Heart rate zones on Strava setup

[phazer]

Hi

Ok so been trying to setup the HR zones on strava.
Did a 30 min TT (http://app.strava.com/activities/31976121" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), and took the avg heart rate of the
last 20 mins and using that as my lactic threshold. Avg heart rate for that 20mins being
156bpm



I am guessing my mx HR is around 195 bpm, 156 bpm then seems a little low for my lactic threshold?
Using that value however, I worked out the zones as follow :

Z1 - Endurance : 0 - 126
Z2 - Moderate : 126 - 145
Z3 - Tempo : 145 - 156
Z4 - Threshold : 156 - 164
Z5 - Anaerobic : 164 +

Does not seem right, anyone got any advice?

[campbellrae]

Best bet is to perform a ramp test to get your max HR as a starting point. Depending on where you live it can be done in a few different ways.

My preferred way would be to ride to long, steady gradient climb, including a very good warm up. Then when at the climb ride hard for 5 mins, then every 30 seconds change up a gear(accelerating to maintain your preferred cadence) until you feel you cannot sustain the new gear for the full 30 seconds then sprint flat out for another 30 seconds.

Beware this will hurt like hell and it could be best to have a friend on hand in case you black out

If you live in a flatter area, do as much of the building phase on the flat then hit a climb absolutely full gas.

The zones given to you by Strava seem waaay out unless your mas HR is very very low, which it could be for a variety of reasons but I would be surprised if they proved to be accurate when compared to your actual max HR.

[nathanong87]

if u did your 'time trial' test... and ur max effort resulted in 156bpm. why not just trust it?

judging by your speed i'm guessing you attempted this on rollers? if so, u might have been sandbagging yourself because rollers can't get you enough resistance to be a "max effort". This is just a guess though.

u can test for you max hr outside if u care to and test for your resting hr. zones are not like 100% set in stone, but they kindaaaaaa match my power zones i guess.