Feel the [Beezly] Burn

I downloaded the data from my Garmin tonight for Saturday's race and it turns out that I had an average heart rate of 165 for the race, which is about Zone 4.8 for me.

That's two hours of nonstop anaerobic exercise with an average heart rate of 165. My maximum heart rate is 186.

Here's the lap-by-lap HR numbers:

Lap 1: Average of 169, max of 184.
Lap 2: Average of 162, max of 180.
Lap 3: Average of 165, max of 180.

My lowest HR for the entire two hour race was after a downhill on the second lap in which it dropped briefly to 124 bpm, before jumping right back up to 171 a minute later.

There were four instances during the race in which my HR dropped below 140bpm (all descents) and none of them lasted for more than a minute.

It's no wonder I was so tired after the race and this is really good information to have.

I train with a heart-rate monitor more than I train according to a heart rate monitor but I know when I race the 24hrs of Spokane, it's going to be imperative that I keep my heart rate below 140bpm the majority of the time, else there's no way I'll be able to go for long. I'm actually going to be trying to keep it pegged at 135 for as long as I can. I think focusing on the numbers on the Garmin (and the music on the iPod) will help take my mind off the pain of trying to ride a bike for 24 hours.

6 comments:

Jessica A. Walsh said...

That's insane but really interesting information! I can't believe you had your heart rate so high for so long.

Anonymous said...

I remember a time when you were against heart rate monitors. Sounds like you are realizing the benefits, plus its just good fun.

Doug Walsh said...

Yep, the Garmin came with the HRM and at first I was just wearing it on the trainer or to see how many calories got burned during a ride. I started to take it more seriously when I decided to solo Spokane 24hrs.

It will be pretty important to make sure I don't go chasing after team-racers in the first few laps of the day.

Sometimes I'll try and push myself on a timetrial and will use the HRM to make sure I'm maintaining a steady 160+, but I normally don't ever look at it until I get home. And then it's just out of curiosity.

My incredible ability to accurately monitor perceived exertion while running without a monitor didn't transfer over so well to cycling -- probably because I hadn't been cycling 2/3 of my life. :)

JPW said...

You're pushing your body! Great effort! HRM's tell you so much! Your approach is quite sound! Long periods of time in the saddle will necessitate that you use the data the HRM offers to conserve energy!

Anonymous said...

Just a note - the Garmin EDGE unit does not use HRM as an input when calculating calorie burn. Calorie burn is estimated from your speed and grade. Why does Garmin do it this way, you might ask? Turns out Polar has a patent on using heart rate as an input to calculate calories burned, and Garmin chose not to license the patent from Polar (or Polar chose not to license the patent to Garmin, which I am not sure). I wear a Polar HRM when I ride, and I find that the EDGE typically reports calorie burn 20% to 80% HIGHER that what the Polar reports. Big discussion on the topic in the EDGE forum over on motionbased.com

Doug Walsh said...

Thanks for the note anonymous... I had a recent conversation about that very topic with a friend. Seems silly to me that Garmin would even bother reporting calories then at all. Oh well... I only comment on the calories burned in my weekly wrap-ups for shits & giggles primarily. I'm more interested in comparing times with average heart rates and my own perceived exertions.