General Category > Further and Faster
Too fit or too unfit? HRM question
mattc:
--- Quote from: Giropaul on May 23, 2012, 06:55:31 PM ---Sorry to sound grumpy, but why is it that it's acceptable to dismiss fat people as lazy and without commitment or will power; when it wouldn't be acceptable to use the same language about any other feature of an individual?
--- End quote ---
Because they can't catch you?
hellymedic:
Sugar is an essential component of fuel for exercise. Some people have enough in their system so need take no extra when exercising. Some do not.
Some people's blood sugar fluctuates wildly. Some people find this is worsened by carbohydrate intake (especially but not exclusively short-chain carbs).
Some Audax great advised me to lay off the bread on a day I had ridden a long way and had another hard day's riding ahead. I took his advice but found I made no progress awheel until I'd eaten a few yeasty teacakes.
simonp:
--- Quote from: mattc on May 23, 2012, 06:42:31 PM ---
--- Quote from: simonp on May 23, 2012, 02:56:27 PM ---http://www.ntnu.edu/cerg/hrmax-info
Look at the picture. Throw away the calculator.
--- End quote ---
They found a standard deviation of 11 beats/min. So if you're calculating 70% of HR-max, that becomes about 7.
Exercising in bands that are 7 off your 'ideal' bands is not a disaster. Not ideal, but not bad. For many people it will be closer than 7.
For higher bands the error gets worse, so as you spend more time up there, it becomes more worthwhile to get a more accurate HRmax estimate.
/speech
--- End quote ---
For a normal distribution that means almost 1/3 of people would have an error of more than 11bpm which is why the article recommends measuring max HR rather than using their formula.
mattc:
(Very useful link, BTW - thanks Simon!)
--- Quote from: simonp on May 23, 2012, 09:16:22 PM ---For a normal distribution that means almost 1/3 of people would have an error of more than 11bpm which is why the article recommends measuring max HR rather than using their formula.
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Yep, I agree with your numbers; but of that 1/3, hardly any will be 30 beats out - so the formula works well enough in the lower zones.
Unfit folks will find it hard to test their HRmax, so a few weeks/months building up in the 'steadier' zones will work fine, and get them to the point where they can do a decent max test. Those months will not be wasted, just because their HRmax estimate was (say) 12bpm out!
citoyen:
--- Quote from: mattc on May 24, 2012, 11:50:17 AM ---Unfit folks will find it hard to test their HRmax...
--- End quote ---
Not just unfit folks...
I did a kind of informal test of my HRmax on my commute last night - there's a 1.2km stretch of straight, flat road on the approach to Bromley, and figuring I could have a nice sit down on the train at the end of it, I decided there was nothing to lose by taking it flat out.
Took me about 20 seconds to get up to speed, then I was pelting along at top whack for a bit... and then my legs went. The motor was running fine, I just ran out of fuel. Had to cruise the last couple of hundred metres. :facepalm:
I made the road a segment on Strava for the purpose of analysing the stats. Here's the above in graph form:
So, my HR didn't even hit 190, which is a bit disappointing. I know my max must be higher than that because I recorded 196 on the short climb on the way to work yesterday morning (and I don't think that's my max either).
I'm interested in the power reading Strava has calculated. Does anyone know how accurate that is likely to be? The power spikes at the beginning of the segment are probably because although the road is "flat", there's a very slight gradient at the start (about 1 in 40, if that). Maybe I need to get myself a PowerTap so I can get properly geeky about it.
Maybe I'll give it another go tonight, only I'll take the first 16km a bit easier so I've got plenty of juice left in the tank for the final sprint...
(Also, I'm well aware that the evidence of the graph is that I need to develop some leg power so I can turn a bigger gear at speed. I am not built to be a sprinter.)
d.
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