HR settings on settings page

I don’t have a (known) medical condition related to my heart, but I have a somewhat special heart rate behavior. It’s practically always relatively low due to the given activity and compared to theoretical values or others. So I always try give special attention to understand it better.

I stumbled about the HR options on the settings page and am unsecure about its correct configuration. I would like to understand how it works in detail.

There are 4 input options:

  • Threshold HR
  • Max HR
  • HRRc Min HR
  • HR Training Load

The only thing I currently roughly know is my max HR which is practically an assumption based on the 220-Age formula + my observation when it comes to high efforts. In the HR Training Load setting I’ve choosen TRIMP.

But what about Threshold HR and HRRc Min HR?

How to configure them correctly and what do they practically affect on intervals.icu? I’ve noticed that Threshold HR is linked with HRRc Min HR. I want to get this correct to understand my heart rate situation as good as possible. Currently I’m still a little bit overwhelmed from this awesome site.

HR max: you can use 220 - age as a starting point. If you have some activity history where you went ‘deep’ you’re better of using the max HR you have in there. It’s not hugely important. If it is set a bit low, you will see that in activities with max efforts as a RED clipped HR line. Adjust it for the newly found value.

HR Training Load: If you don’t have Power measurement, TRIMP is a good choice

Threshold HR: theoretically, it’s the HR resulting from a steady state effort of 1 hour at lactate steady state. You can estimate it by doing a test (search this forum for LTHR) or equally try to get it from your historical data. Long hill climb at max perceived effort for example. You should see your HR plateau, indicating that you can’t go harder without blowing up. Again, make a judged estimate and correct if your new data shows something different.

HRRc Min HR: this is just a trigger point for Intervals to calculate your HR recovery. After a hard effort, your HR drops back down. The higher the drop in HR over one minute, the better you are recovering. This setting instructs Intervals to calculate the drop only when your HR goes beyond the set point.

Click on the metrics and read the information or follow the hyperlinks. Most of these things have explanations build in or point to external information.
A good starting point to finding your way around Intervals is the Guide Section of this forum:

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Concerning my HR: My “deep” HR is surprisingly low. I’m 42 and I barely ever get over 160. Being at 155 currently feels like this is the maximum. So I set it to 170 to lower it a little bit from the 220-Age value, but its definetly higher than I ever witnessed during the last years… Going lower feels wrong, but of my Z2 FTP based efforts are being done while I’m in Z1 HR. If I push my HR to Z2, I have to leave the Z2 power zone. My doctor says that my heart is in a very good shape and I shouldn’t be concerned. But well, he could be wrong on that. I always did a lot of sport, but I’ve never been famous for being very a very enduring athlete.

Concerning TRIMP: I’m biking on zwift and IRL with power meter pedals. I understood that I should pick TRIMP even/specifically then?

Currently I’ve connected Garmin as well as Strave to Intervals, so Intervals theoretical knows my current resting HR to calculate my current training load situation correct? Can I see the impact of a changed resting HR somewhere, if I manipulate it for testing reasons?

Concerning Threshold HR: Thanks for information! I’ll study the topics and might come back with questions.

You should not worry about HR max. It can be very different for people of the same age. The formula 220 - age is an avg for a large population. If you feel like 160 bpm is your max, then set it at 160. If you go over it in the future, you will notice that in Intervals and you can still adapt.
To be clear, HRmax is by no means a ‘performance’ indicator or limiter.
If you do have a power meter, the best HR load indicator will be ‘Time in HR-Zones’ because Intervals builds a model with your previous data that has both Power and HR information. Over time, Load from either will become very close.

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If you do have a power meter, the best HR load indicator will be ‘Time in HR-Zones’ because Intervals builds a model with your previous data that has both Power and HR information. Over time, Load from either will become very close.

Sorry, but I don’t understand this yet. Let’s assume I’ve lowered my max HR to 160 (while 156 is my highest measured effort this year and occurred at the end of a race after a sprint). I’d then recalculate my LTHR and would receive new zone definitions and would have different time in zone values than before. So far, it would be correct, since I’ve done Z2 training a lot, but spent most of the time in HR Z1, but could you please explain why and how the Interval model compensates my lack of information/knowledge about my actual max HR / LTHR?

When it comes to LTHR I’ve read about setting either setting it to 90% of max HR (according to this reference: Cycling Training Zones: A Detailed Guide — High North Performance), or to 95 or 98% (which is recommended in this threat: Estimate LTHR from heart rate at best power - Feature Requests - Intervals.icu Forum)

If I have the option of choosing one of them, I’d prefer to start in the middle at 94%, just because I don’t know better? And should I set the HR value for HRRc Min HR as well?

Sorry for asking so much, I’m a little bit paralysed by all the configuration options and would like to prevent any kind of major flaws in my configuration, since I want to plan according to Form % chart and the “High Risk”, “Optimal”, “Grey zone”, etc categories.

IMO you’re over complicating things.
Keep it simple. Do your easy rides easy! Hard intervals hard and every so often it’s never any harm to do a bit of tempo (moderate).

You can never set ‘zones’ off a max HR. Your max HR is not going to tell you your AeT or your LTHR. The body doesn’t work like that. Zones in any case are all a continuum. You don’t just suddenly switch metabolic systems by increasing your HR by 1,2 or 5 beats.

Regards the form and categories etc. The more I think about this as the years go by, the more ridiculous it all gets. CTL, ATL, TSB… It’s all total rubbish. It’s putting a single number on a extraordinarily complex physiological system. The 4th or 5th hour of a 4 or 5 hour ride gets the same weight as the first hour but is infinitely more difficult with much greater accumulated load on the body.
Absolutely totally inadequate weighting for any efforts over LTHR. It’s total nonsense and imo you’d be better served ignoring high risk, optimal or green categories altogether. Do your training. Take your recovery. Listen to your body. Don’t be looking at a fitness chart to tell you what condition you’re in😉

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These are 2 different percentages because it are 2 different methods… So don’t take an average!
The first one is 90% of HRmax (and I have a strong feeling that you do not know how to determine HRmax).
The second one is 95-98% of the HR in the last part of a longer (30min or a full hour) steady, maximal effort.
It is impossible to reach HRmax at the end of a longer effort, simply because there’s to much peripheral fatigue. HR max is reached after several short all-out efforts with little recovery in between. Then you might be able to reach HRmax.

If you have a Power meter, use Power as metric for calculating Training Load. Power is less dependent on external factors and has no lag compared to HR.
The Intervals model for calculating Load does not influence your zones. It builds a conversion model HR–>Power with all the available data and estimates load from HR using that model.

Don’t do that until you understand what it all means and until you have at least 6 weeks of data from consistent training. Follow @nasatt 's advice to avoid making mistakes at this moment. Most people think that training is less productive if intensity is too low. The reality is that it is practically impossible to go too low when it comes to endurance training. Go exercise, specific or x-training, as frequently as possible, increase duration before intensity, be careful with the amount of higher intensity. Volume is what drives endurance base, intensity is the icing on the cake.
A safe way for capping Z2 training is the MAF method. Stay below ‘180 - age’ in a range of 5-10 bpm.

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@nasatt @MedTechCD You are right. I am all the more grateful for your valuable feedback, wise advice and help.

Practically speaking, I am a complete beginner when it comes to training theory. When I bought my Endurance road bike last year, I also bought Power Meter pedals and effectively didn’t spend any more time training than doing an FTP test on my Garmin Edge after a few weeks and then going on long rides of 50-80km at irregular intervals.

I’ve probably never really reached MaxHR, except that at times I felt like my heart wanted to jump out of my chest.

I started using Zwift in January of this year and have already clocked up more than half the total kilometers that I rode last year and the year before last.

And well, while I was only happy about the training load status “productive” and stats on Zwiftpower, I came across Intervals.icu a few days ago and can hardly believe my luck, except that I practically lack the experience to configure, use and interpret it correctly.

My current primary goal is weight loss and “clean/good” riding. I am 184 cm tall and currently weigh 98.5 kg. That’s why watts and heart rate are very important to me so that I can burn fat optimally without overtraining or losing strength. As already mentioned, the thing that irritates me the most at the moment is that I rarely or never get above 120bpm in terms of heart rate at a load between 55 and 75% of my FTP. It tends to fluctuate between 105 and 115, which is why I would like to have the HR settings on which the intervals are based set as well as possible.

For the next few weeks, I will simply try to ride 80% in Zone2. The only question that arises is what I should/must now practically set for the values discussed if I don’t really know either MaxHR or LTHR.

I would suggest riding to feel for the time being. RPE. Don’t get too bogged down with numbers or FTP.

FTP tells you absolutely nothing except what your max intensity is for a 20m or 30m or hour long test. Nothing more than that. Despite what most, if not all, training sites, will tell you, you simply cannot extrapolate either your HR zones or your power zones from a single number, namely FTP. The body does not work like that.

A simple ‘test’ you can do it something like this…
Ride your bike real real easy. You should be able to talk normally at this pace. This is your ‘Z1’ (to put a name on it). Increase your pace then until you can still talk fairly easily but you are now aware you’re breathing faster. You can get a full sentence out , maybe 2, can have a conversation but you are aware that your ride intensity does require effort! This is the top of your Z2… You need to try so spend 75%-80% of your sessions under this ceiling. You don’t need to complicate it any more than that for the time being.

If you have time, try at least once a week to get a 3 or 4 hour ride under that ceiling. Do not mix this ride with other more intense intervals. Isolate your systems in training. There is a time and place for introducing more difficult intervals to your endurance spins but just focus on keeping things simple for now!

Let the RPE dictate your zones rather than your zones dictate your effort :wink:

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I was in the same boat as you. I am 56 and was having a hard time with HR training (like I did in the 1990’s). I switch to Pace zones for running and swimming and Power Zones for biking. Much more accurate and repetitive. I do use HR for my recovery. I monitor my resting HR in the morning when I wake up to see how my recovery is. Look up 80/20 endurance training zone calculators. That will help.

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