Last weekend I read about Amber's 2 hour spin above 100 rpm. http://seesally.blogspot.com/2008/03/successful-saturday-spin.html
That totally impressed me, so tonight I decided to try a mini version of that, within the IGP™ calling for a 60-70 minute spin. I knew I'd burn out pretty quick if I tried to maintain 100 rpm, but figured I could maintain 85-90 for a while. The next challenge was to stay upper zone 2, which for me tops out at 120 bpm.
10 min warmup gradually finding a gear to get me to target rpm and heart rate.
30 minutes, almost entirly at target rpm (more about heart rate in a minute.) My image was a long straight stretch into a headwind, trying to stay tucked in and smooth.
10 min slow oscillations from very slow <50 rpm to max smooth rpm ~120 and back
10 min cooldown.
Total 60 minutes, plus some yoga, and core. See plank times later.
Here's what I want explained. Once I got dialed in, I was at about 88 rpm pretty steady, with my heart rate pretty steady at 118 plus or minus a couple beats, and it was like that for 20 minutes. Then, at the 30 minute mark, or 20 minutes into my set, my heart rate dropped like a rock. Within a minute it was down to 110, then stayed around 112 or so for the last 10 minutes of my set. Same rpm, same effort, same postion. WFT? If I hadn't been watching the monitor I'd have figured something had gone wrong. About the same time I stopped sweating as much. I didn't know whether to gear up and drive the heart rate back up or what. In the end I decided to stay in the same gear, same rpm, and watch to see what happened. Which was pretty much nothing. In the end I stopped the set because my calves where starting to get a bit twitchy and feeling precrampish. I mostly ignored a strong case of tingly butt, stayed focussed on watching heart rate and rpm, and tried to spin smooth.
The other odd thing was during the cool down, I was actually starting to get a bit of a chill, which has never happened before. By this time, sitting up and pedalling easy, about 75 or 80 rpm, my heart rate was mid-80's.
Plank
Front 61 seconds
Left 42 seconds
Right 38 seconds
OMFG YOU ARE BECOMING AN ATHLETE!!! Who knew?! LOL.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I would surmise, your body is getting used to this workout stuff. My HR sometimes drops as I get in the groove as well and I have to crank it up a gear or increase my cadence or what not. It's called 'becoming efficient'. :)
Heart rates can also drop when you are not feeling well or if you are overtraining, but typically you aren't able to get your heart rate up initially - it doesn't just drop. In a race it may indicate dehydration too. The heart is an amazing tool!! I rather suspect none of these were the case for you last night.
Great job mi amigo!!! I'm really proud of how far you've come along!!
I fmy heart rate dropped like that i would have thought i was dying. Mine never goes down - just up...lol
ReplyDeletewell done!!
I agree with what Susi said..sure sign of improvement. Nice job bud!
ReplyDeleteIf mine dropped to 110 I would assume I was dead! That must be efficency at work, now tell us how!
ReplyDeleteI don't know -- I have never had that happen to me before. But, everybody is unique! :) :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is time for a visit to the confessional? ;)
That happened to me once...but I was in labour and had a baby about 6 hours later...don't imagine it is the same thing.
ReplyDelete