Originally Posted by europa

On a hill that is. Yes, I know that lunatics and the younguns climb until they're dead, or just ignore the fact that they're dead and keep climbing. But, being aged and sensible (okay, nuts and a youngun in this group), I know that to stop and pant is the better part of pain and agony.

However (there's always a 'however' isn't there) ...

I've got a heart rate monitor. Useful little thing though I wish it'd stop telling me my heart's working too hard.
I'm 50, 106kg (about 230 lb I think) - what you'd call 'cuddly'.
I am aquiring fitness ... I think ... rather being fit.
The old max heart rate formula (yes, I know it's flawed) says 220-age, which makes mine 170. Well, I regularly push my heart to 175 (and I'm still here to type about it) so I use 175 as my max.

When climbing a hill, I'm happy to watch my heart rate work in the 160's. When it stabilises in the 170's, I stop and let it calm down ... a lot - at that point, if I was young and silly, I could push on.

The question is, personal attitudes to pain and suffering aside (both of which I'm averse to), could I keep pushing on with my heart rate in the 170's? Am I being sensible by stopping once it gets into the 170's? The whole idea of cycling is to get me fit and to keep me fit, not to kill me.

Richard