So when racing today in a sprint, my heartrate throughout the bike and run was about 157 for a similar pace and RPE as what I’d normally be at 148-151. 157 is usually about where I get the labored breathing and can’t keep pushing for that long, but today, it felt like about the 148-151 range.
So my question is: when you’re racing and your heart rate is elevated from the adranaline and the effort, etc, does everything shift upward (aerobic threshold, lactate threshold, max hr, etc), or did I spend an hour at what’s normally pretty close to my max effort?
i don’t wear a heart rate monitor for races, but i notice that i tend to push a higher RPM in the same gears than i do in training…there’s definitely an aspect of adrenaline there.
This is exactly why I dont race with a HR monitor or GPS in a race and sometime during training. You get too caught up on what you think your supposed to be doing. Just wear a timer, work hard, and have fun.
During a race, I turn my computer upside down. I don’t need to know anything that my body can’t tell me. Armed with that and the knowledge that you are GOING to go out too fast, that’s how I run a race. Three of the fastest kids on my team have done something similar. Jess, the biggest number cruncher on the planet, tapes a piece of paper over the wattage / hrm on her computer. One of the guys simply doesn’t race with his powertap. He unplugs it. When I asked him why, he said, “If I’m not going all out, I’m not going fast enough. A computer couldn’t tell me how I feel.”
Aha! Caffeine! I’d completely forgotten the large coffee I drank for pre-race hydration. So that kicks up the HR, but does it also shift all the effective zones up, too?
I like the idea of just racing by feel and only carrying the computer to track and review the data later.