On 2016-12-13 08:56, wrote:
On Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 8:50:15 AM UTC-8,
wrote:
On Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 12:50:21 AM UTC-8, John B. wrote:
On Sat, 10 Dec 2016 11:22:19 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2016-12-05 09:21, wrote:
I am seldom riding with the local old folks group because
they have a habit of racing all the time. Then 3/4ths of the
way into a ride they get really tired and are dragging up the
final hills.

I don't like climbing as fast as possible nor trying to keep
up on the flats to people 5 years older than me that are
maintaining heart rates at 90%. And this is directly out of
the box with not one minute of warm-up.

Now I like to exercise at elevated rates so riding with the
"easy" groups is out. But I don't riding with people whose
objective is to beat someone else to the top of the hill as
if this proves them superior. And this soon degenerates into
not waiting for the slower members.

Unfortunately, these acts of proving one's self better than
others can significantly shorten the live's of those over
55.

If you are one of those that must prove yourself on every
ride there is a target rate on
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Health...1_Article.jsp#



If you regularly ride above these rates you are a heart attack
waiting to happen. Not to mention that often you are pulling
the entire group above their safe zones.

Let's ride as smart as well as fast.


What is a good way to gauge the heart rate if the bike is not
equipped with a whole smorgasbord of medical devices such as
pulse meters? Taking one hand off the bar and counting wrist
pulses isn't very safe in most places around here.

I sometimes get carried away on long boring stretches and find
myself riding full tilt. Whatever "the engine" can deliver goes
into the pedals. But I usually don't become tired after an
hour. Or two. Or four. Is that a good enough indicator to be in
the healthy zone?

Actual heart rate varies considerably between individuals and
even among rating systems. The calculation for "max heart rate"
depends, to an extent, on what system you are using. Most people,
if they are athletic at all can produce a heart rate that is
higher than the calculated maximum heart rate.

Heart rate is usually used as a part of a training schedule,
i.e., 30 minutes at 100% followed by 10 minutes at 20%", or
whatever, and is a method of determining the intensity of the
exercise.

Back in the primitive days people used do essentially the same
thing by training by distance, i.e., a quarter as hard as you can
go followed by a quarter at a walk, and so on.

As for your full tilt for hours, you really aren't doing that.
What you are doing is riding at an energy output that you can
maintain for some period. If you really were to exert 100% you
might get a quarter of a mile before you collapsed. -- cheers,

John B.

The only accurate way of determining the actual max heart rates per
individual is instrumented on a treadmill in a lab. But the
differences are pretty slight - a maximum of about 5% between the
calculated and the actual.

100% is NEVER used save in sprints. 20 seconds or more at 100% can
be fatal to even young athletes. Though not often. Muscle lactose
is very rapidly depleted and your most powerful muscle is your
heart. Anaerobic metabolism utilizes lactose.

"Full tilt" is the output at which you can continue using your
metabolic digestive rate to continue supplying carbs to your
muscles. These days a great many younger riders are "spinners" and
actually use too low a gear and are passed not because they don't
have more power than someone else but because a lot is wasted
spinning and using too low a gear.


That is a trend I also notice and maybe the reason why I sometimes pass
much younger athletic guys. Me on my mud-caked old road bike, in jeans
shorts and an old T-shirt, sometimes with a fedex box riding above the
panniers. I am probably doing it wrong in the other direction though by
riding in a very high gear and mashing a lot. Also lazy in shifitng
because my road bike still has down-tube shifters.


I should add that I am making a very bad riding mistake that I have
to figure out some way of overcoming. I do not eat nor drink on even
long rides unless I stop at a coffee shop. I have often done metric
centuries without a drink or a bite. This means that I'm tired all
the time and my riding suffers. But I have done this since my
recovery from my concussion since I cannot ride with one hand
anymore. I have no balance aside from that of the bike itself.


Consider a hose like on a drinking bladder. I believe they can also be
fitted to bottles. Draped over a shoulder you just have to turn the head
a little, bite down on the valve and drink like from a straw. The body
can forgive lack of food unless you bonk and I never want to experience
that again. Liquid is way more important and longterm or permanent
damage can result from frequent dehydration. I always drink as much as
needed so I have to relieve myself every 2-3h. This gets planned out
according to where I can find fountains (on trails, playgrounds, sports
fields, schools, churches). On MTB rides in summer I often carry a
gallon or more because there are usually no safe refill options. On
really long rides I used to also carry a few tiny chlorine "pills" so I
can draw from a creek in case I had to walk out a busted bicycle.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/