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Got in the house yesterday after a great little ride out on the bike to find the tv on, with the boat race on. To be honest it’s not that interesting to watch, but as with all tv sports these days they like to provide us with new stats and figures, in this case heart rates. These guys were sustaining 95-98 percent MAX HR for 12-14mins, or around 200bpm for this time, which is quite impressive, it got me thinking, is there an equivalent in cycling? Particularly mountain biking, do elite xc riders sustained this level for this time on long climbs? It will have no bearing on me as these figures are totally unobtainable but it’s interesting to put a bit of comparison in with something you can relate to.
I imagine some forms of track cycling will be of a similar effort. Individual pursuit or the hour record, both of which are just go as fast as you can for an alloted time.
Or some if the big hills in the grand tours. 30-40 mins of unrelenting climbing!
Grand tour prologue?
I'd expect rowing uses more muscles tho so you can get a higher heart rate?
My tenth ride on my first bike in years and my 3rd with my new Garmin. All numbers down to a lack of fitness rather than a lot of it.
I’d expect rowing uses more muscles tho so you can get a higher heart rate?
Probably true, and it's a proper full body sprint effort for the whole time. No let up.
I rowed at school (ooh get me!), and it was a regular occurrence for myself and others to puke from exertion after a session on the turbos.
Flat out for 10 minutes, especially being competitive with others, you feel it!
Or some if the big hills in the grand tours. 30-40 mins of unrelenting climbing
I suspect you generally wouldn't see these figures in the grand tours as they're riding day after day with more measured efforts. They'll be high, and especially towards the stage finish, but I'd be surprised if they could even reach their max HR after the first few days due to fatigue.
I do remember Tom Pidcock posting his data (maybe in the Junior Nationals or something like that?) and it was something like 198bpm average for the final 10 mins or so.
I’d expect rowing uses more muscles tho so you can get a higher heart rate?
VO2 Max also differs between sports. And if I remember right, it is generally higher in rowing relative to other sports.
I imagine they look like this, but the numbers will be bigger.
Activities that use more muscles may have different max heart rates, but that depends on what your limiting factors are. I've been told that cyclists usually are peripherally limited, meaning that the limit of performance is determined by how fast your legs can use the oxygen supplied - because the overall muscle mass you are using is quite small. For me, this means the thing that stops me going any faster is the screaming pain my legs. When I run though, the thing that stops me going any faster is the fact I am gasping for breath - I cannot get enough oxygen in via my lungs so I'm centrally limited.
I've also found that when XC skiing at a comfortable but brisk pace, nothing really hurts but my HR is very close to my cycling max. See how XC skiiers mostly collapse over the line, because they are basically gasping for breath, but cyclists rarely seem to do this even on mountain tops. I'd guess rowers are centrally limited because of the amount of muscle they are using, so there might not be a direct equivalent activity to the boat race. But if there is, I'd guess it would be something like a 10 mile TT because that takes a similar amount of time. Seems like most rowing events though are shorter so they would be more like a steady state bike race on the track like pursuit or something.
In XC racing you have to vary your effort - obviously more on the climbs than the descents, but you'd also be holding back as much as you can for making and covering tactical attacks like distance runners on the track do. Also you probably need to be aware that you have to race for an hour, so you cannot kill yourself straight away.
I can only really think of either track sprinting or hill climb events, both of which are about pushing lactate threshold, but overall cycling as a sport is actually quite efficient and a lot of Grand Tour riding is about knowing when to conserve energy as much as it is knowing when to burn the candle, that is why GT riders and especially Sky, have domestiques protecting riders as much as is possible.
As stated, as an ex-rower, you are using a lot more muscle groups, and i find it now a better where way back to cardio fitness than cycling, plus good for conditioning core too.
Rowing is still considered an 'endurance' sport so these guys are right on their max of their physiological capabilities.
XC skiing is probably the sport where athletes are right on their max because of the maximum number of muscles engaged - the highest VO2 max recorded is a Norwegian XC skier.
Cycling less so because it doesn't engage as many muscles - although an uphill sprint will get you pretty near your maximum.
As a former rower and (now largely un)competitive cyclist, rowing could take me to a different level of pain. Something like a 2000M piece is a world of pain or a "head" race.
Cycling wise only something like a 10mile TT or a short crit race is anything like as painful. However as said above you are using more muscles rowing and that is tougher for short bursts than cycling
Other than track were you know you have a set time I can’t think of anything else in cycling that would compare, I can’t see a tour rider or xc rider sustain hr max for 14 minutes as they know they can’t blow up when they get to the top unless it’s a final climb before a finish. Rowing seems pretty unique for creating a world of hurt.
I would XC skiing would be close to that also.
XCO in cycling may be closest?
Zwift race
rowing could take me to a different level of pain.
Yes.
Pure pain.