There's been a whole lot of scientific investigation into sports training been done in the fifty years since I was a teenager killing myself riding big miles over the Scottish Grampians plains and mountains.

The only advice I remember listening to at that time was from an article by TDF winner Fausto Coppi who said that the best training for cycling was "cycling, cycling, cycling".

Well, I took this to heart and the result was that I ceased enjoying my cycling and burnt myself out after 3 years racing as a junior.

Now that I've rediscovered the pleasure of sitting on a bike and having regained a moderate degree of fitness my aim is to enjoy my biking like I used to before I read that Coppi article.

From reading in the web it seemed like a good idea to get a heart rate monitor and put some of this new science into practice, so I got one last weekend and spent some time today setting it up and learning to use it.

I went for my first ride this afternoon. 10 minutes warmup then 20 minutes into a stiff wind on flat terrain.

The results are both surprising and pleasing, but I need to do lots more riding and studying to fully understand and interpret them.

Firstly I discovered that that "sweet" spot at the top of the effort range where cycling is still comfortable and seems effortless is just at the top of the "healthy heart zone",which is 110 beats p.min in my case,65% of "Maximum Heart Rate". A good place for fitness training but not enough effort for strength building.

Pushing up through the 70%+ range is where the going gets tough, and no doubt I'll spend some time there on my next ride when I tackle a few hills. This is the "Fitness Zone" where the pain begins. Not so good in the short term, but essential for strength development. So it's going to be not too much and not too often....I have no ambitions to get into the record books as the first septuagenarian to win the Tour De France.

The puzzling result from this afternoon's first trial is that riding as hard as I could I couldn't push the heart rate above 128 bpm which is a long way from my theoretical maximum of 174 bpm. Now, I wonder, does this indicate that I'm exceptionally weak, exceptionally unfit, or the opposite....that I'm pretty fit for my 72 years? Or does it mean something else?