Youtube Facebook-f

Cycling Training Tips

Interval Training – Yes or No?

It’s a good question to ask yourself BEFORE you ride a bunch of intervals. If you ask that question during your interval session, you will loose focus and reduce your performance in the actual training session.

Thus, if you have decided to do a specific interval training session, then make a short list like: Arguments why I need intervals. If you suffer during the intervals, you can repeat the arguments, but don’t start a new discussion of whether you need intervals or not. That discussion has already been taken. Bump.

Interval Training – Yes or No? Read More »

5 Steps For Better Heart Rate Monitor Training

Heart rate monitors have been used by all kind of endurance athletes for the last 20 years. Since there is a strong correlation between oxygen consumption and heart rate, knowing your current heart rate is a great indicator of your current oxygen uptake, thus how hard you work. When you’ve used your monitor a couple of times, you will start to notice that you ride with a low heart rate the pace can be maintained for hours. Riding with a heart rate close to your maximum heart rate can be maintained for a limited time only. This is a very short description of why it can be useful to know your heart rate during bike ride. Read the 5 steps for better heart rate monitor training

5 Steps For Better Heart Rate Monitor Training Read More »

Speed linking – September 2008

Speed linking – September 2008 Read More »

How To Find Your Maximum Heart Rate

The ideal test is a short warm up followed by a gradual increase in intensity until you reach your maximum heart rate. Sounds simple, but damn hard!

I have discovered that using a power meter might be one of the best ways to make the increments in intensity just as smooth as needed. Making small increments of 10 Watts every 30 seconds is a successful approach to attain your maximum oxygen consumption. You might have noticed that I recommend the same strategy for Watt Max Testing.

Typical mistakes when testing Maximum Heart Rate

Starting out too fast
If you start out too fast there is a great risk that you get exhausted before your oxygen uptake is ready to perform at 100%. The reason for this is that your body uses anaerobic metabolites to produce the required energy.

Starting out too slow
If you start out too slow it is very unlikely that you will have the power when you need it. Again you can conclude that pacing strategy is very important for the final result.

Not motivated
If you are not motivated when you perform a maximum heart rate test (or any other physical test) it is obvious that your performance will go down. Try to motivate yourself before the test and have a training partner or personal cycling coach to support you through the whole event.

It is not an easy to job to find your maximum heart rate, but if you prepare a physical test with the tips I have recommended above, there is a good chance that you can make a new personal record.

How To Find Your Maximum Heart Rate Read More »

Polar S-410 Gives a Rough Estimate of Energy Expenditure

Many heart rate monitors and bike computers has a feature to measure the energy cost of the exercise. But can we believe these numbers? I have always been sceptical to these calculations since they are based on very few variables (percentage of maximum heart rate and total time). I have always said to my riders that they can use these numbers for fun, but don’t count on them when they cook dinner. There is probably huge variability in the quality of calorie metres, some gives a rough estimate and some doesn’t.

Can heart rate monitors be used to calculate energy expenditure?

Yesterday I found a study published in Medical Science of Sports and Exercise that tried to figure out how accurate the energy expenditure calculator of the Polar s-410 heart rate monitor was. They used three different calculations of the energy expenditure: 1) Polar s-410 using predicted values of VO2 max and maximum heart rate. 2) Polar s-410 using actual values of VO2 max and maximum heart rate. 3) Indirect calorimetry (You might have heard about this one in school”¦)

The results showed that the Polar s-410 did a quite good job for the men with no significant differences between the three calculation methods. The women’s numbers were overestimated when using predicted values of VO2 max and maximum heart rate. The estimation was better when they used the actual values but still overestimated with 12%.

Read the full article about Polar S-410

Polar S-410 Gives a Rough Estimate of Energy Expenditure Read More »