Heart rate not going up

[darbydog]

Hoping someone could give me some advice. I did 3 races this weekend and although I finished ok I felt flat. In the last race I used my HR monitor to record the data and when I down loaded it I saw my avr HR was 152 and I could never get it to rise above 168. my max HR is 194 and I will usually ave 165-170 in the training races I do and feel fine.

I could follow Ok but if I tried to do any efforts to chase a move or get into a break I just could not get any power and felt bad.

Should I rest or could it have been just one of those days?

Thanks in advance for any information.

[Tippster]

Hoping someone could give me some advice. I did 3 races this weekend and although I finished ok I felt flat. In the last race I used my HR monitor to record the data and when I down loaded it I saw my avr HR was 152 and I could never get it to rise above 168. my max HR is 194 and I will usually ave 165-170 in the training races I do and feel fine.

I could follow Ok but if I tried to do any efforts to chase a move or get into a break I just could not get any power and felt bad.

Should I rest or could it have been just one of those days?

Thanks in advance for any information.

An important part of training is listening to your body.
Have you shown any of the signs of over training?
Do you keep a training diary?
Have you looked back through to see if you have been progressively showing signs?

Without more imformation, it would be a pure guess as to whether you have a virus / cold / flu on the way, muscle problem or have simply over trained. Your waking HR gives an early sign of illness and overtraining. Do you record this in a training diary?

[darbydog]

Just getting ove a cold but the last training race on Tuesday everything was fine.good ave hr power was good. Even took it easy last week. Looking at what I have I have been steady the last few weeks even with the cold. Did a TT the with the cold and was able to ave 175 for the 8.4 miles.

Normally don't even record the data at races thought I would this time to get some data. If I did not do that I would just say it wasn't my day.

I feel fine and even on Friday when I did some efforts I was able to get my HR up.

[strobbekoen]

For me personally, the only time my heartrate cant go very high is due to fatigue, in other words, too tired to push hard enough to get the HR up.
For a cold or flu, heartrate would be higher than normal.

[TunedCannondaleR700]

Agreed when you cant get your heart rate up you are just tired, let your body recover, 3 races in one weekend is alot.

[big fellow]

assuming you were well fed, ie enough calories in your body, then it also sounds to me like fatigue

bit of rest can do wonders!

[darbydog]

So rest it is. How much and what kind of rest would you recommend?I took the wife out for a spin last night and kept the HR around 105

[Tippster]

So rest it is. How much and what kind of rest would you recommend?I took the wife out for a spin last night and kept the HR around 105

Not sure what you HR zones are. Keep any cycling in Zone 1...!

[darbydog]

How much rest do you think? 2 days 3 days?

[Tippster]

How much rest do you think? 2 days 3 days?

Sounds like a cop out, but in many books I've read they explain not to copy someone else's training program. You need to build a training program and then adjust that program according to feedback from your body.

In brief, let your body tell you when it's ready to train at a higher intensity.

[Bruiser]

I agree with Tippster that you need to listen to your body rather than the response times of others.

Some signs your body may give you include:

swollen lymph glands (under the jaw and above your neck),
early symptoms of a cold,
unusual signs like acne or mouth ulcers.

It takes time to know your bodies signs but they are worth knowing.

[darbydog]

There in lies part of my problem. I do not feel tired. Even in the race I did not feel bad just could not go on the attack.

Just out of curiosity do you guy's race each weekend or do you target specific events?

[Bruiser]

You don't feel tired when overtraining rather your body strugles to recover as your imune system is low.

I race every weekend to maintain my form but also target a few races.

[darbydog]

So i take it that you guy's will just test to see when your rest period is done and you can start training hard again.

[kevbikemad]

so, from what I can tell, you may be over racing as a form of overtraining. racing is a great form of training, but there is a limit.

3 races in one weekend? what kind of racing?

it does sound like you are trying to go hard all the time, (raced on tuesday and went hard on friday, before 3 races in one weekend) that is not really an effective way to train or improve. as you probably realize, the top pros don't race all the time, they race, then go train for a few weeks, taper and then race again. you need to do a variety of types of riding, incorporating and executing a "plan" based on training principals that will make you faster. Hammering and racing all the time (a couple times a week it sounds like), may make you faster in the very short-term, but will lead to burn out (quickly).

are you following a structured training plan based on any periodization principals? you should really consider racing less.