Hello all.
I was looking my training data and I see that my heart rate is seems low compared to my given power. Last 3 months I was at base phase. In average, I trained 6 hours in a week. Generaly 1 hour treshold or Vo2Max session in a week and remaining is Z2 ride. In screenshot you can see my power and heart rate zone distrubition. Do you think is this normal? In my last session I did 1.5 hour Z2 at %55 FTP and my average heart rate was 116, seems low to me. My resting heart rate 50 right now and max heart rate is 190, age 25. 184 cm height, 79 kg.
Also I am training for 4 years but my garmin watch shows 48 - 49 Vo2Max which make me upset. I know that it is not a lab result just an estimation from wrist but still I don’t understand why it is so low.
My overall intensity and volume is just fine right now so I believe also FTP set correctly. If I do more I feel overreaching and excess fatigue because of the other life activities. Last year I averaged 7.5 hours weekly.
I don’t think that seems to abnormal at all, my heart rate would be lower at 55%. That’s not really zone 2 in a 5 zone model even, so I would not expect anything higher. At that intensity, my HR barely breaks 105bpm (for context I am 23 years old, 140lbs, resting HR of about 32 bpm and max at 195ish). When I do proper endurance work at 75% ftp for 3-4 hours, my HR usually stabilises at 125-130bpm.
Also - don’t pay attention to that Vo2 statistic. It has nothing to do with reality. Seriously, it’s about as accurate as letting a monkey pick a number between 30-90 at random.
The last hour of my most recent 3 hour Z2 ride averaged 113bpm (63% of MaxHR) at 65% of FTP, and I’d say I’m still a looooong way from being a well-conditioned endurance athlete.
Not unusual. Maybe a little on the low end of the distribution, there can be great variability among athletes when it comes to heart rate response.
One thing to consider…as training load goes up blood volume will increase. At increased blood volume you can maintain similar work rates at lower heart rate. You can review the Coyle/Coggan work on performance vs blood volume to get an idea of how this interaction behaves among trained athletes (probably the founding papers for blood doping ). So maybe after your basecamp you have achieved some new level of fitness & you are just able to ride the same Z2 power at a lower heart rate.
Of course, depressed HR can also be a sign of overreach/overtraining…so there is that to consider. With your age, workload, and prudent intensity schedule I find it unlikely that you are overtrained.
Garmin VO2max estimates can be wildly inaccurate on an absolute basis. I think it’s good for letting you know if VO2max is INCREASING or DECREASING…but not for letting you know what it actually is. So please don’t waste any mental energy regarding this. You are doing just fine. Next time you finish ahead of somebody in a race be sure to let them know your Garmin says your VO2max is less than 50. They will love to hear it.
The Garmin VO2 can be useful and realistic. You didn’t tell us your FTP which would help as far as a sanity check.
I will say though, that you need to go on your watch and double check all the HR settings. Having the wrong Max HR will both impact your VO2max estimate, s well as alter your zones.
). So maybe after your basecamp you have achieved some new level of fitness & you are just able to ride the same Z2 power at a lower heart rate.