Hi,

I find that my heart rate takes a while to get up when im using the turbo, yet out on the road I dont have this issue, but 3 of my workouts a week are on the turbo so I want to check how I should judge intensity to make sure im doing it right.

So, tonight I did a 30min test to see how long it would take to get into zone 4 and hold it for a while. I started with a 15min warmup with some easy pedalling and a few short harder efforts, I was sweating and warmed up nicely by the end of the 15min, then 30min hard effort.

Here is the workout I did - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/G888/30T.jpg

As you can see it takes about 15min of hard effort to get my heart rate into zone 4 once ive done the warmup and my average speed was 18mph, my legs were burning holding that speed for 30min so it was hard for me.

Do you get fitter / fast by riding faster than you normally ride (I average 15mph over 50 miles for example) or by holding a high heart rate (zone 4) for a period of time, such as 30min, or both?

I know a high heart rate goes hand in hand with higher speeds, obviously you have to work hard to get your heart rate up, but as you can see im working hard for 30min but my heart rate is only in zone 4 for 15min. So do I get 30min worth of gains (speed) or 15min's worth (heart rate)?