Analyze My Ride
 

Attached is a snapshot of my ride today. Looking at the data, what stands out to you. Are these numbers decent?

Today's ride was a solo ride. Light headwind. I am working in some new Fizik R5B shoes and I am adjusting my ride to maximize my pedal stroke some.

Does my heart rate say anything? I am interested to see how you all look at this.

Thanks!
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=510027

How about some info, how old are you, what weight, how long have you been riding, is one hour a long ride for you?

I am 51, weight 173 lbs., and have been riding for 15 months. An hour ride is not long ride for me. I felt great but had to end the ride early due to other commitments.

Heart rate says that you were not pushing during the ride, elevation is almost flat, so speed should be more but you would have to push yourself to get more.
It's a vicious cycle, push yourself so that you're exhausted from the ride if you want to get faster. Nothing wrong with a relaxing non-workout ride either but then again, I wouldn't ask for input about those rides.
Cadence was real good

Average heart rate 89% of max for 50 minutes and you don't consider that pushing it? I do.

I do want to get faster. This was very helpful.

I am.scheduled to take a V02 test tomorrow so will be able to work heart zones using my HRM.

Thanks.

What is your cycling goal?

His max heart rate was pretty low compared to my rides and I'm a 57 year old clyde. For that elevation, lack of climbing and low speeds yield and his rate shows that he has more in the tank.

But surely you know you can't extrapolate heart rate from one person to another.

Looks like a short zone 2 ride for me.

Mine as well. My workout yesterday produced an average heart rate of 161 bpm and a max of 182 for just over one hour.

17mph is a good pace, keep it up.

I'll ask the obvious question - why are you looking to others to analyze your ride? If you think it was OK, that should be all that matters. If not, change it up next time you're out on the same route.

I don't know if I am correct... but I see a hard, fast, flat ride. An 84rpm cadence at 17.5mph.... would suggest you're a masher (not a spinner). I assume you like to go fast.

:)

You'd need to know your real max heart rate (ie how fast your heart can go before you blow up) to make any sort of assessment on your heart rate for this ride. For example if your max HR was 180 then this would be an easy cruise and I'd think you would be able to go faster if you pushed but if your max hr is 165 then it would be a rather hard ride.

Cadence values can sometimes be useless as they might include freewheeling which makes the avg cadence number lower than what it may really be.

A max on this ride of 149 would not represent your max HR i'd imagine. A Google search should show up some simple methods of testing your max hr. I've found hammering up some decent hills can max me oiut at 185.

Mine is about the same over a 40 mile ride, climbing over 3,000 ft and ave speed at 16.4 mph, or a little under 2 1/2 hours of riding time with no rest stops but if I get winded, I will soft pedal for a while.

I'd agree that this was a decent ride but you were not pushing with that low a heart rate. I just did a 1 hour ride with 20.5 mph average - I'm 51 and 200# average heart rate was mid 140's not a hard ride for me but I average 200 mile per week at this time of year. Pushing it for me would see average heart rate climb to 160+ my max around 180-185. You are doing fine, try exact same ride again but push yourself harder and see how numbers go then.

I'm 51 and wear a size 9 1/2 shoe. I assume you do as well?

Nope, you should have that looked into, your feet way to small for your age. If the OP was so fit that his Max heart rate at 51 yrs old is 149 then he would not be asking us to look at his numbers. the max hr for average 51 yr old is north of 170, I did say average and yes not everyone is not average - just use your foot size for example. However, suggesting he push himself next ride on same course to see how numbers change is not out of line if he is wishing to improve. And if his max rate is 149 then I need to ask him for help.

I will give it another go and push harder.

Normally, I have a low resting heart rate, around 49-52 bpm. Unfortunately, I was unable to make my VO2 test appointment today due to work related issues. I will have to reschedule shortly.

My cycling goals are to improve my speed and stretch my rides so that 40-50 mile rides are the norm and to do at least one group ride a week with the local cycling club in the area. I never considered myself a masher as I pay close attention to my cadence to ensure a low to mid 80's average. Did I say, I do want to ride fast...

More about me, I am 5'6", weight 173 lbs. wear 8.5 shoes and consider myself in pretty good shape (lift 3x a week, ride 2-3x a week, and have a standing workout with my personal trainer 1x a week). I am planning on dropping to mid 160's over the coming weeks to get ready for some planned rides (Key Largo-Key West, Backroads Century, Bike Virginia 2016, Seagull Century) plus some other smaller rides (Bike DC, Lorenzo Alexander's ride (Redskins) and Cap-to-Cap).

Keep one thing in mind, it's supposed to be fun, enjoy it. It is fun to challenge yourself from time to time. I enjoy trying to better my time on the same training loop. I ride seven days a week once weather is good, do I try to better my time every ride, hell no that would not be fun. I giver two maybe three days out of seven, rest of days are base miles, glad to be alive and riding. Weekends are 50-80 mile group rides each day. Have fun, you only live once.

I don't see 36 feet per mile as "flat" although some of you mountain goats may stick your noses in the air about it. Not that it qualifies as "hilly" either. I see those stats and think of a medium-intensity, SHORT ride.

The screenshot is from Garmin Connect Mobile, which means this was recorded on a Garmin device. At least some of them have a setting for whether you want to exclude zeros from the average cadence calculation. The Edge 800 does. (Older ones also let you exclude zeros from average power, newer ones don't allow that as it doesn't make sense.)

Can't really say too much without more info about you and seeing the graphs. In GC (web not mobile) you can "zoom in" on a graph and then overlay others on it. You should have a look at HR with elevation and speed. It's interesting to look at related things like that and see how they come together.

After reading your other posts in this thread I'm going to toss out some random thoughts and hope some of them are useful. For one thing, lifting weights is great for health and fitness, but doesn't help you on the bike specifically. (But you should keep it up, cycling is too low impact and weights are a fantastic way to deal with that.) The most important thing for cycling, especially for what it sounds like your goals are, is aerobic endurance. If you want 50 miles to be a regular thing, at 17 mph that's 3 hours, so your heart and lungs need to be able to keep your legs going that long.

You probably already know that the actual getting stronger happens while you rest. So go out, do spirited group rides, have fun, but make sure you get rest days when you need them. And what makes you good at riding for 3 hours is riding for 3 hours, so do that. Even just at a moderate pace (so you won't need as much rest). Do a ride with a lot of hills once a week and a fast group ride once a week, but spend the rest of your bike time cruising along at a lower intensity.