Originally Posted by
Beaker
If you're doing a climb like Diablo or another of the local hills, do you try to keep your HR at or just below your predetermined LT, or do you look for a certain amount of anaerobic feedback to let you know when you're at your limit? i.e. if your LTHR goes up, you can presumably push harder without going anaerobic and climb faster.
I mostly go by power instead of HR, but the question is the same.
It depends on my goals for the ride- if it's a group ride I am usually trying to ignore the numbers. I have to do what I have to do in order to keep up or get ahead. Same in most races. When its going real hard I tend to look at the computer and think "I can't do that" and back off.
Other times in solo training I am either doing a lot of climbing, like three Diablos, in which case I can't get too close to LT for too much time. If I spend too much time there on the first two I'll be significantly slower on the last one. Or I am doing intervals where I am riding at a predetermined power output for the intervals. I re-estimate my threshold power periodically to try to keep it accurate.
At first as I got fitter over the years I was going faster because I could push a higher HR for longer. But the last three or so years I have been getting faster at the same or lower HR. That's one of the reasons why I think that HR isn't a very good perfomance measurement tool. It's not telling you how fast you are going, it's telling you how hard you are working to do it.