Two Heart Rate Questions

[JohnNYC]

Hey all my fellow forumites,

I have two questions that I'm confident can be answered by all the knowledgable people here at IC.

Question #1 - Aerobic Base Building - Can one spiked HR ruin the whole thing?

I recently took the Periodization course and was convinced that I should do a period of Aerobic Base Building. I'm a little over a month into it and It has been going great so far. I'm definitely feeling the effects. It is my understanding that to do it right you must maintain a HR within the aerobic zone in all of your rides during the base building period. If you allow your HR to get into the anaerobic zone, you ruin the effects of that workout. My question is, if you do mess up in one ride by allowing your HR to go anaerobic, have you basically ended the base building period and you should consider starting over? (This happened to me the other day because my HR spiked when I saw someone I didn't want to see coming toward me. Stress = higher HR!)

Question #2 - Intervals & Recovery Rate - Are all beats created equally?

In an interval class we often reach the peak of the interval then recover, watching how long it takes to drop your HR 20 beats or so. The faster you recover, the more fit you apparently are. My question is, are all 20 beats the same? As I mentioned above, I'm sticking to aerobic base building right now, so in a recent interval class I only allowed my HR to get to around 149 (79% of my MHR) max. My recovery down 20 beats to 129 was fairly quick. I was pretty proud of myself. But, then I started thinking, is the truer test to go from a much higher (read: anaerobic) HR and see how quickly I recover 20 beats from that? Or are all 20 beats created equally?

I realize I'm nitpicking -- it's my perfectionist nature. I know this isn't an exact science, but these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. :D

Thanks!

John

[megale3]

Hey all my fellow forumites,

I have two questions that I'm confident can be answered by all the knowledgable people here at IC.

Question #1 - Aerobic Base Building - Can one spiked HR ruin the whole thing?

I recently took the Periodization course and was convinced that I should do a period of Aerobic Base Building. I'm a little over a month into it and It has been going great so far. I'm definitely feeling the effects. It is my understanding that to do it right you must maintain a HR within the aerobic zone in all of your rides during the base building period. If you allow your HR to get into the anaerobic zone, you ruin the effects of that workout. My question is, if you do mess up in one ride by allowing your HR to go anaerobic, have you basically ended the base building period and you should consider starting over? (This happened to me the other day because my HR spiked when I saw someone I didn't want to see coming toward me. Stress = higher HR!)

Question #2 - Intervals & Recovery Rate - Are all beats created equally?

In an interval class we often reach the peak of the interval then recover, watching how long it takes to drop your HR 20 beats or so. The faster you recover, the more fit you apparently are. My question is, are all 20 beats the same? As I mentioned above, I'm sticking to aerobic base building right now, so in a recent interval class I only allowed my HR to get to around 149 (79% of my MHR) max. My recovery down 20 beats to 129 was fairly quick. I was pretty proud of myself. But, then I started thinking, is the truer test to go from a much higher (read: anaerobic) HR and see how quickly I recover 20 beats from that? Or are all 20 beats created equally?

I realize I'm nitpicking -- it's my perfectionist nature. I know this isn't an exact science, but these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. :D

Thanks!

John

#1 Don't go to any scary movies during your base building :D Seriously though sometimes your HR is not a good reference to intensity. Its that point of venous return for effort given such as the scary movie or someone that elevates your HR. I don't think that one work out will ruin it but several back to back would.
#2 Hard to say but a dropping HR that is done on the first set would be different than one done on lets say the 6th .So many variables and as the work gets longer in duration the less your "primed pump" wants to slow down after so many seconds. I would say that if you want to see how fit you have become it will take many sessions and duplication to get a set of numbers that you can average.
Meg

[Todd S]

Hey all my fellow forumites,

I have two questions that I'm confident can be answered by all the knowledgable people here at IC.

Question #1 - Aerobic Base Building - Can one spiked HR ruin the whole thing?



Nope. That is total folklore.



Question #2 - Intervals & Recovery Rate - Are all beats created equally?



Recovery from an anaerobic effort is an aerobic process. HR will roughly correspond to oxygen demands. Therefore, the higher the intensity of effort you're recovering from, the slower HR will drop.

Hope that helps.

[kszspin]

I realize I'm nitpicking -- it's my perfectionist nature. I know this isn't an exact science, but these are the kinds of things that keep me up at night. :D



Hey John....are you any relation to Pink? :p

[Pink]

Hey John....are you any relation to Pink? :p


lol, I thought John's 2nd question was brilliant and I was quite put off that I hadn't lamented over it already.

[kszspin]

Do I know you, or do I know you? :rolleyes:

[Pink]

Do I know you, or do I know you? :rolleyes:

I think you know me.

[cfoam4me]

Lmaorotf!

[JohnNYC]

Todd and meg -- Thanks for your answers. They were exactly what I was looking for...and what I suspected. As always, I appreciate being able to tap into the knowledge that you guys have. Thanks!

Kelly -- No, no direct relation of Pink, though I'd be lucky if I were. :)

Pink -- Thanks for calling my second question brilliant. I like how you/we think. :wink: I'm also glad I saved you the lamentation over this one. :D

[musicgal28]

Question #1 - Aerobic Base Building - Can one spiked HR ruin the whole thing?

John


My understanding, is that if you spike your HR during the workout, and take it anaerobically you're body has kind of shifted gears and is most likely going to stay in that gear, until it has fully recovered.

So let's say, if you're cycling at 70% MHR, and all of a sudden a great song comes on, you're in the zone, and oops you're Heart Rate is not in the zone and you take it up to 90%, then the rest of your workout is considered anaerobic.Its kind of like putting premium gas in your car that normally takes regular. You finish off the tank that has premium, with (hopefully) no harm done to the car. And maybe it even helped.

If you go anaerobic at the end of the session, you have kind of had a gradual shift in gears, and in my understanding that is ok.

You don't have to start from day 1 of training the next day. You just have to be more aware of your Heart Rate, and what can keep it elevated.

Someone tell me if I'm wrong! But that's my interpretation of it all. Good luck. And John I'll be joining you with this aerobic base building soon (as soon as I get more diligent in wearing my HR monitor!).

[kelwend]

- during the aerobic base building most of the training is in the aerobic zone:
1/ to recover from last season, prepare gradually your body to high volume of training,
2/ to better use lipide energy system ( I know for that one a fews studies are not agrea with this idea but this is my personal experience when I was training for iron man),
3/ if one day your heart rate pick-up anaerobic it happen, but if it happen in most of your aerobic base training your pyramide of training would not have a good base,
4/ during aerobic base training it is important to listen your body, be aweare of your stroke, respiration, hydratation, ... those 3 could help you control your HR and if you really well manage them decrease it,
5/ another way to decrease HR is slow RPM but don't overuse it if you expect to race or make time the longuer your race is the faster your RPM have to be, as I ride during winter with fix gear I am working on this high RPM but sometime it is good to put some stress on your muscle.
6/ during long steady training it is interesting sometime to do some max 3 really fast sprint to keep the patern

You can work in aeroby like this too: 5 second really fast 35 second recovery for ever because it is using a kind of energy the body replace really fast, you HR have no time to increase but your leg are really working. PS this is a transition training not every day.

-interval training: I did not yet take this workshop but from what I know
1/ this best formula to determine your MHR is
FC max = 220 - FC rest (take in the morning lying position)
FC exercise = FC rest + % ( FC max - FC rest )

For with the usual formula my max is 185 but in reallity after medical test we have seen that it was 170 so find what kind of heart you have first.

With this one the % of error is lower but the best one is a medical test on a treatmill if you are a runner or bike if you are a rider
2/ there are different kind of interval training, to work different think. The higher you go the more time you need to recover as well with the time of workout. A real sprint 15 seconds need 2 minute to 4 minute to recover (watch Lance training he was taking 4 minutes)
3/ with 20 HR beat you are perheaps still to high or too low
4/ don't focus 100% with your HR for some kind of training using a HR monitor is impossible but that would be too long to explain.

[veespin]

And John I'll be joining you with this aerobic base building soon (as soon as I get more diligent in wearing my HR monitor!).

I'm confused.

In your post requesting advice to slow down, you mentioned specific heart rate ranges that you were working at. How do you measure these intensities if you're not diligent about wearing a heart rate monitor?

Vivienne

[JohnNYC]

My understanding, is that if you spike your HR during the workout, and take it anaerobically you're body has kind of shifted gears and is most likely going to stay in that gear, until it has fully recovered. ...<snip>
Thanks, musicgal28. That makes sense to me.

Enjoy your aerobic base building when you do it! I thought it was going to be really difficult, but I've ended up finding it enjoyable. I do look forward to going anaerobic again soon, but meanwhile I'm enjoying the good feeling that aerobic gives.

kelwend - Thanks for that information. Very useful.

[musicgal28]

I'm confused.

In your post requesting advice to slow down, you mentioned specific heart rate ranges that you were working at. How do you measure these intensities if you're not diligent about wearing a heart rate monitor?

Vivienne


I'll put my hands on the sensors to get a HR read out (although its not 100% accurate, it gives me a sort of feel). I know what 85% feels like, so I know to slow down at that point. When I can remember my HR monitor, I strap that on and use that. I was wearing my HR monitor before I made that post on Slowing me down! But I'm not as disciplined as I should be as to wearing it all the time....