===================================================================
Heart rates                                              2022-04-22
===================================================================

Knowing your heart rate data points is the best way to establish
your training zones. However, they are neither easy to define nor
to measure.

Definitions
-----------
*Heart Rate* (HR): your heart rate, or pulse, is the number of
times your heart beats per minute at any given moment. Heart rates
vary from person to person. It's lower when you're at rest and
higher when you exercise.

*Maximum Heart Rate* (MHR): literally the maximum number of beats
per minute your heart can reach during an all-out strenuous
exercise.

*Resting Heart Rate* (RHR): the number of beats per minute while
the body is at complete rest. This number will vary depending upon
age, gender, and general health of a person. There will also be a
large difference in the resting heart rate of athletes when
compared to non-athletes.

*Lactate Threshold Heart Rate* (LTHR): the heart rate, or
effectively the exercise intensity level, at which the increased
production of lactate outpaces the body's ability to clear it,
resulting in a dramatic increase of the level of lactate in blood
and muscles. This is where the suffering begins, also know as
redlining.

*Heart Rate Recovery* (HRR): this measures the decrease in heart
rate as it returns to its normal resting rate after exercise. It is
a useful metric for evaluating your physical fitness.

How to measure them
-------------------
Lab tests are the most accurate method of measuring the heart rate
values, but this is not the easiest -and cheapest- option. A heart
rate monitor is a great tool but not everyone has one, and not
everyone needs one, certainly not at the beginning of your athletic
career. Without a device the easiest methods are to count the
number of pulses either on the radial or carotid arteries - the
inside of the wrist or next to the windpipe. Use your index and
middle finger to count the number of beats for 30 seconds and
multiply by 2 to get your heart rate per minute. Of course you can
count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4, but I find the longer count
more accurate. Measuring your resting heart rate in this matter is
the easiest, it gets a bit trickier to measure your heart rate like
this during exercise. But note that your heart rate is a reaction
to strenuous activity and not necessarily the highest at the moment
of intensity. You may be riding uphill and your heart rate is
climbing, but it may not reach its apex until after you have passed
the top. In other words, if you go full out, stop and start to
measure your pulse, it is an accurate measurement of your maximum
heart rate at that moment.

MHR
---
Knowing your MHR is the greatest data point you can have, it is the
point of reference to calculate your heart rate training zones.
However, most people don't know their maximum heart rate. The
well-known '220 - age' formula is widely used but seriously
flawed. Take myself for example; currently my maximum heart rate
should, based on that formula, be 220 - 53 = 167. I have years of
heart rate data that indicate otherwise, and the current highest
recorded value is 192. I've had 188, 189, 190, and 191, so I trust
that the 192 value is not a fluke, and it's probably not even the
actual maximum rate. My LTHR is 172 based on field trials, and even
that is higher than my supposed maximum heart rate. This is also
the most difficult value to measure, hence in the beginning it is
easier to use the RPE scale instead of training zones based on your
maximum heart rate. I do ride with a heart rate monitor and
whenever I feel the need to measure this value I go to the same
hill that I've been using for this (in Eräjärvi) and ride up as
fast as I can, then I go down, and immediately ride up as fast as I
can for a second time. By then there may be a new highest value.

RHR
---
Your resting heart rate is best measured when you are completely
relaxed, for instance when you wake up and are still lying in
bed. Do this a few times and then take the mean value as your
resting heart rate. If you measure your resting heart rate the
morning after a day of rigorous exercise and you find that it is
elevated then you might want to add an extra day of rest.

LTHR
----
Your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate is deceptively easy to measure,
however it requires measuring the average heart rate over a period
of 20 minutes, making it difficult to do so without a heart rate
monitor. Ideally you will be on a route that is constant or even
slightly uphill, but such that you can maintain a constant level of
intensity. Start with at least 10 minutes of warming up, then ride
for 20 minutes at the highest level that you can maintain, reaching
deep and forceful breathing but not yet labored. The key here is
pacing, starting out too fast may result in stopping before the
time is up. The average heart rate over the last 20 minutes is a
good indication of your LTHR, and may stand as a data point for
calculating your LTHR training zones.

HRR
---
Heart rate recovery occurs in two phases. One is the first minute
after exercise, during which heart rate drops rapidly, and the
other is the longer recovery period, during which the heart rate
decreases slowly. This period may last from 30 minutes to several
hours, depending on the preceding exercise and your level of
fitness. The difference between your heart rate at the end of the
exercise and that measured 1 minute later is what is of interest
here. You get this value by subtracting your heart rate measured at
1 minute after you stopped from the value at the time you
stopped. It generally increases as your fitness improves, however,
it is specific to the duration and intensity of the exercise. Long
exercises tend to produce lower values than short ones. Highly
intense exercise generally result in greater values than easy
ones. Taking this into consideration, keeping tabs on this value
tells you with some degree of certainty how your physical fitness
is progressing.

Further reading
---------------
- Joe Friel, Total Heart Rate Training
https://www.amazon.com/Total-Heart-Rate-Training-Customize/dp/1569755620
- Roy Benson and Declan Connolly, Heart Rate Training
https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Rate-Training-Roy-Benson/dp/1492590223

You are viewing proxied material from sdf.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.