Yours is a classic example of someone who is just not strong enough to get their HR up on the bike. Pretty common if you didnt come from a cycling background, and you hit it on the head. You just need to get stronger on the bike, hills, weights, sprints, etc. At some point your legs will catch up with your heart, and you will have made it!!!

Thanks Monty.

Would you recommend a specific free weight exercise? I always thought my legs were quite strong. Squats and leg press wise that is

Can I just smash my legs daily? Will I recover fast enough? I. E is it in my imagination that they hurt?

It's just a time and fitness thing. When you learn a new sport, it just takes time to have your physiology adapt to that particular set demands. I would say to do a lot more mountainous stuff. Strength on the way up, spinning out on the way down. Then some 10 minute 40k race pace intervals on the flats on a couple minutes rest. IT really is an all of the above approach when coming into cycling fresh and new..

If you already have a lot of explosive strength in your legs, then weights probably wont help much. Miles, miles, miles, and ride with groups that make you wish you hadn't gotten out of bed that morning... (-;

It could be in your head. The litmus test for me is how my quads feel walking down the stairs.

As far as smashing your legs daily - two weeks ago I hit 400mi on the bike for the week. Last week was 14 focused sessions at 21.2mph average of roughly 35.7mi each session (2/days). I hit 500mi last week.

I can smash my legs pretty hard and they recover quickly - even on the bike. I think there is a certain element in training where you are thinking 'this hurts, but I'm gaining fitness' vs 'this hurts and is detrimental to training'. Sometimes its hard to tell which from which, but you'll know over time how much you can turn up your 'pain cave'.

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Maybe you need some high rep body squats versus heavy squats with weights. Also, flutter kicks can help to engage the quads by pointing your toes and with the right form increase your swim gains.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

OK... More miles. I'll keep going.

This is a good idea. Maybe do 200 body weight squast and see where I fall over.

How is your bike time compared to other racers?

Run time?

Swim time?

body weight squats are legit - nearly to full ass to grass full form, explosive and controlled...

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

If you’re really OG - then Iron Mikes - jumping in a lunge on one side to the other without stopping —-

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

Run atm is
5km 24mins
10km 55mins
21km 1:55 < need to retest this soon

Swim is
1km 16mins
1.9km 31mins < only training swimming once a month atm

Cycling I'm doing up to 3 times a week. 3 to 5 hours
Averaging 25kph an hour... My legs kill if I do 28kph for an hour. What's that... 150watts.

No difference in speed in cycling in the last 4 months of base building

That sounds painful hahahha

You could just have a low max heart rate - the accepted norm of 220 minus your age isn't necessarily true. I had mine tested (basically a ramp test) which have me max of 166bpm (something to do with large organs apparently, or so I tell the mrs).

Run max was about 10bpm higher at 178, which from the coaches experience is about normal.

If you're going to train using hr, get a test done - as with any training, know your baseline.

If I recall u are also in Thailand, with heat here normally HR is higher than cooler places except if u train indoors with aircon.

Could be your cadence is very low so u are using strength rather than aerobic engine? Training on tired legs so u can't do much before running dry? Maybe add some low cadence (50rpm) biggest gear max resistance strength sets or hill climbs to get more leg strength? Or could be you have more in your legs than u think, is it cramping and you physically can't move your legs at all or is it discomfort?

I also have a low hr most of the time, but pushing on bike full gas you should be able to go quite high for me similar to my run peak hr

Were you feeling fatigued going into the workout?

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

Are you only doing long constant effort rides or are you varying the effort?
I find it hard to maintain >175W for long periods if I'm not terribly motivated or feeling good.
However, when I have an objective reference to judge myself against, whether it's a power meter, riding against the clock, or a ride with friends in a competitive environment, I can do a hell of a lot more.
I may feel like I'm working hard at 175W and 130bpm but in reality I'm just idling and if I start pushing I can average 300W for 20 mins or 240W for an hour without suffering afterwards.
But if you haven't been pushing your intensity I'd advise keeping the duration of hard efforts short at first. Do longer durations on the bike by all means but don't just pedal hard for an hour, or two hours. Ride comfortably and add in intervals of higher intensity. This will help take the mental aspect out of the equation, and help you understand what you can actually do. I'd start with many short intervals. Something like 20x 1min at a hard effort followed by 1min easy spinning may feel far easier than a constant moderate effort but contribute far more to building resilience on the bike. Also you can see how your HR responds during the hard minute and recovers during the easy one. If there's no variation there's reason to be confused! You can also alternate between short hard efforts and longer intervals of say 10mins. Then after doing these a few times and assuming you manage to hit higher intensities, you can start increasing the duration. 2x20min intervals or 3x12min or 15min intervals at just below the max effort you can maintain for that period is a good target, but start shorter. Over/under intervals are also worth considering, since the variation in intensity may help you identify what you are, or are not able to do. Although, these are best done with a power meter or alternatively virtual power with a trainer and appropriate software (Zwift, Trainerroad, etc...)

Bingo. It may simply be genetic. What would be interesting is if OP went full on anaerobic for intervals. What is the peak HR then? In my peak fitness in my 30s, I would almost never see a HR above 165. At the time I was around 4 W/kg for 60 minutes (and HR in the mid/upper 150s) and close to 5 W/kg for 5 minute power. My physiology leans towards being a big diesel engine, and my "sprint" showed it. Getting to 10 W/kg in a sprint was about it.

And like you, I could eek out another 5 to 10 bpm during a run.

I’m asking in races how are your times compared to other racers. Eg in a large race are you too 25% swim. Bike top 50% and run top 40%?

The reason I ask is my heart rate is very low on the bike and it is far and away my best and much more experience than swim and bike of the 3 VS other racers

My run is 50 beats higher and it is by far and away the worst of the 3 VS other racers

Hey,

This was exactly me, many years ago, when I started training by heart rate. I noticed that while running, I could get my HR up or over my lactate threshold really easily, but on the bike, I always lagged 10-20 bpm behind at what felt like a colossal effort.

The solution for me was learning to go hard on the bike. I hate to say it in such generic terms, but that was the answer. It took a couple of years of work, and signing up for a local time trial series (every other week a TT format hill climb, every other week a flat 16km TT), to finally be able to get my HR to respond similarly in both sports.

I'd suggest keeping at it. Hard intervals in training, of varying lengths, and regularly, multiple times a season, hard TT efforts.

Good luck!!

-Eric

Good idea re test. I suspect my max HR is around 188, I base that on my running but let's trial!