Am I overdoing it?

clearz

Hi

I used to cycle a lot last year but to be honest I've been pretty lazy this year so far. That was until this week when I said to myself I'll spend the next month building up my fitness. I'm 26 years old. I've started a routine of 16 miles a day over part hilly, part flat terrain which I've done since Monday last. This usually takes me about 1 hour 10 mins and my heartrate averages 165 I'd like to do the 6 days a week for the next month to build back up my fitness level (and shed a few pounds in the process) but I was wondering would this be overdoing it. The thing is I feel really comfortable training at 165 HR, any less and I feel like im not pushing it at all. Any advice would be great.

thanks,
John.

hunnymonster

your body will tell you quickly enough if you are overdoing things. Having said that, doing the same thing day in day out is not the best idea. Try to push really hard some days and just float along other days. 165 is just a number unless we know your max and min.

clearz

Yeah sorry I should have posted my min and max. Well my max is ~200 and my min is about 65 but I haven't checked it in a while so ill check it when I got home from work and ill repost it. The terrain is quite variable on the two routes that I usually take with a couple of big hills that are a challange and 2 straights about 1 mile each that are really good for a sprint so overall I think I get a good benifit from them.
Physically my muscles dont hurt at all so I know I am not overdoing it in this respect its just my heart that im worried about even though it seems fine.

John.

hunnymonster

Is there some reason you're concereda about your heart. Some kind of medical history?

Best to check your RHR first thing in the morning (after emptying your bladder if necessary). Also the formulae can be very wrong so if you are able, actually measure your max rather than calculate it.

tunney

A handy thing to work off is "80% of your training should be at under 80% of of HR max"

Very rough, very vague just a guideline.

But 83% of MHR for 1:10 five days a week as the sole cardio training for an untrained individual could be counter productive (i.e. sickness and illness lies that route) pull it back down. Most gains are made through consistency not just intensity.

clearz

I tested myself on a running track a couple of months back and got up to 196 HR. I could have pushed it more to 200 or above but I pulled back since I was on my own incase I colapsed or something. I tested my RHR first thing in the morning.

I have no issues with my heart I just read the other day that you shouldn't do cardio more than 5 days a week so it got me worried that even though I feel completely comfortable training at 165 for 1:10 a day I might be doing damage.

As I said before I did a lot of cycling last summer often doing a 40-50 mile cycle on a Saturday and doing an 85 mile cycle from Donegal to Cavan one day.