I have a friend of mine that is known for saying, “Would you drive a car without an tachometer? Then why would you ride a bike without a heart rate monitor?” While the analogy might seem a little funny at first, it actually does have a lot of merit to it. Your heart rate directly controls how long you can ride your bike. If you spend too much time in your higher zones, you are shortening the amount of time your legs are going to be able to push the bike forward efficiently. When you are on longer rides, this adds up quickly which makes pace management very crucial.
Heart rate monitors in the racing scene is a given these days. As beginner to pro mountain bikers look to continually increase their chances of success, a heart rate monitor is the only way to effectively train to get stronger and faster over time. Efficient time spent training in each of their zones combined with proper pacing during a race equals success…and that is proven.
What about heart rate monitors and the enthusiast?
For many of us (including me these days), we don’t race and we are not training for anything. Ideally, we just want to be in good enough shape to enjoy all of the trails we like to ride. You will not find the enthusiast doing base miles on a road bike or scheduling out their training for the year. Each ride is treated as enjoying a hobby/sport and it doesn’t have to lead to a end podium goal…just another ride in the woods.
Honestly, I personally have always felt that heart rate monitors are uncomfortable so I wouldn’t wear one. Recently, I have come to a conclusion that is making me rethink the heart rate monitor idea for my regular rides. What was my conclusion?
I suck at pacing myself.
It is actually something that I have known for a long time. I like to hit every section of trail as hard as I can. I also get a terrible dog/rabbit routine going if there are riders that are a lot faster climbers than I am on the ride. I just have to keep up. If I am not careful, I can “show up and blow up” easily as I start the ride without a proper warmup.
For me, the heart rate monitor is my own self regulation. I can watch how my body is reacting to my brain’s want to go harder, and I can start to pace my ride better to hit the downhills harder by saving that energy in sections that do not mean as much to me. Basically, “s%#t man…you better slow it down some if you want to have any legs left for the last several mile downhill.”
Heart rate monitors are integrated into the Garmin Edge GPS units, so it really is as easy as wear and sync for me. If you do not have a GPS unit on your bike, the watch/strap combos from Polar are relatively inexpensive.
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