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Cycling Heart Rate Zone Advice Needed

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  • August 23, 2016 at 9:08 pm #26173
    perky416

    Hi guys.

    Not being a fan of chest strap heart rate monitors i decided to purchase a mio link wrist hrm to connect to my garmin edge 520. I took it out for a short 8 mile ride to test it and was supprised to see a maximum heart rate of 187bpm and an average of 175bpm. Being 28 years old i should have an estmated max heart rate of 192bpm. Garmin connect puts me in heart rate zone 5 for 90%. A short google search led me to believe zone 5 was for professional athletes is only sustainable for minutes at a time. Garmin says i was in zone 5 for over 28 minutes.

    Thinking my mio link was reading high i decided to check the heart rate zone bpms on the device, which all seemed fine. I then decided to cycle the same route wearing the mio link paired to my mobile phone and my garmin chest strap connected to my edge so i could compare the two results…both returned almost exactly the same. When i put the graphs on the computer and overlayed them they are both pretty much bang on with each other. For this second ride garmin connect puts me in zone 5 for 61% of the time or 19 minutes (i was taking it a little easier).

    I know its only an 8 mile ride…but is zone 5 normal for the majority of that distance. This is the first time I have properly monitored my heart rate for exercise as i never really used to bother when running.

    Many thanks.

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  • August 24, 2016 at 8:57 am #877059
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    philhubbard

    I think you’ve taken your

    I think you’ve taken your estimated max heart rate from the old age method of 220 – your age.

     

    Just to let you know that that is a basic comparison for someone who does little exercise, I’m 22 and will regularly get into the 190’s and on really long hard sprints (mainly turbo) go just over 200. Don’t worry so much, just work out what you are hitting regularly and then you can readjust your zones appropiately

    August 24, 2016 at 8:50 am #877057
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    pruaga

    I use an Edge 520 with the

    I use an Edge 520 with the Garmin strap.  I think tuck away in the My Stats menu there is the option to track your max heart rate, so this may help you find out what your max actually is.  Find a genuinely steep hill, the kind that getting to the top is a challenge, and ride up that and see what your max is.

    I seem to remember the default Garmin zones being set quite low, maybe have a look at the British Cycling zone calculator (https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/article/20120925-Power-Calculator-0)  or the zones on Strava and see how they compare to Garmin.

    For comparison, I’m 34 and have a measured max of 196 (I get that fairly consistently on very hard hills, Barhatch Lane, Kop Hill etc) so your calculated max of 192 seems a little low?

    If it would be useful I could look up the zones I use?

    August 23, 2016 at 10:57 pm #877055
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    Carton

    It would be rare to be above

    It would be rare to be above threshold for 28 minutes during a 8 mile ride unless you were riding most of that up a hill. It’s not unheard of, though, to be in zone 5 for most of a short ride if you were going full gas all the way (particularly if you were racing someone). But I do think it’s more likely you either haven’t found your real max or you have a relatively high treshold HR given your max HR (not uncommon), in which case you should set custom zones. That’s what I do since my own max is about 191, but my treshold heart rate is conservatively around 176, which is a little above what it “should be”. You should do a treshold test in order to really nail down your zones.

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