I was just reading an article about how to use LSD riding effectively and the refer to LSD and tempo riding to be different things (without defining tempo riding), while I had always thought of them as the same. Anyone have thoughts on the differentiation?
hey hons,
sorry i dont have anything to comment about the difference between both, but thanks a lot for posting the article, I never knew what these terms meant!
Tempo riding is oftenly used to refer to heart rate zone 3 riding (on a scale of 5).
zone 4 is usually your lactate threshold (which you could think of as a HR for a long TT at a decent clip)
zone 2 is usually the HR zone you do LSD training at in base building phase
so zone 3 is somewhere in between there. They say it is kinda hard to hold zone 3 because you kinda drift to zone 2 (easier) or decide to really drill it (4).
If anyone has questions on exercise physiology and/or good training reads, I am a big nerd on this stuff. I have two degrees in physiology.
As a percentage, Tempo is usually 65-75% max heart rate (MHR). As for how this would feel (since most dont have heart rate monitors): you shouldnt feel the need to breathe heavily (although you may be close), but can feel that you’re exerting above average amounts of energy.
You should be able to sustain a tempo pace indefinitely. As in, all day if you had to.
Lactate Threshold is usually 75-90% MHR. This is sustainable for shorter periods of time (although, very fit people will be able to sustain a LS for quite some time. You would need to breathe heavily to keep the oxygen going to your muscles, and honestly, you should NOT be able to really talk when your in your lactate threshold zone as any oxygen you would exert talking, you will really feel the need for for training. If you can talk (and think you’re in your Lactate Threshold zone, then you’re actually not in the zone, but rather probably in tempo…
When im coaching spinning, and we’re doing a threshold zone session, if i hear people talking, i increase the difficulty, because it obviously means people are working as hard as they should be…