How to you setup you max heart rate for cycling ?

Hi,

Recently i've bought a smart trainer and started in the indoor biking to mostly to 'unload' weight from my knees. Up t'll now i user same max Heart rate that i use for running ~193bpm. However what i noticed is that my heart rate during exercises is much much lower that during running. I did a FTP test month ago and had 205w. Today i did a workout around 200w and my heart rate peaked for a while at 150 but mostly this intervals i has ~145bpm. From running perspective i know my Lactate Threshold ( measured by HRMpro ) is around 176bpm so i was not even close. And of course this "threshold" workout proposed by zwift resulted as Base in Garmin :) Can some of you give me some hints os how to setup it for cycling ? should i do some maxHR test but on the indoor bike ? Can i measure Lactate Threshold on bike ? ( Garmin proposes only FTP test).

Is lactate threshold different for running that cycling ? Personally i don't think so but it doesn't hurt to ask :)

  • Did you use a chest strap when on the bike? I'm no expert but I think you should get much higher then 150bpm on the bike... (my bike vs run max is about 7 beats)

  • Yes, i have chest strap. How you measure max HR on bike is there a good protocol ? or just do i do something like gradual ramp-up until failure? 

  • Well another FTP test would get you up there I guess :-)

    But sounds like your stamina is far superior from your leg muscles used for biking, but as I said, I'm far from an expert...

    Also maybe disable OHR before next attempt, to be sure it uses the strap, because to me it sounds to big of a difference

  • ok, I'll try that in 2 days : )

  • As a new cyclist... yes HR vs effort... totally different from running.  Legs just don't have the power to keep power up, and only using a few muscles so doesn't stress heart as much (i was once in the same boat).  As you bike more your legs will get better.... allowing higher effort/power/HR.  Elite/pro cyclists can get HR up much closer to their running HR (or the same?)

    BUT... to your point, yes, every sport has a different threshold HR and 'max HR'...  typically it is ~10bpm lower as a starting point.  Swimming for example is EVEN lower!

    If you are rested, it will be much easier for your legs to put out the power needed to get HR up as well.  That burn that limits you... comes on way quicker if already fatigued.

  • Is lactate threshold different for running that cycling

    Yes, it is. There is no correlation between LTHR for running and LTHR for cycling. In theory, you should test for each activity. 

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12740734/

    Although there is a debate about why, most explanations involve difference in weight bearing and muscle mass involved.

    For many, LTHR for running will be higher than LTHR for cycling, which will be higher than swimming. The same observations would be for Max HR.

    Now, it looks like the Max HR detection during running can change your Cycling Max HR. So the watch behaves like Max HR detection is independent of the activity (which is not the case from testing).

    Can i measure Lactate Threshold on bike ?

    You would need an Edge cycling computer to get a LTHR. In my experience, the LTHR from my Edge has the same value as the LTHR from my Epix2 (running).

    For trained athletes and competitions, custom lab testing, training approaches and optimizations like custom HR and power zones are common. This is why coaches make big bucks.

    I personally don't think there is enough value for the week-end warrior and amateur racer.

    Using the same LTHR and Max HR for running as for cycling will give you good enough training metrics and targets.

  • Thanks you all for your replays the have helped a lot to clarify things. I've made FTP test yesterday ( ramp-up on ZWIFT) got 180bpm so ~13BPM lower than my max but that being said i had dead quads :D and cardio wise i wasn't that much tired as muscle-wise :) 

    I will try to adjust my values accordingly for now i use auto-detection as it was working good for me in general and watch started to auto-detect max HR for cycling only ( it set it to 189 which is 4bpm lower than running) so i'll try to make ftp tests more often to see how it will react and try to improve my poor cycling and align it with my medium running :D