Max HR dropping with each interval set?

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phourgenres
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Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2011 7:19 pm

by phourgenres

I don't quite understand why. Can anyone explain this to me? I usually take 6-8 minutes between my anaerobic intervals, but with each set I notice my max HR will peak less than before. Although my watts drop with each set, I would think only watts should, not HR.

On the other hand, if I take a 20-30 minute break between sets, my HR gets close to its peak number again.

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Mads Kock
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by Mads Kock

Not to sound to hard but you too push more :-) if you can't reach the wanted level of HR it's probably because you are too tired. Maybe try with a bit shorter intervals for a beginning so you can push harder through each interval.

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eric
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by eric

You're not recovered enough from the last interval.

Lemule
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Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:34 am

by Lemule

I don't know whether you spin or push a big gear but this will make a difference.

What intervals are you doing at the minute? Try shorter sharper intervals.

Will have the desired effect.

Similar to what someone else suggested before.You appear to be too tired in the legs to reach max hr.

I.e. you are reaching your muscular fatigue before cardiovascular fatigue.

Hope this helps.

BWO
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Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 10:43 pm

by BWO

HR in my opinion is virtually useless in training. It has no basis on effort. It is all about watts. 300w now is 300w in 5mins time, but 180HR producing X watts now and 180HR in 5mins time may not be producing same watts as before.

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11.4
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by 11.4

You'll get this same phenomenon whether you read HR or watts or speed. The point of an anaerobic workout is to go to the max. Your second and third tries will never match your first if you did the first one properly. The trick is that if your second is 85-90% of the first, it's still a good workout. If you start dropping faster, it's time to stop.

If this were threshold testing, it would be different. You would want to be able to do the same or even a slightly greater output each time. But anaerobic is a maximal effort and you are only doing a threshold test if it's a repeatable level.

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