BIKEREX
find your resting heart rate. Put your chest strap on on the morning before coffee and sit down, relax, breath easy and see how low you can make your heart rate. The difference between that resting rate and the rate when you are pushing to the top of your climb as hard as you can for minutes and about to die, is meaningful and called heart rate reserve. Keep track of that resting HR and the time it takes to climb that hill while you keep your HR up there in the 170s. Over the next several months, your resting rate and your times should both come down as you become more fit.

I'll be 62 next month and lately, I've been monitoring my HR during rides and trying to find my training zones. 7 years ago, I could do a cyclocross race and with an average HR of 167 for 30-35 minutes and I used that as my LT. Now, I am very very uncomfortable doing 3, 10 minute climbing repeats at 160bpm. We'll see what happens over the next few months. The last few years, while doing plenty of miles and climbing, I haven't done much high intensity training. (I do have a Porcine Aortic Valve that was years old in January and maybe that also has something to do with it.)

jeff