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jonsson
Question:
Heart rate gets higher for high intensity work though I get fitter ?
Me and some friends are cycling during the summer, and do quite a lot of spinning during the winter season. For us a big goal is performing well in Vättern rundan, a 300km "race" in the middle of June here in sweden. The last year was the sixth year and the results the two last years have been around 8 and a half hours and a big goal is going for 8 hours.
The question is about heart rate and endurance fittness.
Usually one says that the fitter (better endurable) you get the lower heart rate for a given work you will have. I am not shore that this is completely true or I am different and actually I see the same tendencies on a friend also getting more fit (eg. endurance looking at pre-season compared to after season). We both have lower heart rates now at light work (upto a heart rate that lies about 1mmol/l above lactate "start line" or "AeT"). Above this work load the opposite has happened, higher heart rates for a given work. Looking at the lactate curves they have moved to the right (anyway 06-season) pre-season compared to after season as could be expected, and I also seem to be able to sustain more lactate acid, wich is fine. But the question was about the heart rate.
Why does my heartrate at high intensities increase with endurance training ?
Do I now need the higher heart rate at high intensities as I have more muscular legs after a few years training ? Am I infact training bad, but then again we get faster ? Am I still to be considered a beginner and the shift to lower heart rates are still to come ?
Asked by jonsson - 4 answers - 51 weeks 5 days ago
alan_ruddock
Hi Jonnson
Have you tested you assumptions in a controlled environment. How have you determined your "lactate threshold"? Has your workload at LT increased?
As you say this is an unusual. The usual response to endurance training is a lower heart rate for the same workload. This is because of improved cardiac output and muscle capilirisation.
Alan
Submitted 50 weeks 21 hours ago by alan_ruddockjonsson
Hello Alan,
I have lactate curves from three occasions (so not a lot statistics), indoor bike test, same kind of test, same tester, actually same set of lactate test package. Tried to rest the day before test. We did not determine lactate threshold (though I tried to determine it from the curves, if you assume 4mmol/l it can be done but it seems higher, atleast in one of the curves). So from the first to the second test, pre to after season 2006, the threshold increased (higher wattage at almost all testpoints). For the test 2007 (november and a "quite long after season"-test also running and weight lifting had been a part of crosstraining) the lactate for low intensity (upto ~4mmmol/l) is the same or lower as 2006 after season test) but for the high intensity the lactate levels is much higher(worse shape). I am thinking of confirming the lactate threshold by a more precise test(by ~15 minutes tests at levels around presumed threshold to see at wich level lactate is steady state).
Hopefully I will after some threshold training in spring move the high intensity part of the curve to the right. Anyway the lactate curves are a bit more following general understanding than the strange heart rate curves getting a more "S-shape" look with training.
One further question in the subject is if you with endurance training change your maximum steady state lactate level, the lactate level where you have your threshold (wattage and heart rate) ? (it seems to be different for different sport anyway, depending of volume muscles involved maybe)
/Jan
Submitted 49 weeks 4 days ago by jonssonbolesey
Make sure everything is standardised to get a true result, as things like diet (especially caffeine) can increase heart rate. even things like the time of day can have an effect.
Also, how much is the heart rate varying from each test? if its only a few bpm then its probably not going to have too much of an effect. a better test might be time to exhaustion at a given intensity.
how do you train for this event?!
Submitted 49 weeks 3 days ago by boleseyjonsson
From first test 1.5 years ago the low heart rate has gone down with about 15bbm and the high rate gone up with about 10 bbm. The last test differed less in the high rate and had gone up with only a few bbm (but if this is a trend it probably flatten out). The tests has been on evenings after a day with out training.
Okej a bit of the training then..
Submitted 48 weeks 5 days ago by jonssonI do not have a specific training program (but we have ideas what to train) but in the winter we do mostly spinning and some skiing, around 3-5 (often 5) days a week, often with one pass of about 2-3 hours easy spinning. Strength training around 2-3 times a week (only for around 30-40 minutes) before spinning. One training pass contains short and some what hard (30s - 1.5 minutes) intervalls, one usually has longer intervalls around threshold (often with intervalls around 4-10 minutes), this will be a more planned action in january. Around beginning of april outdoor season have started earlier (will be earlier for some of the guys here this year as they start with trips to Mallorca) and the cycling and training volume goes up. Last year I had around 400-450 km/week from this period until the actual race in June. The training included one weekend trip with easier cycling (~4-6 hours). The training were not planned a lot but included some hill intervall training, some threshold training on flat (often becomes "intervall like " as we often train in a group). Quite a lot of the training time were spent int the zone around 145-155 bbm (~1mmol/l above lactate base line). As the race approach we also started with speed training, different kinds.