Hi,

I've been a casual rider off and on, and am starting to try to get "serious", and I've started training with a HRM. I've read various articles on the 5 training zones, and am curious about a few things.

First a few facts; I'm 47, male, and my max HR (that I've seen) is 184.

I've started commuting a few days a week, and my trip home consists of a long, gradual 50 minute climb. I find I can ride the whole thing with some perceived effort around 165 - 170. Any lower, and it feels like I'm just loafing along.

My question; Is it OK to do the majority of my training in this zone? (z4) I know conventional training wisdom says to not spend too much time in the upper zones, but if I ride in z2 & z3, I might as well be walking. Z4 doesn't feel very stressful (granted my ride is only an hour, but my goals are CX and shorter races)

Either I'm very unfit, or have a heart the size of a hummingbirds...

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Regards,

"conventional training wisdom says to not spend too much time in the upper zones"

Hey Francis, not sure where that came from... but I'm no fan of "conventional training wisdom" if by that you mean lots of long steady miles and very few hard efforts. For those of us who have jobs and families, and are only likely ever to race less than 1 or 2 hours it's just not a realisitic plan.

Ok, end of rant. If it were me, I'd take a couple days a week on that climb and break it up into intervals. Start with 4 minutes, rest 2, 4 again, rest 2, so on. Get your pulse way the heck up there. Your average speed will go down but your training value will go way up.

Later in the week, break it up into 15-20 minutes at threshold (which is one of the easiest perceived efforts to find) then 5-10 easy and another 15-20, you should be near the top by then.

So in 2 rides you're training 2 key zones for racing. I can't handle a 3rd hard day every week, but when/if you can, throw in some 20-30 sec sprints with 4 min recovery.

Have fun
Creak

I keep hearing about threashold but were is it.

Rich

it sounds like you might be estimating your threshold from your maximum heartrate. That's not a very accurate way to do it. There's a number of ways of estimating it - a book like Friel's Training Bible is a decent place to start.

Using the climb you mention is a good way to get in quality training. What else you do depends on your objectives. Training above threshold is important if you want to race (nasty intervals) and it also improves aerobic endurance. Periodizing your training is also important so that you don't simply reach a level of fitness and then plateau. There are a variety of decent articles around (and the Friel book goes over the basics of a training plan). Also, it's not a bad idea to at least tell your doctor about your training changes to see if they think it's worth a stress test.

A performance test will give you your threshold HR. There are a few ways to do it: 2x20 with avg HR through the 2nd interval, 1x60min with overall average HR...all as hard as you can. No slacking on the first interval if you do 2x20s.