@Bada0Bing I want to try Zone 2 training because I seem to recall you speak highly of it. Unfortunately, the only device I have to measure my heart rate is my Apple Watch which I don't believe is entirely accurate. Do you think it will be close enough to get me in the ballpark?
I've found that calculating my zone 2 heart rate isn't as simple as I thought. I found this calculator:
https://www.heartmonitors.com/blogs/news/38044801-heart-rate-training-zone-calculator and based on an age of 45 and a resting heart rate (from Apple Watch) of 72, it puts my zone 2 at 127-139bpm.
Unfortunately, I have a hard time keeping my heart rate this low when I mountain bike. Do you have any tips or advice to help me train more effectively?
I've ridden pretty consistently but don't seem to be making a lot of gains in endurance or power so I've recently started jogging, hiking, yoga, and some body weight cross training to try to work my muscles differently.
I knew this was going to be your issue as soon as I started reading your post: "
I have a hard time keeping my heart rate this low when I mountain bike."
Everyone has this problem at first. My heart rate used to creep up out of zone 2 after a while during an easy run. It took a lot of discipline, but I just slowed down until my HR dropped back into the zone. Even walking if I had to. There's really no other way, you just have to slow down and keep putting in time in zone 2. Your body will adapt. You have to be in zone 2 to build the necessary engine that keeps you in zone 2.
Most people spend way too much time in zone 3, probably because it feels like they're working hard. My research has led me to believe you should spend as much time as possible in zone 2 and supplement that with a few hard workouts per week doing intervals in zone 4. An 80/20 split is the general guideline.
Your calc of 127-139 seems reasonable. We're the same age and my zone 2 is 104-135 for running and 107-129 for cycling. I would expect yours to be higher than mine because your resting HR is higher. I subscribe to a triathlon platform that analyzes the data from all my workouts and calculates the appropriate HR zones and paces.
It will be tough to maintain a consistent HR MTBing due to the nature of the sport, but your crosstraining ideas sound great. Especially easy jogging and hiking. Just go really easy and your body will build additional capillaries to supply more blood to your muscles. Then your HR will have an easier time staying low.
I'm not sure about the Apple Watch. I have a garmin with an optical HR, so it reads my HR on my wrist. I've compared it to my HR ******** my chest and it is very consistent. It just takes a bit longer to respond to changes in my HR. Another rule of thumb is if you're having trouble having a conversation, you're pushing above zone 2.
Another tip is to try to maintain zone 2 after a hard workout. Maybe after a hard ride, ride easy or hike for a bit. This is what I did. It made for some very slow cool downs, but I seemed to make progress every workout.
I'm interested to hear about your progress.
