Originally Posted by
Rick@OCRR
I wear my heart rate monitor whenever I ride; commuting, club rides, mountain rides, whatever (well, okay, not on rides to Trader Joe's and back!).
Not that I'm always checking my heart rate but after my (fake) heart attack my cardiologist advised me to limit my heart rate to 165 bpm based (mostly) on my age (65) so the heart rate display on my Garmin is good for keeping an eye on that.
Contrary to posters above, I don't think it detracts at all from my enjoyment of the rides. I still look at the scenery (traffic conditions, etc.), converse with other riders and enjoy all the aspects of the cycling experience in general far more than I ever look at my heart rate display.
My practices and attitude are pretty much what Rick's are, however, no way could I ever be considered in the same league as he is. He's 'hard core'; people who don't ride just think I ride a lot. During a ride, I use a HRM for two specific purposes; 1) to see how 'hard' I'm riding, and 2) to see how much I'm slacking off. For me, when I see it at 155 bpm, I know that I'm pushing pretty hard and also know that I don't want to keep that up for too many miles, especially if I'm 30-40 miles away from home. And, when I see 110, I know I'm on a leisurely pleasure ride and am just 'coasting along' with minimal effort. When I see plus or minus 135, I know my heart is getting a modest workout and I strive to keep near that number. Not a screaming workout, but beneficial to the cardiovascular system at the same time. (Hypertension runs in the family tree, so I ride to help control that.) Right near the border between the 'fat burning' zone and the 'cardiovascular' zone.
When I ride with Jayna, the pulse doesn't get very high. She complains that she feels she's holding me back, but I tell her that I'll ride hard on other days and today, we are riding together.