Once you have your Max Heart Rate you can calculate your heart rate zones. If you haven’t read our article about working out your max heart rate click here to read it first. Also, using the Heart Rate Zones is described in this article.
So how do you work out your cycling heart rate zones?
You use this formula: HR Value = Max HR times your HR percentage
Here is an example:
To work out your E3 Heart Rate Zone. That’s 85% to 91% of your Max Heart Rate. You’ll need to calculate two values. One for the start of the zone (85%) and one for the end of the zone (91%).
If your Max Heart Rate is 197.
To calculate 85% of Max Heart Rate take 197 and times it by .85 = 197 * .85 = 167
To calculate 91% of Max Heart Rate take 197 and times it by .91 = 197 * .91 = 180
So, this means that your E3 Zone starts at 167 beats per minute and finishes at 180 beats per minute.
Here are the zones in percentages for you when you work out your cycling heart rate zones:
Description | Intensity | Code | % Max Heart Rate |
---|---|---|---|
VO2 MAX Boosting | Very Hard – Can’t speak | VO2 | 92 – 100 % |
Anaerobic Threshold Endurance | Hard – Difficult to speak at all | E3 | 85 – 91 % |
General Aerobic Endurance | Moderate – Talk in short sentences | E2 | 75 – 84 % |
Base Aerobic Endurance | Easy – Able to carry out conversation | E1 | 65 – 74 % |
Recovery | Easy – Able to carry out conversation | REC | 50 – 64 % |
Once finished you will have a table that looks like this (based on a Max Heart Rate of 197):
Description | Intensity | Code | Heart Rate |
---|---|---|---|
VO2 MAX Boosting | Very Hard – Can’t speak | VO2 | 181 – 197 |
Anaerobic Threshold Endurance | Hard – Difficult to speak at all | E3 | 167 – 180 |
General Aerobic Endurance | Moderate – Talk in short sentences | E2 | 148 – 166 |
Base Aerobic Endurance | Easy – Able to carry out conversation | E1 | 128 – 147 |
Recovery | Easy – Able to carry out conversation | REC | 99 – 127 |
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