Originally Posted by John M
Ric, I have seen in the past comments you made on HR rate dropping when you get fit. Is there info on this? I think this just happened to me. I have been back riding for 4 months now after 3 years off. My resting HR has dropped from 78 in April to 46 now. Biggest change I notied last week is my work out hr has dropped. I took a weeks vacation and have really noticed this change. I tend to pedal at a higher RPM, 95 - 105 as this works better for me. Is this normal? My hr seems down ~ 10 -15 beats from 2 months ago.
TIA
I'm assuming you mean me...?
Yes, HRmax does decrease as you get fitter because plasma volume increases. after a period of detraining, plasma volume decreases and HRmax increases.
During submaximal efforts at a given workload (i.e., a specific power output) HR will tend to decrease as fitness increases.
Resting HR decreases with increased fitness
when you are untrained it's comparitely easy to work at an intensity that elicits a high(er) rate, however, as you start to gain fitness it can become psychologically harder ride at an intensity that elicits that same HR as you now have to push considerably harder.
ric