Max HR spike at start of race
 

I started racing last year. Several times I've experienced a spike in HR normally during an intense climb etc near the start of a race, and it has left me absolutely gasping for air, to the point where I feel like I can't get enough air, and almost need to stop and get off the bike. I have to basically just stop pedaling, ease up completely, and in 30 seconds or so I feel fine. 30 seconds means I'm off the back and often can't make it back. It's always right near the beginning of the race that this happens.
Anyone experienced this or have any ideas?
Thanks.

Need a better warm up?? - TF

This will happen to anyone after a VO2 max type effort. You can train to improve VO2 max by doing intervals of 3-6 minutes at an intensity hard enough to bring about the response you described.

If you are able to improve your power-to-weight ratio, you will be able to do these climbs at a lower percentage of your maximum, and avoid going into the red zone.

Longer intervals (20' or more) done at threshold will also help to improve your power-to-weight ratio for a wide range of intensities and durations.

that feeling sucks... i know it well. tons of hill repeats helped solve that problem for me. it's not fun, but it works.

Since it's almost always near the start, that's warmup all right. You need to set up a trainer by your car. Ride for about 1/2 hour at a comfortable pace, but at about the 20 minute mark do a 1.5 minute VO2max interval and then another at 25 minutes. That should open you up. Try to finish your warmup as close to start time as possible, but leaving time to get into position before the start! I'm not an expert at this, but that's what works for me. If the trainer thing is impractical for some reason, you can do the same thing on the road, but then it gets trickier to be at the start on time.

Thanks for all the tips. I went out tonight and did 3 x 5min climbs, managed to hit what I guess is my VO2max on the 3rd one. Whats interesting is I only added a 2-3 bpm more than the first 2 climbs. I managed to push that extra bit, by doing an all out sprint at the top of the climb. So in training is the goal to actually reach this "breathless state", or keep it just below that level?

I don't race, but when I do field tests I find that I need about 20 minutes of general riding (say 70% of LT) and then a couple 1 minute all-out intervals to get myself ready for a max effort. If not, I'm really sluggish at the start.

That depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I don't normally do very hard intervals like that until 4-6 weeks before an "A" event - in my case, my hardest mountain ride for the year. Hard intervals will usually force a "peak" in your training.

So my advice is not to do much of that unless you are trying to peak. You can do a lot of intervals at about lactate threshold; where you are breathing hard and deeply and can keep that state for no more than about 1/2 hour. That's a very useful state to try to identify. You can do an hour or so of that per week without overcooking yourself. Then a month or so before your big race, quit that and substitute intervals like you are describing. You can hit that "breathless state" in a race without hurting yourself as long as you only do that once a week. In fact you'll have to, if you want to place well. But then be careful what you do the following week so that you can recover.

This is what fuzzthebee is talking about. I'd just caution you to ration out the really hard intervals to avoid overreaching and getting tired.

My HR is always very high at the beginning of a ride, especially an organized ride ... I've chalked it up to nerves. Later in the ride, it settles right down and everything is good.