Heart Rate

[Martin 14]

After a running injury last November ( plantar fasciitis ) I have got tired of waiting for this to heal so in the last couple of weeks have dusted off my bike and put it in the turbo trainer in order to try and keep some of my fitness. Last week I decided to follow a 12 week cycle program which allegedly takes you up to 100 miles, initially using the turbo trainer before taking it outside. I have no speedo fitted that will work in the turbo so have gone the way of using my heart rate monitor and the zone system for training. Although this works fine I have found the warm up period that most of these training programs use is about 5-10 minutes, I have found that this for me seems to inadequate, I need at least 20 minutes before my heart rate will even think about getting into any training zone.

So my question is, is this age related, I'm 62, or just a lack of fitness or strength and will this change as i progress through the training program. Thank you    

[Karla]

It's high summer, I suggest you get off the turbo and enjoy it while it lasts 

As for heart rate, no you're not alone.  I'm half your age and I need at least as long as you to warm up.

[Martin 14]

It's high summer, I suggest you get off the turbo and enjoy it while it lasts 

As for heart rate, no you're not alone.  I'm half your age and I need at least as long as you to warm up.

lol...yes i know, I'm waiting for a couple bits of kit to arrive from wiggle so hopefully next weekend

thanks for that it's not just me then!

[PaulF]

On a related note: how do you know when you're warmed up?

[Karla]

My personal metric is that when I'm TTing, I've found that to do a good performance, especially at short distance, I need a) to warm up for at least 45 minutes but preferably an hour, and b) to hit a HR of 180 during warm-up. 

[Martin 14]

On a related note: how do you know when you're warmed up?

That's a fair point, I'm guessing everyone is different, the way I have been judging it is when I can hit the first training zone, ( endurance ) and takes me about 20 minutes

[PaulF]

My personal metric is that when I'm TTing, I've found that to do a good performance, especially at short distance, I need a) to warm up for at least 45 minutes but preferably an hour, and b) to hit a HR of 180 during warm-up. 

Thanks! My MaxHR is about 180! So probably not a good metric for me What's your max if you don't mind me asking?

[Karla]

The highest I've seen is 197*, here (the finish line is at the top of a steep hill, go figure!) 

My preferred warm-up for events like that is four sets of 10 minutes at steady pace, for a value of steady that increases with each one, interspersed with sprint efforts of 1-2 minutes and followed by a few more steady minutes before the start - so I'd hope to hit 180 in the last couple of sprints.  That's for a TT effort that starts at at least 170bpm though, so you wouldn't need such a long warm-up if you weren't going that hard from the gun. 

*I'm in my early thirties, so that's not too far from my theoretical max.

[Ningishzidda]

For a 10 TT, I ‘warm-up’ by riding for an hour and try to do it ‘evens’, ie. At 20 mph average.

On long Audax rides, I find after about 100km, my legs start feeling energised. Maybe this is adrenaline coupled with appropriate feeding, ie cake.

I don’t measure HR. It will do what it will do. I’m 56.

[rob]

I'm 43 and my max is 200.   I have hit 180+ at the end of a 25 and can get into the 190s on the turbo.

I also need a long warm up for TTs, especially 10s.

[Adnepos]

Do we know why some folk take longer to warm up than others? By know, I mean hard evidence, not speculation.

Besides taking 20 minutes to warm up, I note that even at functional threshold power, my heart rate increases right up to the end of an hour -not tried enough times beyond an hour to know what happens 'next'. I mention this because the long time to warm up and the long time for heart rate continuing to increase may be related.

I also note that resting for even a few minutes puts my performance way back. The group will take off and there I am stuggling to keep up for a couple of miles.

[Pedal Castro]

Besides taking 20 minutes to warm up, I note that even at functional threshold power, my heart rate increases right up to the end of an hour -not tried enough times beyond an hour to know what happens 'next'. I mention this because the long time to warm up and the long time for heart rate continuing to increase may be related.

That's almost certainly cardiac drift, caused by overheating/dehydration. Very often seen in turbo sessions unless you have a big fan going full blast.

[Adnepos]

That's almost certainly cardiac drift, caused by overheating/dehydration. Very often seen in turbo sessions unless you have a big fan going full blast.

I agree that it's 'cardiac drift'. But like warming up, I haven't found hard evidence to explain the cause of the phenomenon. If it were increased temperature or decreased circulating blood volume then the experiments to confirm it would be 'straightforward' and if positive, would have been published. I've tried drinking plenty before indoor cycling and I also have a huge fan that at least keeps my surface temperature down; neither of these seems to have an effect on my drift, for what it's worth. So maybe it's not dehydration and/or increased core/surface temperature.

Maybe heart rate increase with prolonged (>30 minutes) exercise, is mediated by decreased stroke volume. This might result from  decreased venous return which in turn might be caused by dehydration. There might be other causes of decreased stroke volume. But maybe decreased peripheral resistance (vasodilation in muscle beds and in skin cause by activation of the sympathetic nervous system and other factors) might require an increase in heart rate. Or more likely a combination of factors?

They may or may not be related to the physiology of warming up. Has anyone seen the evidence?

[Pedal Castro]

I recently read a few papers on this, because I teach it at A Level and wanted to remind myself of the underlying science that the PE syllabus doesn't cover.  I'll have a look and see if I can find the links.

[Adnepos]

On a related note: how do you know when you're warmed up?

I think there is no straightforward yet helpful explanation. It's when you feel (or your biometric devices tell you) that you are ready to do what you want to do.

If you are starting a yoga session then you might do a bit of limbering up.

If you are starting out on a jog or a 'leisure' cycle ride then you might gradually increase your pace until you feel that you would be unable to complete a spoken sentence without breaking for breath.

And if you are on a gym cycle trainer, connected up to heart rate monitor, power meter, cadence meter and the rest you might specify a target combination of percentage maximum heart rate (eg 70%) with target power and cadence.

If you focus on assessing your warm up then with experience, you will confirm for yourself that what you use gets the results (performance or fitness) that you want.

[PaulF]

Thanks what I thought instinctively, naïvely I hoped there was perhaps a magic formula