Trouble getting to zone5

#1

hello. first post, and hoping for some perspectives from experienced bikers. i’m relatively new to using bikes for exercise. i’m a kinda-fit 50m with low 40ish vo2max and 48bpm resting heart rate.

i’ve been trying to build my base cardio levels by getting in some long zone2 workouts on the bike for the last four months. i’ve also been adding in zone5 workouts the last couple of weeks.

my issue is that when i do the zone5 workouts (i’m just trying to do intervals of 2mins hard followed by 2mins slow) i’m unable to get my heart rate anywhere near zone 5 before my legs start burning so much i have to slow down or stop peddling.

i’m using an indoor exercise bike (bowflex c6) and setting the resistance to 30-40% of max.

maybe i just need to keep cycling to strengthen my legs enough so i can get my heart rate up, but i would love to hear any thoughts from any long-time riders out there.

thanks
shane

#2

Hi Shane,

In my opinion basing yourself on heart rate is great for lower zones, like zone 1-2. But for harder work, a power meter will always be a better way to determine in which power zones you are training. Those zones are based on your FTP.

Of course if you don’t have access to a bike/trainer with a power meter this becomes more difficult and you have to base yourself of perceived effort and HR.

Cheers,
Daniel

#3

Same here. If I want to reach higher hr zone, I need to do a ramp. Intervals do not let me reach zone 5. Or I can do that on an elliptical though.

#4

2 minutes is not really long enough in my experience, of course we all react differently. For Z5/VO2 I like 3-5minutes with total time around 15-20minutes @ Z5 and I’d want to get 80% of that at Z5 HR - if you are not getting time in Z5 you could try a hard start, by that I mean make the first minute a very hard effort, and then settle into the next 2-4minutes at a normal Z5 intensity, this gets the HR up earlier.

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