Hi gang!
I’ve just recently resumed endurance bike riding. I just started road riding about 10 weeks ago after 3 months of riding my trainer 3 times a week. I’m up to 50-miles on my Saturday ride.
I’m 50-yrs old, 209 lbs, 5’10". My calculated max is 170bpm but I’ve seen 185 on my Polar so I"m using that for my calculations. I just did a 10-mile time-trial baseline ride a few days ago. My average heart rate was 158bpm - 85% max. I feel that was the max heart rate I could maintain so I’m treating that as my current AT.
My legs were struggling to keep my heart rate up but I wasn’t breathing that hard. It seemed like my aerobic conditioning is way ahead of my muscular endurance. Does this make sense? My guess is that as I train more I’ll be able to raise my AT to about 92% max.
I looked at my bike logs from 1995 and 1996 (the last time I trained regularly) and my heart rates then were much higher and my speeds were lower.
It may be due to the fact that my asthma was not being treated back then (or my hormonal disorder - pituitary failure) but it is now. The higher heart rates then may have been due to asthma issues rather than increased muscular endurance.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!