Heart Rate Training

Ian Melvin outlines the basics on heart rate training to help riders make the most of their time on the bike.

Heart rate monitors can be anything from a status symbol
to a useful training tool. Ian Melvin outlines the basics on heart rate training to help you to make the most out of your time on the bike.

Despite the recent advancements in power monitoring technology and the gradual decline in their costs, heart rate monitors (HRM) remain the choice of many bike riders as their number one training aid to measure exercise intensity.

While many experts agree that power output and VO2 max are far more accurate indicators, HRM have the advantage of being cheap, readily accessible and none-invasive.

HRM first hit the market en masse during the early 1990’s and have held their popularity until today. As with most technology, the monitors have improved immensely during this period with new features constantly being added. This has gone hand in hand with people gaining a better understanding of what, in theory, a HRM can help you achieve.

But do you really understand the advantages offered by a HRM? Do you really know how to get the most from using the monitor and how to integrate it into your daily training? For many riders, these are often nothing more than a status symbol; strapped to their wrist, beeping away—we all know somebody like this!

First, some basic physiology to explain why monitoring your heart rate (HR) is used as a means of measuring training intensity. As the intensity of exercise increases, your exercising muscles demand more oxygen. The total volume of oxygenated blood pumped with each heart beat is known as the Stroke Volume (SV).

To supply this increased demand, the heart rate increases, providing a greater volume of oxygen rich blood (known as Cardiac Output; l/min) at a greater rate for the muscles. As your HR increases in line with exercise intensity, it provides a useful indication of how hard the body is working.

Consider this equation: Stroke Volume (SV) x Heart Rate (HR) = Cardiac Output
While overtime and with training, your heart muscle may strengthen, thus increasing the SV, the only immediate way to provide a greater Cardiac Output is by raising the HR. So by measuring the HR, we are able to identify your body’s changing Cardiac Output which directly relates to differing levels of training intensity and stresses.

Before starting to use heart rates in your training, you need to learn what your maximum heart rate (MHR) is, as every level or zone of intensity is worked out as a percentage of this. While many text books will suggest using the simple equation of ‘220-age = MHR’, this can often vary significantly depending on the individual. The most accurate method to determine your MHR is to undertake a simple ‘progressive overload test’ that can be done on (preferably) a wind trainer or flat section of road.

Maximal Heart Rate Test

Having warmed up for at least 15 minutes, start pedalling in a relatively low gear—44x28 at a cadence of 90rpm would be a fair example. It’s important that you start in your biggest chain ring. Each minute, increase your gearing by one cog while maintaining this cadence. The test ends when you are no longer able to maintain 90rpm. At this point, you should have attained your MHR.

Depending on your current level of fitness, this test should last approximately 5 minutes. A test lasting less than 4 minutes is unlikely to be accurate as muscular exhaustion has occurred prior to reaching your MHR. Similarly, a test lasting upwards of 8 minutes usually involves too great a work load to have reached your MHR.

Working with Numbers

Once you know your MHR, you are able to calculate your different training zones. Changes from zone to zone are based on known shifts in physiological stress as your work rate increases on the bike. While there are several variations out there in use, for this article, we will review those recommended by Cycling Australia and which have been in use within the organization for several years.



Each of these six levels of heart rate relate to the training of a specific element of your physiological fitness. Structured training will often incorporate periods in several of these levels in any one single session depending upon the intensity demanded and recovery between efforts.

• RE – This is a very steady zone for recovery where you experience negligible stress when riding along. Conversation is very easy and your breathing should be light. Due to the low intensity, during colder months, you might want to wear more clothes to maintain your core body temperature.

Efforts at this intensity can, in theory, continue for many hours however due to the aim of it, i.e. recovery, they should last no longer than 60 to 90 minutes.

• E1 – This zone of intensity provides a significant cardiovascular exercise and is the essential foundation on which all endurance work is built upon. More stored body fat is burned at this intensity than at than any other.

Efforts at this intensity can, depending upon your experience and level of fitness, continue for up to 6 hours provided you continue to hydrate and replace carbohydrate stores regularly.

• E2a – At this intensity, endurance and aerobic power are developed. Due to the increased intensity, the volume of such efforts are reduced in comparison to RE and E1. Constant riding at this intensity is demanding upon your stored muscle glycogen and it’s important to remember to replace carbohydrates throughout your ride.

Continuous efforts at this intensity can last for between 45mins to 2 hours, depending upon your current level of fitness.

• E2b – This level of effort begins to near your ‘lactate threshold’—they are often relatively short and sharp efforts. Conversation should be difficult and your breathing more powerful. Some coaches urge riders to not spend too much time in this zone of training as they suggest it can lead to staleness, being neither a top-end effort nor a steady endurance building zone of intensity.

Continuous efforts here can last between 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending upon your current level of fitness. Due to the extra demands of this level of intensity, such training is often best done alone either on an indoor trainer, on quiet flat sections of road or a gradual steady climb.

• E3 – This is the maximum intensity for aerobic training. It places extreme loads on both your cardiovascular system and also your body’s ability to tolerate and remove the waste products that are produced during this type of effort—including heat, CO2 and lactic acid.

Training at such a high intensity develops muscular/strength endurance and also your ability to resist short-term fatigue through the build-up of these waste products. Many riders and coaches will generalise that E3 equates to their ‘lactic threshold’ or ‘anaerobic threshold’. Without additional expensive testing of the rider and further refinement, 85-92% MHR is too wide a zone to label it as your threshold. It’s in this zone somewhere but it is much more specific.

The total time in E3 in any one training session can last for anywhere between 15 to 40 minutes. These efforts are both physically and psychologically demanding. Efforts at this intensity are often broken down into a series of ‘intervals’ rather than one single exhausting block.

• E4 – Efforts at this level are usually only sustained ten or twenty seconds as they are done anaerobically; without oxygen. What that essentially means is that your body is unable to inhale enough oxygen to meet your body’s demands.

As a result, lactic acid is produced by your muscles and this is ultimately the limiting factor that dictates the length of time you are able to ride at this intensity. Muscular power and fatigue resistance are the attributes that are developed here.

They are often trained through short ‘intervals’, set periods of time riding at a high intensity, interlaced between periods of recovery.

It is worth noting that the response of your heart rate against increasing exercise intensity is quite slow. For this reason, heart rate measurement should only be used for sustained training efforts lasting over 60 seconds. It just doesn’t respond fast enough to provide an accurate reading on these efforts. E4 efforts should be ridden purely on ‘feel’ with heart rate used for feedback and as a reference for recovery.

Total training time in any one session at this heart rate should last for up to approximately 10 minutes. E4 training should only be carried out if you are fully recovered from previous training.

What Comes Next?

HRM are an invaluable tool for riders who race for a bit of fun and have limited time available for training. If you can only manage two 90 minute rides during the week, then you want to get the most from them so that you can benefit when you hit the trails on the weekend.

A heart rate monitor allows you to warm-up and cool-down at an appropriate intensity. Once ready to start, the HRM will provide instant feedback on the physiological stresses that you’re placing your body under. For example, in a session, you might plan to spend 30 minutes riding at E2a to develop your aerobic power.

As a novice or relatively unfit rider, you might choose to break this into two 15 minute efforts with a recovery period in between at E1. A HRM will guide you towards doing this training exactly as you planned.

At the pointy end of your race preparations, the HRM can be used when for interval training. Efforts at either E3 or E4 may range from 10 seconds to several minutes. The HRM can indicate that you are working at the desired intensity but, more importantly, it will show when your body has recovered to a pre-determined HR indicating you are ready to repeat the effort.

If time is limited, this is invaluable as you are instantly made aware of when your body is ready to make a repeat effort.

While heart rate does offer a relatively cheap method of monitoring your exercise, it is but one element relating to exercise intensity. Heart rate measurements can also be affected by other factors, causing it to increase or decrease. These include:

• Cold weather – The inhalation of cold air will reduce your recorded heart rate.

• Dehydration – If you are not sufficiently hydrated during a ride/race, your heart rate will become elevated above ‘normal’ readings for a similar intensity.

• Fatigue – As a session continues, you will find it increasingly difficult to maintain desired work rates as you become fatigued.

• Recovery – If you have not fully recovered from a previous ride/race, you will notice it is difficult to raise your heart rate to desired training levels. In this instance, it is best to have a rest day. Another useful indicator of sufficient recovery is your resting heart rate, taken immediately upon waking up before you have even gotten out of bed. A resting heart rate between 5 to 10 BPM above your normal resting heart rate would suggest that you are not fully recovered or are suffering from an illness.

• Illness – When you’re ill and attempt to ride, you will discover that both your resting and exercising heart rates will be elevated above normal levels.

What to Look For

While there is an ever expanding choice of heart rate monitors on the market, you do not necessarily need the latest or most expensive to do a job for you. Here are the essential features you should look out for:

• Interval/Lap counter
• Maximum and Average HR (overall and per interval/lap)
• Coded transmitter
• Target zones
• Stop watch/Count Down timer

Some people enjoy having the facility to upload data to a computer to review their ride. While this is not essential, if will probably make you pay more attention to the results from the ride and make it easier to spot abnormalities from the ride.

A heart rate monitor with the most basic and desirable features will usually cost around $110 to $250. Those offering more advanced features, like the ability to upload data to a PC, may be in the $500 and up price bracket.

Extra Reading

Hopefully we have shed some light on how heart rate monitors can help. Here are a couple of publications that go the next step with suggested training routines that will assist you in getting the most out of your time on the bike.

‘The Heart Rate Monitor Workbook for Indoor Cyclists’ by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed.

‘Heart Zones Cycling - The Everyday Cyclist’s Guide to Training with a Heart Rate Monitor’

Available at BA Gear store.