Road bike vs stationary - pulse rate

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2009-06-03 1:41 PM

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Subject: Road bike vs stationary - pulse rate
It's been very rainy the past couple of days, so I opted to do my interval training this morning on my stationary bike. This is not my road bike on a trainer, but a standard stationary bike. After my warm-up I'm supposed to do 5, 5-minute intervals getting my heart rate to Z4-5a. For me, this translates into 155-164 (Z4) and 165-168 (Z5a), which I can do reasonably well on the road bike. Today, though, I had the resistance cranked up such that it was very hard to push the pedals - my cadence dropped from my usual 95-100 to 85-90 and I don't know if I could have increased the resistance much while maintaining a decent cadence. But, my HR wouldn't budge over about 150. Most of the time it was about 145 - solid Z2.

If I were to do an LT test on the stationary, would it likely be much lower than what I got on the road bike? Is it common to have difficulty getting the HR to the same level on a stationary? Am I just so uber-fit from training? (Just kidding on that last one - I know that ain't the case.)

-Kirk



Edited by KirkD 2009-06-03 1:42 PM

2009-06-06 1:39 AM
in reply to: #2192473

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Elite
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Subject: RE: Road bike vs stationary - pulse rate
Are you on any medications?

What was your RPE at the 150hr? Was it the RPE you have when you're normally in z5? If so, it could be that your body was just telling you that it's not the day for it and it's fatigued.

If that's not the case and your RPE was in line with the z2 HR you were experiencing then it most likely means that you just were hammering enough on the stationary bike.
2009-06-06 9:13 AM
in reply to: #2192473

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Subject: RE: Road bike vs stationary - pulse rate
Nope - no medications.

My RPE on the stationary was more or less what I would have expected. Interestingly, it seemed like the limiting factor on the stationary bike was my legs and not my cardiovascular system. Maybe I had the resistance set too high?
2009-06-06 9:38 AM
in reply to: #2192473

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Elite
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Subject: RE: Road bike vs stationary - pulse rate
I really don't have any athletes that train on a stationary bike so based on your response I can't provide much insight. However, if your RPE is in line with your HR; meaning if your RPE is what it is on the road bike at 150bpm but your leg strength seemed to be your limiting factor in getting your HR up then that makes me think that it's lack of power in your legs on that day; which sounds like is not normally your limiting factor. This could be for several reasons, the most common of which is fatigue. A common cause for not being able to get your HR up no matter what the effort is fatigue.
2009-06-06 9:57 AM
in reply to: #2192473

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Subject: RE: Road bike vs stationary - pulse rate
Thanks for the information. Fatigue may indeed be it. I had run my first triathlon on Sunday and may not have been fully recovered by the time I did the intervals.

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