Cycling UK Forum

I share your pain. The only good experience I have had (a few times) is on the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Inverness. Dedicated carriage for bikes. Genuine reservation.

However, not the same for the London to Fort William route where you have to physically move your bike off and back on to the train at 4am in Edinburgh.

Maybe check out "MAF" heart rate, 180 minus age plus adjustments. This is roughly consistent with Zone 2 training. At this heart rate you are working your aerobic base. Most people are surprised how low it is and how slow they need to go.

Alternatively, take the advice of the first replier and ride mostly at the pace where you can maintain a conversation apart from steep hills.

The circuit is the same each time, starts and finishes at the same point. I don't compare one reading to another just trends so hopefully that averages out changes in temp, wind, etc.

Hi
I was trying to come up with a good measure of my cycling fitness. A good one in running is the MAF test which involves keeping the HR the same and seeing what time you do a certain distance in. I cycle with others so can't keep my HR the same, so wanted to control for this. So, for a given circuit of about 8 km, I:
- record my average speed in kn/hr
- record my average HR over the same time.
- do a little simple maths to get meters travelled per heart beat. This is what I track and want to improve. For me it turns out to be a smidge less than 4 m/hb.
Anyone have a view as to the efficacy of this measure of fitness? Ta