Fat burning heart rate zone

[Rich Hill]

This is all lovely theoretical talk but how long does it take you to recover from a 20 minute effort that you would do over 2 hours?

If you don't allow adequate recovery you will not be able to continue with the 20 minute efforts.

Recovery requires you to restock your body with food.

Longer rides also attain subtle adaption that is not possible on shorter rides - this is how I find it. For example I find my V02 (ability to put air into my blood) goes very high after doing long rides over shorter rides.

Long rides do cause me to loose some initial power in sprinting.
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Imagination is the war against reality....

[pheonix]

I'm sorry, I don't understand any of the above by Rich Hill. I just want to lose about a stone and a half. I intend to ride about 2-3 times a week for up to a max of 2 hours when it isn't raining.

[martin smith]

[Rich Hill]

[Rich Hill]

[JimmyRay]

20mins flat out even for a highly trained cyclist is barely going to burn 400kcals tops. 2 hours at a steady/mod effort will burn closer to 1200kcals.

However, super steady riding will have you clearing barely 400kcals an hour, which as mentioned could be burnt in as little as 20mins if you are a sick, fit little fu.....

I personally subscribe to the harder the better mentality... or certainly going as hard as you can and still be able to get on the bike and do it again teh next day anyway.

Apparently at its purest level, riding steady will remove more fat than say riding harder, something complicated to do with metabolisation, however, for the majority of us, the parameters required to control this are unobtainable, so you are better off following the create any calorific deficit route.

IMO 2 hours is a good distance, enough time to burn plenty of calories, but not enough to build that horrendous super hunger you get off teh long rides.

Have fun out there.

In other news, I dipped under 77KG this morning for the first time this year. I'll be at race weight in time for the winter...come on!

[pheonix]

I think I can understand JimmyRay's piece.
So it appears to me the best thing I can do, is to do my 2 hour rides at a hardish pace so that I know I have done some exercise at the end of it, but will be able to do a similar ride again 2 days later. I did a 3 hour ride last Saturday morning and my legs are still aching now! Hoping to get out again tomorrow.
As a guide the ride I did on Saturday was 3 hours at 80% HRmax and the HRM indicated that I had burnt about 1450 calories.

[Chrissylaa]

[Davey C]

[Andrew Jackson]

Eat more protein and less carbs. Pasta and bread full of empty cals. Go out and just enjoy riding, throw away the HRM. Eat less, eat smart - paleo is the future.
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You can't polish a turd

[Davey C]

[pheonix]

I won't change my d*et It is a good family, home cooked averagely good d*et that I am not fussed to try and improve.
Re the HRM, I like to download the numbers into the Polar software. Hopefully I'll see improvements in weight loss and average heart rates.
(Why do some words get blocked?)

[Joursans]

[Chrissylaa]

[KJ]

Too much diet spam around

[Joursans]

[KJ]

School dinners in the 1960's

[stephec]

Spam is a wonder food.

Spam fritters are the food of the gods, they taste lovely and plenty of fat to fuel those long slow rides.

And as for a fried spam and egg barm from a burger van in an A road layby, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

[Dave Griffiths]

Firstly, someone new to cycling has to be made welcome and encouraged, there have been some good posts in that respect.
‘Chuck away the heart monitor’, well, if it gives someone an added interest then ‘why’?
I’m ‘sort of’ in the same position as Phoenix, in that I’m no longer truly able to ride with a group, just not strong enough, so need some incentive to keep going out.
To that end, I find the Garmin 705 very useful. I can download rides and ‘see’ routes and fully compare rides (and kid myself that I’m improving).
Remembering back to 1997, when I restarted cycling, I had no weight issues, was a pretty fit distance runner but, boy, it took some time to adapt to cycling properly. Everything ached, everything got sore but at least I knew (I think) what I was aiming to achieve.
I think key advice has been given in that you should ‘enjoy’ your riding. Years ago, when training seriously, for road racing, we used to mostly stick to known ‘main road’ routes, where fairly accurate distances could be established. Nowadays, there’s no problem in making up your own routes (you need a variety) and whilst they might not each be comparable in terms of ‘toughness’, when using a Garmin or similar, it doesn’t matter. The ride will be recorded and statistics compared, so that any improvement can be seen.
I can choose to do a 15.5 mile local route (all my measured routes start from home), each night, if I wish i.e. I wouldn’t need a rest night but my average speed can vary from 15 mph up to 19, depending on how I feel. If I do a 3 to 4 hour ride, I definitely benefit from a rest day (although I can ‘push myself’ to do another ride).
HR values vary greatly, from person to person, and I notice that even a one week ‘break’ will result in much higher values on a given climb. Personally, I know that I can ride ‘all day’ (say up to 6 hours) if I don’t allow my HR to go much over 160 bpm and average say 150.
On Sunday, I went out with the Rugby Velo Club, they really did ‘nurse me along’ but the ‘very nice route’ took in some sharp hills where, even riding steadily and being tailed off, I was seeing 172+. After 20 miles I was sensing the impact of this and said ‘Goodbye’ (this was pre-arranged, by me, before we set off, then nobody feels aggrieved). Acting in time, I was still able to ‘enjoy my ride’ and finished with 52 miles in 3hrs 16 mins (ok, shockingly slow to some but pleasing to me!).
That is slower than my recent ‘tailwind’, 100mile, Bristol to Rugby ride of 6 hrs 22 mins including a ‘One Stop’ shop visit in Evesham (must have lost 15 mins in all, buying and eating, but didn’t have my Garmin).
So, I suggest Phoenix does lots of shorter rides and gets in a few long ones when time allows. I’m certain that the weight will reduce in a gradual manner, could take a year.
Regarding Rich Hill, he might be bigger (Ok, he IS bigger) than Contador but he enjoys life, must have a very good constitution (whatever that means) and is capable of ‘pushing himself’ far harder than many and, for a family guy, with a demanding job, he produces great results. It would be quite a challenge for someone to follow his regime!
First time I actually met Rich was on the start line of a Rugby Velo evening time trial. Apparently, he had already ridden from his then place of work, (near Towcester) and was setting out on a 25! Most riders now turn up in cars.

[Andrew Jackson]