| If you want to improve your cycling you are reading | | | | number you create a series of training zones that |
| the right article. In it I will explain the secret that all | | | | relate to certain percentages of your maximum heart |
| professional cyclists use to make them fitter, stronger | | | | rate. |
| and faster. Whether you are looking to improve your | | | | The key to improving is to maximize your time on the |
| speed or simply make your daily commute easier the | | | | bike. The mistake I was making was to ride hard all the |
| contents of this articles will be able to make dramatic | | | | time. Doing so just wears your body down. If you do |
| improvements to your cycling. | | | | not allow enough time to recover your body will not |
| For a couple of years I trained reasonably hard, riding | | | | adapt to the workload and can not come back |
| several times a week and didn't really see any | | | | stronger next time. |
| noticeable gains in my performances. In fact if anything | | | | Once I started training according to my heart rate |
| it often felt like I was getting worse. All this changed | | | | what I found was that to get the best improvement, |
| when I got talking to a keen cyclist at work. | | | | most of my riding should be done at a very low |
| My colleague revealed to me the secret used by all | | | | intensity. At first this seemed counter intuitive however |
| the pros to help them improve - the heart rate monitor. | | | | after just 2 or 3 weeks of alternating very easy rides |
| These devices consist of a sensor (that usually straps | | | | (that felt way to slow to do any good) with short |
| round the waist) and a receiver unit that displays data. | | | | sharp bursts of high intensity riding my riding improved |
| Their basic function is to display and record your heart | | | | dramatically. |
| rate or the number of times per minute you heart | | | | It took some time to get used to but using a heart rate |
| beats. | | | | monitor allowed me to improve my performances on |
| You heart rate tells you exactly how hard you are | | | | the bike dramatically. The heart rate monitor allows |
| working while on your bike. By performing a simple yet | | | | you to see and control exactly how hard your body is |
| strenuous test you first work out what you maximum | | | | working. |
| heart rate is. From this maximum heart rate (MHR) | | | | |