Ric, I have seen in the past comments you made on HR rate dropping when you get fit. Is there info on this? I think this just happened to me. I have been back riding for 4 months now after 3 years off. My resting HR has dropped from 78 in April to 46 now. Biggest change I notied last week is my work out hr has dropped. I took a weeks vacation and have really noticed this change. I tend to pedal at a higher RPM, 95 - 105 as this works better for me. Is this normal? My hr seems down ~ 10 -15 beats from 2 months ago.

TIA

I read somewhere that HRmax does not drop as you get fitter but because it takes much greater effort to reach HRmax when you are fit (compared to unfit) it LOOKS like it is dropping.

I'm assuming you mean me...?

Yes, HRmax does decrease as you get fitter because plasma volume increases. after a period of detraining, plasma volume decreases and HRmax increases.

During submaximal efforts at a given workload (i.e., a specific power output) HR will tend to decrease as fitness increases.

Resting HR decreases with increased fitness

when you are untrained it's comparitely easy to work at an intensity that elicits a high(er) rate, however, as you start to gain fitness it can become psychologically harder ride at an intensity that elicits that same HR as you now have to push considerably harder.

ric

Ain't that the truth!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks very much Ric! So much of the info is blocked from here that I cannot read some of the links. I do not have a watt meter, but I have noticed that my HR at a given level of work, ie percieved effort and speed, has decreased. I was able to ride harder yesterday at a lower level yet attain higher avg speed and shorter ride time than 2 months ago. Boy have I noted the harder to get to that level here lately. Very noticable after a full week of rest.

Thanks for the info!
John

After a full week of rest, the situation should be reversed as your plasma volume will have dropped to sedentary levels and your HR will have risen.

it's impossible to compare speeds over such time periods (or even over shorter ones) as change sin atmospheric conditions can significantly alter velocity, due to changes in air density/barometric pressure/temperature.

sorry that none of this really helps
ric

Amen, Smoothie!

don't forget to ascertain your new HRmax as your fitness increases -- as HRmax decreases - thus, an absolute HR will be harder as you'll be riding at a higher intensity

ric

Thanks Ric, gives me a starting point. I was off the bike for a week, but I did fly my stunt kites ans walk daily. Got about 4 hrs daily of low aerobic workouts.

You aren't suggesting that the entire training effect is lost after one week, are you?

No, not the entire training effect - but plasma volume will return to pre training values pretty rapidly, and detraining is fairly rapid in general (it's a pain!). However, plasma volume does return pretty rapidly with picking up training again, and in studies where they've infused a solution to bring it up to trained levels, VO2max returns to trained levels almost immediately.

of course there's a myriad of factors that are involved in training (and detraining) two review papers are
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q..._uids=11252068

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q..._uids=11474330

ric

Thanks for the links!

Thanks for the info.

I'm getting to that point now. It seems that I'm having much difficulty sustaining 85% MaxHR for an hour, whereas I used to be able to sustain 85% MaxHR for 2 to 3 hours! Keeping my HR at that level is much more exhausting now.