Penn State's mentor group - CLOSED! (Page 22)

Good conversations on biking!  But still, there is no substiture for quality seat time!!

But, I would always want to error on the side of caution when it comes to gearing.  Chances are on any downhill where an 11 would make a difference over a 12, I would be giving the legs a break and not pushing it anyways.  I'm sure any race that has any hills, the 27 over the 23 would be a huge benefit on the run.

Short run yesterday was all I had time for, rest day today.  More meetings this morning and driving home this afternoon.  So, back on schedule this weekend.

I have a half marathon Sunday that I am looking forward to, but it is a train through race so I will still do a long bike Saturday (still hoping for a PR as it is only my 3rd HM).  Anyone else racing this weekend?

Training and effect on resting heart rates.  Looks like my training has paid off in significantly lowering my resting HR.  I normally have a pretty low resting HR, somewhere in the upper 40's to low 50's.  I went for my yearly flight physical today and had a EKG done.  I think I kind of surprised the Corpsman (med tech), as my resting HR was as low as 38.  This is a new low for me previous being around 41. 

I would imagine that I have pretty much bottomed out on dropping it any lower, at least while I am still breathing! 

Question... Does resting HR indicate a level of heart efficiency, health, or is it a function of genetics and training?

From what I understand.  It is a measure of health for that individual person. 

Doctors that have taken my RHR (technically my ambient heart rate since I am awake for a few hours already) and made comments like: wow, your heart is going to last a long time, it's barely working.  They explained it to me like: Take an can engine that can run at 6k rpm.  If most of the time it's run with low rpms the engine will last a long time since it's only using a fraction of it's abilities most of the time, but if you constantly have the pedal to the floor and run it at 6k rpms everywhere you go... the thing is going to blow up much sooner.

I believe part of it is genetics, but training does effect it.  You train, you get in better physical shape, your heart gets stronger and your RHR drops because it can push more blood around your body with less effort than it could before.  Your max HR is like the 6k rpm engine max... your RHR is like keeping that engine at idle most of the time... if the idle is set really high the engine is working hard constantly to do relatively nothing.

It has generally been decided that your RHR when compared to other people has nearly 0 indication to how you would perform in a race.  A guy with a 38bpm RHR can still be beaten by a guy with a 45bpm RHR.  But having it lower is great for your personal health and can really freak out doctors and nurses ;-)

Story time:

I was hit by a car last summer 2 weeks before my A race (a HIM), so obviously in great shape from the year of training and had started my taper.  I go to the doctor to get checked out a day or two following the accident.  The nurse takes my pulse, starts to walk out of the room as he writes it down and says: "D@mn! That's low".  I'm thinking... what is it?! (I believed I was in the 55-60 range at this point).  The doctor comes in checks me over and says I'm good to go.  I stand up, grab my stuff from the other chair as I ask him what the nurse wrote down for my HR.   He tells me 46, grabs my wrist for a few seconds and says: "I believe it, you're at 52 right now and you just stood up and and were moving around which would put most people above 90 already".

Story time 2:

My brother doesn't do triathlons, but he mountain bikes, runs and does some 24 hour mtb races and 50mile mtb races and stuff.  Plus he lives at 9k feet, used to be ski patrol for a ski resort and is now a firefighter in his town.  So he's taking EMT classes down here in Denver ~5k ft elevation, they are teaching everyone on the machines and hooking each other up to the EKGs and stuff.  They connect him and the instructor thought the other guy had connected it wrong.  They reconnect it a second time... same thing... my brother's RHR at that point was around 36bpm.  Lance Armstrong is around 32-34.  But my brothers' max HR is only around 190 where Lance is above 200 and a decade older.  So obviously RHR doesn't have any indication to how well you perform... because my brother won't come close to Lance at a race like the Leadville 100 unless it's at the starting line.