What should your average heart rate be, as a percentage of max HR or LT, during a race for each triathlon distance?
No opinions? Does the target heart rate for a race vary that much, even as a percentage of max hr or lthr? I’ve read people’s race reports where they wanted to keep their HR around 140 for an IM, but there’s no info on how they came up with that number.
For A HIM I keep my HRM below Zone 4 on the bike and swim. So, I am at or below 160 on the bike and 165 on the run. On the run I start below 165 and usually drift upwards. For the swim I am usually around 165, but just go by percieved effort, because it is tough to read my watch while trying to swim.
To be worth while, the HR numbers should be specific to you. It’s would be worth having an LT or VO2 test to accurately establish your own zones which would then dictate the area’s you should both train and race in. For me, Olympic races are too short to worry about HR zones, I just go as fast as I can. For a Half Ironman, I stay about 5-8 beats above my established Aet threshold and I can hold that for the 4 and a half hours.
I think there will be little consensus on this. It has got to vary greatly from one athlete to another influenced by fitness level in each discipline, weather, terrain. As you infer it will obviously be a lower target for long events. I used a HRM during the bike on my first 1/2 IM to keep from over-extending myself. On sprint events, I’m not sure I want to know what my HR is.
This remains a bit of a mystery to me. I ran the Around the Bay 30k running race last year at an AVERAGE HR of 179, that’s 92% of my max (195 or so, the highest number I’ve ever seen on my watch). As my HR crept up during the race, I’m sure I was around 183-185 or almost 95% of max for the second half. I don’t know my VO2 max but it’s things like this that make me question the conventional wisdom about mathematically calculating where my anaerobic or lactate thresholds are…
In a duathlon, I tend to run at around 180-185 bpm and cycle at around 175. It takes a lot of concentration to keep my HR up on the bike though…
I have the same issue. I don’t pay attention in the swim, try to keep it reasonable on the bike, usually under 155 for an IM, 160 for a HIM, 170 for Oly or shorter, which hurts like hell. Then it doesn’t seem to matter what the distance or pace, my HR immediately spikes to 180+ on the run, which speaks to a lack of something in my training…or an overabundance of excess weight!