren't working hard at that HR, so they don't tell you anything. You should pedal faster. Try to move your normal cadence on the flat at least into the 85-90 zone. After a while, you might try moving your cadence on the flat into the 90-95 range. Try to find routes with longer continuous climbs, at least 500'. I hear there's some hilly riding near Austin. The more hills, the better. Ride up everything in sight. 50'/mile is a good number for ordinary riding, 100'/mile counts as very hilly.

Record your morning resting heart rate. Log your rides and HRs.

Just keep riding. Do one ride/week absolutely as hard as you can, one embarrassingly slow, and a couple moderate paced. You could use the stationary bike for the recovery ride. Gradually increase your weekly mileage to around 150 or even 200. You posted a fairly short, flattish ride. You should be able to kick your average speed moving on that route up into the 18 realm with time and effort.

KillerBeagle

Thanks for the suggestions! I had been limited in my riding by my knee - push too hard and it hurts, spin too fast and it hurts, but it was feeling better and I decided to try what I read in Joe Friel's blog about determining LTHR so I tried his test. Based on his instructions and your cadence recommendations, I came up with a LTHR of 170. The rates weren't as stable as I'd like, but I just don't have a long flat windless route where I can keep a very steady pace. HR varied from 160 to 183 during the 30-minute test period, with cadence ranging from 80 to 100 during the test.
So, now I've got Joe's book for 50+ cyclists on order to see what to do with that information...

P.S. the 183 reading was adrenalin-boosted thanks to the dog that started chasing me.

hobkirk

I'm not sure this will help - just my experience. I have a Garmin 705.

I found it took a while before I found the info very useful. I record the basics in my log -

• Average Moving Speed
• Average Elevation Gained per mile (I calculate it) - my rides are loops, so there's no net elevation change - but I also record it on "laps" and I find the net gain/loss usually doesn't have very much impact
• Heart Rate - average and Max
• Average Cadence
• Miles

Often I trip the Lap button at 3 or 4 mile intervals so I can compare my effort and speed at various points in the ride - I try to avoid sagging at the end of a ride. [Note: An increase in ascent has a huge impact on average speed! And, FWIW, the ride I linked to is one of the only rides I've done with less than 50' average ascent - your ride was about 33'.]

I'm 65 and 222#. I've been riding since June. Ridden a lot of miles (5,000). The max heart rate I've observed is 155. My average heart rate is typically around 120 with very few rides over 130.

Snow and cold has limited my riding lately. My feet go numb so I can only ride for a little over two hours. So I've started riding harder. This ride is a good example of the effect that has on my HR. My average HR has increased to over 140 on 3 maximum effort rides (17, 30, & 35 miles). Three times my max HR has been over 155, so I guess my new max rate is 159. [Note: I ignore high HR readings at the start of a ride - I figure they are fluke readings.]

On cadence, I echo CarbonFeberBoy. Higher is better. I've worked my average cadence up to high 80's. It does seem to help.

Good luck with your knees. I hurt if I have to spend a lot of hours on my feet, but I can ride for 7-8 hours with no pain.

droobieinop

I got my 500 a little over a year ago. I now have a year's worth of data that is tracking my fitness and training progress.
I have target zones and am developing a training program for this racing season.
In a year's time, you'll have much the same. Use Connect and Training Center to track your rides. I also use cyclistats and found mytourbook for more/different analysis. Unless you hire a coach, you have a bunch of nice data. Collected by a beautiful toy, that should allow you to ride without having to think too much. Just ride and plug in to download.

alanknm

I do pretty much the same. Since I ride a lot by Lake Ontario, I also take note of the wind and record wind speed and direction because that really affects my ride.
Same thing goes for cadence. I'm 57 and I've been back in the saddle for about 18 months after being out of it for 40 years. I try to keep my cadence on most rides in the low to mid 90's on flats and I generally average around 88-89 on a mix of rolling terrain and hills.

I also cross county ski which gives me a much heavier workout and find that my average HR on most of my runs is at about 80% of max of 185. I set the HR alarm at Zone 4 which means it triggers off at 167. That usually happens when I'm climbing hills. I didn't get the 305 Forerunner until this winter so I'll most likely be using different HR settings for cycling.


With your knee problems, did you get a proper bike fitting from a good LBS ? A good fitter can help you and prevent a recurrence of the problem. Riding for you right now is part of rehab so your training program should be adjusted accordingly. You should consult with a good rehab specialist because your're not training for the next TDF.

Good luck.