Training question

Hi all,

I am 38 and I started training regularly this year using J. Friel's
book, and have been participating in a few x-country mountain bike
races.

I have a question about HR zones & training strategies: I had the HR
monitor on during my last race, and it shows an average of 188 on a
1:20 off-road course with almost no climbing. The highest value I have
ever read is 193; and I spent 1:10h above 185.

The first question is, how can that HR be so high if - I quote - LT is
roughly the HR you can maintain for one hour but not more? All the
'perceived exertion" indicators put my LT around 174 (erratic
breathing shortly after going past that HR, and at the lower end of
the scale getting slightly out of breath arount 148).

The second question is, how should I adjust my training? There are 2
ways to look at this:
1. My aerobic capacity really sucks since I am anaerobic 99% of the
race, so that's what I should work on with long slow training, or
2. Since I am in my anaerobic zone 99% of the time I should focus on
training my anaerobic abilities through intervals to improve
performance.

Any suggestions?

Thanks - Franck

On 6 Apr 2004 15:13:15 -0700, (Franck Mangin)
wrote:

Hi all,

I am 38 and I started training regularly this year using J. Friel's
book, and have been participating in a few x-country mountain bike
races.

I have a question about HR zones & training strategies: I had the HR
monitor on during my last race, and it shows an average of 188 on a
1:20 off-road course with almost no climbing. The highest value I have
ever read is 193; and I spent 1:10h above 185.

The first question is, how can that HR be so high if - I quote - LT is
roughly the HR you can maintain for one hour but not more? All the
'perceived exertion" indicators put my LT around 174 (erratic
breathing shortly after going past that HR, and at the lower end of
the scale getting slightly out of breath arount 148).

The excitement and stress of racing can elevate your heartrate a lot
-- it's not the same as training

JT

"Franck Mangin" wrote in message
om...

The second question is, how should I adjust my training? There are 2
ways to look at this:
1. My aerobic capacity really sucks since I am anaerobic 99% of the
race, so that's what I should work on with long slow training, or
2. Since I am in my anaerobic zone 99% of the time I should focus on
training my anaerobic abilities through intervals to improve
performance.

Any suggestions?

1) Don't bother to wear a heart rate monitor in a race unless you're Cat 2
or above and using the race for training purposes. You will ALWAYS show
higher than your calculated LT until you become really good.

2) Friel's books make a good training guide. One of the things to remember
is that "training" is supposed to be more or less two types of riding -
either the "oh my God I can't do this another second" which you then
maintain for another minute. And the "This can't POSSIBLY be doing me any
good it's sooooooo slow" which in fact DOES do you a lot of good. For this
reason when you are really training it is probably best to avoid club rides
which always have some divit and his buddies riding too fast to qualify as a
slow ride and too slow to qualify as a fast ride.

3) No matter what you might think of your own ability right now, after
you've been racing for a couple of years you won't believe the condition
you'll be in. It generally takes a couple of years of racing to achieve a
fitness level high enough to BEGIN serious training. Don't get impatient or
discouraged.