Originally Posted by
Chitown_Mike
That is that idea I got as well when someone brought up having your power measured versus your heart rate. I would imagine that as you keep one steady one would have to fluctuate over time, unless we are dealing with a superb athlete or someone who has trained at a high level.
I did use this weekend to figure out a LT based on heart rate and found I am right around 157-159. At the heart rate I could sustain a consistent tempo/cadence and not slow down for about 20 minutes. I did this in an area with some very slight hills which was about 4.5 miles long. Once I got into the 160's HR-wise I was huffing and puffing and could only keep that up for a short time. I have found that my best HR range is 135-150 for any sustained effort over a period of time. I did a 36 mile ride and felt great. Also did it in less time than it took me to do it before.
I also felt great afterwards too.
Good. Then take 158 as your LTHR and work out your zones as indicated earlier in the thread. Then there are all sorts of workouts/training programmes on-line that you can experiment with. In general, for my longer rides I am mostly fluctuating between high zone1 and low zone 3, climbing into z4 and sometimes z5 in the hills. Shorter rides I might set a tempo that keeps me in z3 for an hour or so. Then there are interval sessions, but that's another story.
If you want to explore the sorts of intervals people do when they are training for racing, take a look in the 33 in the racers forum. There's a sticky thread there with a heap of workout recipes. But I'd get some serious time at lower intensities before trying the more extreme examples, they hurt.