cTHR zone help

Training
1

So, I’m a bit concerned my cTHR isn’t quite right or that I don’t understand what this really is.

So on Dec 2nd I did a FF and my cTHR was set at 159bpm.
On Dec 21st after completing a Tempo block did another FF cTHR was set at 165bpm
On Jan 4th as part of my ToS prep plan I did HM and it set my cTHR at 179.

I can guarantee you there is a 0% chance that I could ride with a heart rate at 179 for more than 10 minutes.

So every time I ride, I rarely ever hit zone 5 ( >179). If I do it is for a couple seconds and I literally get dizzy if I stay here for more than 30 seconds.

I’m concerned my cTHR heart rate is artificially high and that drags my Zone levels up to artificially high levels.

For instance: on Violator and UAE:1 my average heart rate was 163 which were the two hardest rides I have done in the last few months. I cannot imagine going any harder than this ever. Both of those were 1 hour rides.

163 is consider the beginning of the middle of my ZONE 3 Tempo heart rate zone, which is supposed to be a Tempo ride that I could sustain for a few hours, after 1 hour on each of these rides I needed help off the bike and up the stairs.

So… Questions:

  1. is it possible my HM gave me a elevated cTHR
  2. how much does heart rate affect my performance measurements within a ride?
  3. am I right in assuming this is off base?
  4. if you answered YES to #3, should I adjust this manually until my next FF?

Thanks for your responses and help!

2

Looks to me like you could’ve had an issue with your HR monitor during your HM.

I have a max heart rate around 177 with a cTHR currently set at 163.

My last FF gave a result of 164 and a more recent HM 162.

I tend to find to find that FF gives a higher reading due to the higher continuous max effort of the 5min test compared to the HM ramp.

3

@Crazyiniowa1 I agree with @Dafydd that your HRM may have had an issue - check the battery or the connection. If you have already replaced the battery make sure that it ist one of those bitter batteries - they don’t work as well in an HRM.

The numbers shouldn’t change that much so quickly. I think adjusting manually would be a good idea until your next test.

4

My cTHR flips between 165 and 159 from test to test. I think that just depends on me that day. Your 179 reading seems outside of that range.

I think the higher reading is right and manually adjust when a test gives me a lower one.