Heart Rate and Target Zones (Page 3)

My understanding John of base building is that you do NOT go above the zone 1 or 2, not for hills, or wind or anything else. One of the reasons is that the anaerobic system kicks in when your hr goes higher and alters the source of fuel the body is using. According to the Mark Allen article on one of the previous threads (will look for it and add as a link), once you have shut off the aerobic system and gone anaerobic, it takes 7 -9 hours for it to be shut off and switch back to fat-burning, even after your hr is back down (though it’s hard to believe that will occur with only shorts bursts above the 1 or 2 zones...?). The higher hr also triggers the adrenal system to kick in – not what you want in the base building period either. 

Lol- now, having said that – I know in the snow my hr has gone higher than it should … so this is all theory not pure practice as far as my experience goes! I was asking similar questions a few months ago, and I found consistently information that supports NOT raising the hr above the zones…. much easier said than done!

I'd like to hear what others have to say too...

Some other discussion on this from a few months ago ...

http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=8877&posts=6

http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=8886&posts=28

 http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=8894&posts=5

hope they are helpful .

I have to agree with everything Laerka wrote.  Especially the part about how hard it can be to maintain your HR in a certain zone.  Today I was supposed to cycle in zone 2.  The wind was blowing about 15 - 20 mph.  Into the headwind my HR spiked above zone 2.  With the tailwind, my HR dropped into zone 1. 

Does it really matter?  I'm not sure.  I have read the same articles as Laerka and haven't found anything to contridict the theory.

Hmmm.  This is not consistent with what I have heard elsewhere.  My impression is that VO2max is correlated with aerobic fitness level and increases with training.

Oh, and I do let my HR "drift" if I am running up a hill--as long as the hill is not too long or steep (so my drift is only a few beats and not for very long).  On longer, steeper hills I mix in walking and running.  This keeps me in the correct zone, but my HR is up and down a lot more than if I just let it outside the zone for a bit.

It is good to hear that others are allowing the hr to 'drift' up for short periods during training sessions. I think I needlessly wasted mental and physical effort on keeping my hr below that big black line of my mahr. Once I relaxed it a bit, my workouts were more enjoyable and hopefully just as beneficial. 

Just for clarification .. what kind of spikes are people allowing (both time and bpm)?

The zone 3 - yes there is alot of information around about it being a dead space for training and to therefore avoid it as a "no benefit" zone.  But then again (lol - why is there always a 'then again' or otoh caveat to this stuff???) .. not everyone agrees with this either... 

FWIW, found this.

Factors Affecting VO2maxThere are 6 major factors that affect your aerobic power...

1. Genetics--Genetics is said to play a 20-30% role in VO2max.

2. Your age--After the age of 25 VO2max decreases by 1% a year. The good news is regular physical activity throughout life can offset much of the decline.

3. Training status--Athletic training can alter a person's VO2max as much as 20% depending on their lifestyle and fitness habits.

4. Exercise mode--Measure an athlete's VO2max on a treadmill test, then a cycle test and finally in a swimming pool and the results will all differ significantly. Treadmill running has been shown to produce the highest values.

5. Your gender--Women generally have VO2max values that are 15-30% lower than men's. This takes into account differences in bodyweight. With a straight, like-for-like comparison the difference is even greater.

6. Your body composition--Much of the differences in VO2max between men and women is attributed to body composition. Although there are other biologic differences between the sexes, research suggests VO2max decreases as body fat percent increases.

So can you improve your VO2max? In a nutshell aerobic power can improve 6-20% with athletic training. However the larger gains usually come from untrained, sedentary individuals. If you are a regular exerciser and particularly if you consider yourself to be an endurance athlete... Chances are endurance training will only make small improvements in your VO2max.

I rode my bike yesterday for about 1.5 hours.  The ride was a zone 2 ride. It was a very windy day and I spent about 13 minutes in zone 3.  My HR spikes were about 1-4 bpm into zone three.

I'm glad to hear that spiking into zone 3 probably doesn't matter.  I get so tired of constantly trying to control my HR, especially on windy days.

TJ