This is my first year cycling, I'm 8 weeks into my 12 week century training program and finally ordered a heart rate monitor, will hopefully have it for my long ride this weekend.

I understand the training zones etc, but am curious as to how some of you fare on a day when you might ride 65% heart rate and what your pace is, or maybe what your pace is on a 75 or 85% day, easpcially on long rides. Of course terrain, wind, each person will be different, I'm just curious as to what types of speeds you can maintain at different heart rates.

BTW, I'm not hung up on speed at all, just interested.

Impossible to generalise. However, you might reflect on the fact that because of air resistance, the power you need to put out varies with the cube of your speed. So, to maintain 25mph needs nearly twice as much power as would be needed for 20mph. From this you can infer that HR will climb quite steeply for relatively small increases in speed.

You're probably talking percent of some questionable max HR, with speeds in mph figured for saddle time only, not elapsed time. So being 68 y.o. and well-trained but untalented, on the flat at 65% = ~16, on the flat at 80% = ~19.3. Something like that. A hard, fairly hilly 60 mile group ride averaging 82% might give an average speed of 17-18. Killing myself on a big ride with 10,000' of climbing might yield 16 mph if everything went perfectly and I caught some good pacelines. Did a 200 mile STP averaging just shy of 20 mph, lots of pacelines of course. Being able to maintain speeds about like that should at least have you riding with folks who know what they are doing.

You may find at first that your HR goes way up just being on the bike. As you build base over the years, you'll be able to cruise at a lower HR.

I just did a 20 mile ride last night that had a few long 1-2 degree slopes that lasted about a half mile, keeping my heart rate between 65-70%, and averaged low 16mph. I've done the same ride without monitoring my HR and have done it averaging 17.5-18.5mph. It was a much more enjoyable ride keeping my heart rate down though.

I run several pages on my Garmin three fields on each. More than that and they are difficult for me to read. The top display on every page is HR. I try to keep it at 135-145 on the flatter sections, and average 16-17 mph. On hills I run it up to 150-160.

I am old and have a history that dictates that I pay closer attention to HR than anything else. I often have speed displayed, but find I actually go a little faster when I am not watching speed, focusing rather on breathing, HR and the mental part..

Check out my HR on these two rides (same route):



The top one is at what I call my Optimal Cruise speed. The lower one is with my wife, and it was very slow. 122 vs. 101 average HR (I'm 59 and my max HR is 160). 13.5 MPH vs 10.9 MPH. How did I fare? The slow ride was much harder. I felt much better after the medium pace ride.

Which is why people buy tandems. Like we did.

Interesting, I never thought of that. You can go at the same speed, but have different effort levels.

Well, and you're touching the whole time, if only through the timing chain. We used to do the tow-her-around thing, too. My wife had gotten much stronger while working at a lower HR than she did on her single. I don't know why, but I theorize it's because I can cut the peaks off with my strength, and thus she can ride so much longer. She watches my HR on her Edge 800, and her HR on her Polar, and more or less coordinates them, how would vary with each team. Effort level is the same for each of us, though watts are not. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." I do whatever I want, she responds. She can even do intervals with me now. We've put thousands of miles on our used Co-Motion Speedster. One gets to a point in life when one finally asks, "What's really important to me?" We just got back from a 320 mile tandem tour. Very cool.

That is not really a metric I focus on. With training you will start to be able to achieve higher and higher speeds at the same heart rate. You want to focus on being in the right heart rate / power zone. The speed that results from that depends on too many other factors. I have done 1 hour races with an average speed of 24 mph, however on my training rides (alone and in a group) I have never done more than 18 mph averages.

Strange -- but I have often experienced the same thing. Immediately during and after a slower paced ride I feel more muscle fatigue - but in an hour I feel fine again. But, on the flip side, after a longer, harder, more intense ride, I feel more overall body fatigue and lethargy. Often I will have to take a nap after haven eaten and then feel a lack of energy the next day.

Someone told me that slower rides can feel more tiring because there is more pressure on your saddle, and more discomfort which can contribute to or be perceived as fatigue.

An experiment you can do is to ride at a slow pace, then put your brakes on a bit and continue at the same pace. You'll immediately notice less pressure on the saddle.

Yes, I have noticed that, towards the end of a slower ride that the saddle seems to get a LOT harder.
... I will have to try that little trick. Thanks!