Home› General Training Discussions

Testing Question for the bike

trigirl1203trigirl1203
in General Training Discussions

Im still several weeks away from doing my second round of testing, but Im curious.  Since Im using  HR (no power yet) for the bike, what am I looking for in terms of improvement?  Im 26 years old, so should my avg HR be going up?  Just wonderin, thanks for the input!

Comments

  • mgraffeomgraffeo
    Lauren, if anything, many people see average HR go down as they get more fit, since the heart doesnt have to work as hard at the same output level.

    What you're looking for is to cover more distance in the same amount of time during the test, since that is your indicator of progress.

    Which OS group are you in? IIRC, the 8 week test is only for the power athletes, not for the HR athletes, since HR doesn't migrate much.

    Either way, trust that doing the work will leave you much faster come spring time!
  • David AmbroseDavid Ambrose
    I'm curious on the answer myself. I train with power, not HR, but would guess that one could claim a fitness gain if avg HR went lower for a given workout effort. Noy sure if that is accurate......let's have a WSM add in.
  • jburbattjburbatt
    Lauren, When I did HR on the bike last year I didn't notice much of a change in the numbers so to speak, especially since I was inside on a trainer. I did notice this: say my Z4 HR was 188-193, as I got more fit and stronger, I could push harder - my RPE went up - but my heart rate spiked less and less. And eventually I'd be on the lower end of my range brutally pushing it. By the end of the OS I had lowered my HR by a few points, and once I got outside I could really tell the difference in my performance (which was good, cause it was really hard to tell if I was truly improving while inside!).

    x2 what Mike said about testing, make sure it's a test for HR since it really doesn't change much at all, especially this quickly.
  • trigirl1203trigirl1203
    Thanks all..Mike, I started the OS plan the first week on Dec...so Im not in an official group. But I was curious with the numbers since I want to see improvement with all this hell (i mean work) on the trainer image
  • rah2774rah2774

    x2 what Jennifer and Mike said...  Last year I was an HR athlete and only tested 2x in the entire year - the beginning of OS and during IM training.  Typically on a bike test day there will be two workouts listed, one for the FTP test and one for HR athletes (pretty much the 2x20 but you don't "test").  

    My numbers didn't change from one test to the other, or if they did it was nominal - but my fitness improved and I had to work darn hard to hit my numbers as time went by.   And my resting HR puts me at almost dead.    so it definitely worked! 

  • trigirl1203trigirl1203
    Thank you! Good to know...because i can already see myself getting frustrated if there isnt some wonderful change. haha
  • GSmith821GSmith821

    @Lauren...

    Another thing to consider is that since the fitness is in the muscles on the bike, it is possible to raise your HR as you get more fit.  For example, I have a good friend who is new to serious bike training and is HR only.  For the longes time, he could not get his HR above 140 (max 186, running) because his legs could not handle the ability to push any harder to increase his heart rate.  After weeks of training, he is able to attain HR levels in the 160's when he is really going at it on an interval.  And you know....I wouldn't have believed it if I did not see it.

    Just some additional thoughts...

     

Sign In or Register to comment.