I did a 55 miler training ride today, primarily base miles. At the end of the ride I put in a few bursts of 30 seconds or so until I could feel my legs burn, however I couldn't get my heart rate up past 135. What does this mean ? My power was going up during those short bursts but the hr wouldn't move much. Is this a sign that I need to work on building my aerobic engine with more base miles? Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

TIA
bsilly

I did a 55 miler training ride today, primarily base miles. At the end of the ride I put in a few bursts of 30 seconds or so until I could feel my legs burn, however I couldn't get my heart rate up past 135. What does this mean ? My power was going up during those short bursts but the hr wouldn't move much. Is this a sign that I need to work on building my aerobic engine with more base miles? Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

TIA
bsilly

Could be that your over working your body and it is tired. This is a classic sign of over-training. I suggest taking a baseline of your morning HR and get a number that is current when you are well rested. Usually, when I wake up and my HR is 5+ beats higher after a hard day I know to trim back the intensity for the next day.

If it is normally around 135 (which sounds rather low) this is normal. It is tough to get the HR above threshold when you are tired. It is best to do the anerobic work just after a short warmup while you are freash and then do the distance work. In advanced or the later stages of training you may want to do the intensity work at the end to simulate race effort, but most save that for the races.

If 135 is well below your threshold, it sounds like you bonked or were close to bonking. Once the glycogen and other readily available energy stores are used up, the body has no choice but to shut down, regardless of your will power. The body can only convert fat to energy at a relatively low rate.

I did a 55 miler training ride today, primarily base miles. At the end of the ride I put in a few bursts of 30 seconds or so until I could feel my legs burn, however I couldn't get my heart rate up past 135. What does this mean ? My power was going up during those short bursts but the hr wouldn't move much. Is this a sign that I need to work on building my aerobic engine with more base miles? Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

TIA
bsilly

I did a 55 miler training ride today, primarily base miles. At the end of the ride I put in a few bursts of 30 seconds or so until I could feel my legs burn, however I couldn't get my heart rate up past 135. What does this mean ? My power was going up during those short bursts but the hr wouldn't move much. Is this a sign that I need to work on building my aerobic engine with more base miles? Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

TIA
bsilly
1- If I turn a big (or even a medium) gear, I can easily get a good burn without much HR elevation.
2- 135 may be high for you.
3- It takes longer than 30 seconds for some monitors to react.
4- If you are tired, you just cannot work hard enough to kick in your cardio-pulminary system.
Any coaching from this info would be a pure guess.

TF

Could be that your over working your body and it is tired. This is a classic sign of over-training. I suggest taking a baseline of your morning HR and get a number that is current when you are well rested. Usually, when I wake up and my HR is 5+ beats higher after a hard day I know to trim back the intensity for the next day.


Thanks for all the replys. I didn't eat at all during the ride, maybe I was on the verge of bonking. Also my normal lt hr is around 155.

your can't use HR for intervals that are 30s...takes too long for HR to climb. If you don't have a Powermeter then go by percieved exertion.

If your HR doesn't go up with your power then you need to recove. THis is the benefit of having poower. You can compare the two and this is the most basic of principles around having a power meter. It can also go against your perceived effort by in an attempt to prevent you from over training