hi everyone,

I've been riding for 2 months now and i've improoved a lot. I ride on flats all the time as there are not really any hills around my place. I've noticed that when I do intervals it is quite hard for me to reach 180 ppm as if my heart would not want to go any faster. However, when I ride in a group ride, I can easily maintain my HR around 178 for a while when I'm in the draft and then once I'm up front I can make my HR go higher if I push harder.

As I'm 20, I figured that my maxHR would be 200, therefore my LT would be around 180 if I'm not misleading. Yesterday it was freeeaaaking hot outside and I pushed really hard, sprinting at the end of the ride. My HR would not want to go any higher that 200.

My question is, if I want to do intervals to gain speed but mainly have a better acceleration to drop the guys (eventually!!), should I be riding between 180 and 200 for a short period (ie. 20 to 30 secs) ? is it just me who's too lazy to higher my HR over 180?

thanks!