All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

i use a wahoo tickr for road rides and trainer rides, since thats where im focusing more on fitness than fun. went with the wahoo because it works with bluetooth and ant+.

i also wear my garmin watch pretty much 24/7, but its not as accurate as a chest strap. im just into data logging and like to go back and look at things. kinda sucked into the garmin ecosystem with my watch and smart scale. real nice having all that information in one place and can see trends over time.

 

I alos use the Garmin HR monitor...and really like it.

your zones pretty much look like mine do as well. Post heart attack, i am not supposed to be in the red for more than 10 minutes at a time, if at all. Not too hard to do because I don't ride to race...I push my self, but since I am making no money on the activity, it is not worth dying for. i ride mostly to be out in the woods, and for the personal technical challenges along the routes...

I have never used Strava, nor will I ever b/c I don't care about how I compare to other people. My judgement of a good ride is how much I ache when I get back to the truck...i want a moderate amount of that "good" muscle ache at the end

 

We all have, at some point.





.... I'll see myself out.

 

Oh dude! Not good. Either your zones are all off, are you are going to hurt yourself. You don't drive your truck bouncing off the red-line. Same goes for your heart. Once you damage your heart, it doesn't heal.

 

I keep a close eye on my watch and diligently stay out of the red. This mostly involves slowing down, but sometimes I may take a quick break to recover for a minute.

It's amazing, if I spend too much time in the red, I won't recover and as soon I start pedaling again, even at a sedate pace, I'll go right back into the red.

It's so easy on a MTB to over-exert and you don't always feel it by I think everyone should be riding with a HR monitor.

 

So I was going to find a few articles and blow this off and explain how all these are inaccurate anyway. BUT.

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a29801627/how-accurate-is-your-wrist-heart-rate-monitor/

So, they are inaccurate. But in the neighborhood of 3-5 BPM, not the 20BPM I was expecting. They are not scientific, but give a good neighborhood number where you are likely near within reason. If it told you 125 BPM and you're sitting at your desk eating lunch, either you got problems or the watch does. If it tells you 125BPM and you're actually at 127, eh, for a quick reference tool, that's good enough in my mind - you're at 160 but it shows 163, it's not like you're at 100 and it shows 163, for example.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I ordered a garmin and am gonna try it out.
I guess I just am really looking to get better at pacing myself. It's super hilly around where I ride and I often find myself pushing myself through the whole climb only to be completely whooped when it comes time to go down. I think getting a better insight into HR would help better gauge that.

Even though I'm only 25, it couldn't hurt to keep an eye on those kinds of things

 

I shoot to stay right in the middle of aerobic as much as I can. Climbs are what gets me - and I suck at climbing anyways - so I always tell friends to go on ahead and I will catch up...but yeah, without knowing it, you can quickly be above red for a while and not feel it till later

 

This exactly. I don't use it to train within zones, only as an upper and lower limiter. My general range is 130 - 175 BPM, meaning anything below 130 I generally view as a recovery effort. Anything above 175 isn't sustainable on the long term. I have both a watch with onboard HR and a separate Garmin HR Strap. The Garmin HR strap is more responsive. Over a longer period of time, they are generally pretty close.

There are other factors (besides the accuracy of the HR monitor) that can impact HR (temp, fatigue, hydration, etc.) so I think the consensus is to use them as everyone here has mentioned.

I will say one interesting thing is that, my average RHR is usually in the mid 40's but 2 years ago I got an infection. Right before I started to really feel sick my RHR jumped up to 75. It basically stayed there until my antibiotics took hold, then it went back down. I know there have been some studies but nothing definitive yet. Just something to note that if you wear a wrist HR and see a big spike in RHR, you may be getting sick.

 

I use 'dis one @betterbuckleup

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0779SKCXW/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_G8VG9PGN7NE9DAAN9Y94?_encoding=UTF8

It does the trick, but I'm not actively monitoring or a high risk, I use it for telling the time mostly. Heart rate, sleep, etc is nice but

I DO like that it does a sedentary timer, you can set it - every 15, 30, etc minutes at work is nice. If I'm sitting on my ass too long. And it does an alarm clock feature that doesn't wake the wife, that's nice. And does call alerts, that's cool. Ties into apple health app but otherwise it's kinda janky, but as said, for me, it does the tricks I need. For me, for 25 bucks, no brainer.

OH and charging - super easy. Pull the strap and plug it in, no proprietary cable BS to deal with.

 

IDK im like 10-20 years younger than you guys. Resting HR is in the 50's. This was a pretty high effort ride, id say the normal ride about 10bpm lower on max and avg.

Unless my Wahoo is off which is possible; my whoop strap reflects the effort as well from the same event.

 

But yeah maybe I should dial it back.

 

I'm 28 and don't track my HR during riding, I just ride.

BUT my watch thingy tells me my RHR is between 62-65 most days that it's got in the bank. Granted....I am about 40 lbs overweight and out of shape, THAT doesn't help I'm sure.

 

Yeah I don’t actively track my heart rate. This was sessioning a jump line with a decent climb to the top of the jump line and waiting for the hr drop enough so I’m feeling good for another run. Basically turned into an interval session lol.

 

Thanks, but I think the strap should work well for me since I'd like it to integrate into the other ride data I already get from my Garmin.
And I only really care about HR with exercise which is pretty much only MTB for me currently.

 

Heck yeah - it's a decent Chinese knock off, but it's not good for what you're looking for. Just sharing what I use.

 

This current discussion thread makes me happy. The benefits I've noticed by staying out of the red, including the long-term reduction in risk of heart damage, has been significant for me. I raced in HS and University and it was hard to adjust to riding at a more chill pace - but man - its made riding so much more pleasurable to not always be in "training" mode. I'm just out for a ride, man.

Incidentally, the benefits you get based on which heart rate zone you are in - most of us are looking for the benefits that come from lower relative efforts. Most of us probably want the benefits from Zone 3 - the green zone. And I gotta' say, Green Zone climbing is pleasantly fun and relaxing!

Zone 1 (grey): Warm up. (50% to 60% of your maximum heart rate.) While this is a warm-up zone for many, it’s a great place for people just starting an exercise program. While it may not sound macho, you get nearly all exercise benefits here with very little risk to your body. Here’s where 85% of calories burned are fats. Cholesterol is reduced and blood pressure is decreased.

Zone 2 (blue): General Fitness. (60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate.) The benefits are the same as zone one, but more total calories are burned.

Zone 3 (green): Endurance Zone. (70% to 80% of your maximum heart rate.) If you’re training for an endurance event, this is your zone. It strengthens and improves your cardiovascular and respiratory systems and increases the strength of your heart. More total calories are burned; 50% of them are from fat.

Zone 4 (orange): Performance Training. (80% to 90% of your maximum heart rate.) This high intensity zone improves the amount of oxygen your body can absorb. Only 15% of calories you burn here are from fat.

Zone 5 (red): Maximum Zone. (90% to 100% of your maximum heart rate.) Most people stay in this zone for only short periods of time, and only athletes in very good physical shape should train here.

Also, I run the Garmin Fenix watch with the Ticklr Chest Strap. It's probably the most comfortable strap I've used. I sometimes forget about it until I'm driving home.

 

I have a feeling I've been pushing in the zone 5 way too much. I feel like my heart is pounding out of my chest on these long prolonged steep climbs.
It will interesting to get some data on this

 

LOL... screw you youngster

Seriously though... i'm not saying the HR reading is off (although it can be), i'm saying your zones are off. technically, in zone 5 you are above lactate threshold, and most mortals can only do that for ~10 minutes without recovery.

Use the lactate test on the garmin and see what it sets your zones at. Not as good as in the lab, but you might find they come out different.

In true disclosure, i even KNOW my zones and i couldn't get through that test before i thought i'd hurt. Must be my age.

 

until my heart attack, i never paid attention to this kind of stuff...I would just ride till I was too tired - or hurt - to ride...

it hwas sort of tricky to pay attention to this kind of stuff at first, but since I have been forced to, I do feel better after rides, and feel like I am more efficient during rides as well