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发帖数: 41236 | 1 http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/The-Ideal-Heart-Rate-f
One question our coaches are frequently asked is, 揥hat is the ideal heart-
rate zone for the bike and and run portion of a full Ironman?nbsp; Even for
someone just hoping to finish an Iron distance event this is an important
question. Many people think the answer is high zone 2 or zone 3 but
training and/or racing at that level would be quite tough, even for an elite
athlete.
The Considerations
When training for an Ironman race most of our training should be done in
zone 2, otherwise known as the endurance zone, a heart rate which can be
sustained over a very long period of time. Why? Because in this zone, where
our heart rate is about 20 to 30 beats below race-pace heart rate, or
lactate threshold, the body will utilize the biggest resource we have for
fuel: fat. We have a virtually unlimited supply of fat stores that if
trained properly would allow us to run back to back marathons or even longer
! When we cross over into zone 3, we tap into more of our glycogen stores
for fuel, and the body can only operate using stored glycogen for two to
three hours, tops.
Zone 3 efforts should be reserved for the final miles of an Ironman 70.3 or
even a marathon, and only for a well-conditioned athlete. Going into zone 3
in an Ironman, for an athlete who is racing longer than 11 hours, would be
risky, setting yourself up for a tough run. I抎 rather see an athlete avoid
depleting their stored glycogen and keep moving in zone 2, burning as much
fat as possible! Zone 2 may seem easy, but stick with it and over time you'
ll see an improved pace at the same heart rate.
Get the Drift
Another consideration for most us mere mortals is cardiac drift: a condition
that is likely to occur when you are getting back to normal training levels
or taking on a new training regime. This is where the heart rate rises
into zone 3 although your effort remains in the zone 2 range, a perfectly
normal occurrence, but one that should be avoided as much as possible. This
could mean walking in order to keep the heart rate in zone 2. I do allow
my athletes to experience this once per week when they are starting up
training but I make sure that they know to back right down and stay within
the set heart-rate parameters indicated in their training plan.
Once you have a solid endurance base, you shouldn抰 see much in the way of
cardiac drift unless you are dehydrated. If you are training or racing in
the heat, you may need to let your heart rate drift and instead measure your
effort by rate of perceived exertion (RPE). However, only do so if you have
taken into account the extra calories your body will use trying to keep
cool.
The Imaginary Athlete
To put all of this into perspective, let抯 take a look at an imaginary
athlete, Joe. Joe抯 lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) on the run is about
160-163. His zone 1 ends at about 137 beats per minute (bpm) or 84 percent
of his LT. When training in a zone 1-2 workout, Joe should be running easy
which is something I like to refer to as guilty pace! For him, that might
be around 135 bpm, which would put him near the top of zone 1.
When running "steady," which is also called aerobic threshold (AeT), Joe is
around 140 to 145 bpm. This puts him about the middle of his zone 2. This
would be about right for an Ironman effort. After 112 miles of cycling, if
Joe can maintain his "steady" running heart rate for 26.2 miles, he would,
with all other factors being equal, be running the same pace as he had on
his long training runs. That would lead to a pretty solid Ironman marathon
time.
Training your body to work efficiently in zone 2 will help you keep your HR
and pace even throughout an Ironman. This theory holds true for both the
bike and run portions although most athletes will see somewhere around an 8-
12 beat difference between their bike and run LTHR.
Let抯 explore LTHR on the bike continuing to use our athlete Joe as an
example.
First of all, how does Joe apply the principles of "steady" heart rate to
cycling? Let抯 say that Joe抯 LTHR on the bike is about 155 and his zone 1
heart rate ends at about 125 bpm or 81 percent of LTHR. When Joe trains on
his bike and is riding easy his heart rate is in zone, right around 125 bpm.
When he抯 biking "steady" he抯 around 135 to 140 which puts him in the
middle to the top of zone 2.
With the exception of climbing hills, he shouldn抰 reach over 140 bpm in
training when the workout calls for a "steady" effort. There are times that
he might see 145 bpm on a steep hill, but that would otherwise be rare.
Once again, these are his Ironman pacing efforts. In his Ironman race he
will still have to run 26.2 miles after this 112 miles of cycling, so he won
抰 be punching the accelerator at all on the bike if he wants to run well.
If you can follow the above recommendations, and practice the discipline of
simply training "steady" when your coach assigns you those zone 1 to 2
workouts, over time you will improve your running and cycling efficiency and
pace at less of an effort. These kind of improvements will pay big
dividends on race day. |
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