# Can't keep heart rate up



## plx (Mar 28, 2011)

This week i did 2 rides of 2h and 45 mis and i was able to stay in the endurance zone even tough i ended up really tired
Today i went for a 2h ride but i just couldn't get the hr up i almost had to sprint so i went home
Is this fatigue? Should i take 2 or 3 days off?


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## plx (Mar 28, 2011)

It's so annoying when you are weak, i see people doing 4, 5h rides and get tired with this :|


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## Fireform (Dec 15, 2005)

Don't ride on consecutive days. Let your body recover is my advice. You may be on the road to burnout


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## plx (Mar 28, 2011)

Yeah probably, even tough the rides are not intensive but i did have to push a lot in the end of these first rides in order to keep the effort

I think my problem is that i'am afraid of not doing enough and i always end up doing more than i should..
In this base rides i should get home feeling tired but not exhausted, right?


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## Fireform (Dec 15, 2005)

That's generally right. Build up your base endurance first before you star mixing in shorter high intensity efforts.


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## aclinjury (Sep 12, 2011)

Personally I would not exercise until exhaustion. Once you approach exhaustion, you really gain no benefit in terms of endurance improvement. But exhaustion can weaken your immune system which leads to catching a cold, or flu, or canker sore outbreak, etc.

Also, if you're in the older age group, don't expect to be able to keep your heart spinning like a teenager.


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## The Human G-Nome (Aug 26, 2002)

There probably isn't enough to go on for anyone to properly diagnose your issues. Have you been tested? Do you know, approximately, your functional threshold? Are you riding with a HRM and are you going easy enough on your easy days and hard enough on your hard days? 

Most guys out there are spending the vast majority of their time in Z3 and low Z4. The top of Z3 is known as "the sweet spot", and it can be a great place to do intervals IF you are also practicing plenty of active recovery, and mixing in much harder, shorter intervals as well.

If you feel bad, and you can't get your HR up, you should just be defaulting right to Z1/2 and not even sniffing Z3. Also, many coaches (my coach included) believe in hard blocks of training followed by "easy blocks" of recovery. That means, perhaps, 3 days in a row of hard intervals followed by a true Z1/2 ride and a day off completely, allowing your body to super-compensate and realize the gains you made during your hard block. Remember that all the progress you make comes during rest and not during your harder efforts.

Also remember that if your "kinda easy" rides are still burning you out that they are likely not easy enough, and when you really do have a day when you're suppose to ride hard, you won't be able to go nearly as hard as you should be able to in order to later realize gains.

In summation, "you have to ride slow to ride fast". This is true of all athletes at almost every level.


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## ESTrainSmartBlog (Feb 25, 2013)

plx said:


> This week i did 2 rides of 2h and 45 mis and i was able to stay in the endurance zone even tough i ended up really tired
> Today i went for a 2h ride but i just couldn't get the hr up i almost had to sprint so i went home
> Is this fatigue? Should i take 2 or 3 days off?


It's not fatigue, it sounds like you depleted the glycogen stores in your muscles. When this happens, you'll experience a lot of local muscle fatigue and a low heart rate.

After about one hour of aerobic exercise, you'll need to take in some form of carbohydrate/ electrolyte drink to keep your blood sugar high and spare your muscle glycogen stores. When you run out of muscle glycogen, your body relies on slower sources like the blood and liver to get carbohydrates.

The body can take in about 25 to 30 grams of carbohydrates every 30 minutes. You simply just ran out of energy. Depending on how long you rode in a depleted state, it probably won't take a significant amount of time to recover.

On your next long ride, try the following refueling schedule and adjust as it applies to you. After about 45 minutes of riding:

Drink a CHO/ electrolyte drink every 15 minutes.
Eat a bar, gel or natural food (low in fat and protein) every 30 minutes.
Drink water as needed (no schedule).


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## Alex_Simmons/RST (Jan 12, 2008)

Well it could be acute fatigue, it very much depends on what training load the OP is used to. We simply do not have sufficient information to do more than speculate.


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