"Steady" Thoughts
By Rich Strauss

A TC athlete was having some problems identifying his "Steady" intensity. To provide you with a frame of reference for this discussion, my LTHR on the bike is about 173-175. My Zone 1 ends at about 143 bpm.

Rich: After riding with power for so long, I don't trust speed. No way to really know or quantify your impressions unless you are able to compare the watts. Having said that, you are doing the right training and moving toward cadences of 93+ is the way to go. Give it some time.

As for average heart rate during these rides, don't look at the average for the entire ride, but rather holding Steady or a bit higher for long periods of time within the ride. For example, my AeT is about 142-145 and I put my Steady at about 147-150. When I make the switch from Easy to Steady, I just bump over 140 and then ride how I feel. If I don't look at the HR and just ride, I seem to settle in to about 145-146. If I then "think" about riding a little faster it will push into the high 140's. 150-155 takes a bit more focus and concentration. You might call this Upper Steady. I don't see anything over 155 unless I'm really "trying" to ride hard. I call 155-160+ as Moderate-Hard. The only time I push this for any length of time is with Jon. We¯ll ride side by side and just wind it up on a flat stretch. The interval ends when we reach "mutual consent," about 15 minutes, otherwise it would go on forever. We are too evenly matched.

Apply this guidance to your own zones. Identify where your Steady and Upper Steady are and then spend a lot of time there. Disciplined rides with a small group of friends are best for this kind of work, as it takes your mind off the effort and reduces the PE of the session. One thing I've noticed this week is that the more time you spend in this Steady and Upper Steady intensity, the easier (mentally) it becomes. You know how when you first started running, when you left the door you would "jog" first and then start to "run" after about 15'? As you ride at Steady more, you go from JRA (just riding along) to Steady very easily. Today as I was riding down a long straight road I just automatically fell into my Steady zone of about 145 bpm and 235-240 watts. I didn't really have to think about it, it just happened.

The intent of this Steady to Upper Steady is to:

• Keep you very aerobic (the effort is not "that" hard).
  
  
• Expose you to just enough lactic acid to produce some good adaptations.
  
  
• Produce a combination of volume and intensity that is repeatable, both mentally and physically. Meaning, you can repeat the session day after day. By repeating the intensity very frequently, you induce a great training response.

Where is Steady?

Aerobic Threshold (AeT) = first opening of breath. Not breathing hard, just opening of breath. Lonnie did a good test the other day where he ran and breathed through his nose. This helped him identify this opening very easily.

Steady = AeT to AeT + 5 beats per minute.

• I call it "focused," in that you need to focus a bit to maintain the pace or effort. Not a whole lot, but you need to focus some. If you and I were riding at Steady side by side and I said "Ok, we are going to sit here for 4 hours," you could do it but you'd say "Ok, I can do that but it's going to suck. You suck."
  
  
• For the wattage guys, the magic number appears to be 60-70% of your CP30. Try out that number and see how you feel and where your HR is in relation to this guidance above. As you become more aerobically fit, you will start moving to the right of this range. I think mine is knocking on the door of 75%. Very tasty.

Upper Steady = AeT + 5-10 bpm. There should be nothing "hard" about it yet, you are just more focused.

Mod-Hard = AeT + 10-20 bpm. That's a big range. I will usually sit about +15 and then go higher if I feel like it. Another observation is as you become more aerobically fit, your HR will get very "sticky." It takes a concerted effort get your HR into the upper Mod-Hard scale. To my LTHR on the bike, I have to be absolutely hammering. Even then my body is saying "WTF, dude?! We don't do this stuff anymore. What gives?" :)

If you do the math, you'll see that most of us, even at the far end of Mod-Hard, are still 7+ beats below lactate threshold. The difference is that while your friends are hammering away at LTHR for relatively short periods of time and require lengthy recoveries afterwards, you sit at these ranges for much longer and can do it again, and again, and again. This consistency of moderate volume and intensity is the key.
 

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