supton

Is there a good primer for HRM usage? My wife gave for a Polar F6 for my birthday, and I like using it so far. I wanted it so I could train a bit this winter and hopefully bike better come summer--I felt like I was dying on every hill this summer (novice biker), even when I was going slow, but had no gauge as to how hard I was working. And really couldn't get past the 3 hour barrier.

So far, I've taken it on one good off-road ride. Although 220-31 is 189, I did hit 195 towards the end on one hill. [I understand that max HR isn't set in granite.] For the most part, on any amount of climbing, it was 170-180, easy; a few times, 190. On descents I could get down to 130-something (which wasn't often). After an hour ten of that, I was beat! [Max of 195, average of 163.] I also did a short bit on the trainer, and 130-140 didn't feel that hard, a bit easier than what I was riding at over the summer (at least on the flats--in hindsight, I was probably pushing 180 on every hill).

twobikes

There was a similar thread just last week. You will find a lot of good articles at: https://www.howtobefit.com/heart-rate...ng-article.htm Some of the articles present information that is at variance with that in other articles there. It seems one of the values of an HRM is to train without overtraining.

Pendergast

Total Heart Rate Training by Joe Friel is good if you're looking for a book.