TRAINING TRUTHS: HEART RATE MONITORS MADE EASY

A heart rate monitor is easy and comfortable to wear, and simple to set up with most bike computers

Work out your zones
It’s recommended to determine your effort – your heart rate – into a number of defined zones. There are a number of ways to structure this, and one recommended example is British Cycling’s six-point system:

1. Active Recovery
A very easy spin, with no burning or fatigue.

2. Endurance
A comfortable but purposeful all-day pace. You can still talk, but upper-end pace takes some concentration to maintain.

3. Tempo
Determined and purposeful effort where conversation is harder. Involves noticeable effort and builds fatigue in your legs.

4. Threshold
Tough to maintain, hovering near your limit but (just) sustainable for 60 minutes – it takes plenty of training to achieve that duration, however. Legs burn and speech is very hard.

5. VO2 Max
Very hard effort, with little or no ability to talk. Breathing is extremely hard and legs will burn very quickly. Only sustainable for 3-8min.

6. Anaerobic Capacity
A 100 percent, all-out sprint – though your heart rate actually lags behind.

British Cycling have a fairly complex threshold test to work out your exact requirements, but in general the six zones equate to:
1. 60-65 percent of max HR
2. 65-75 percent of max HR
3. 75-82 percent of max HR
4. 82-89 percent of max HR
5. 89-94 percent of max HR
6. 94-100 percent of max HR

Now you’ve established your limits and found your personal zones, your heart rate monitor lets you tailor intensity very finely. That, in turn, allows you train specifically for endurance, fat-burning, efficiency or anything else. Given that all of us want fast results, and none of us have infinite free time, that’s a very useful thing indeed!
Don’t forget to check out our sister site’s guide to step up the program – but remember that we don’t all have to be elite roadies to benefit from the training techniques and affordable tech.

It’s just as easy to set up your HRM-based training with mountain bike rides, as of course it’s measured in heart rate, not distance and elevation