I’m still working to have enough confidence to not be disappointed on my bike. I tore my quad Beg. Nov-2/2/17 when I finally saw a doc. I was >300lbs Mediocre diet moderate wine each evening. Better diet and rehab from Feb through June this year. Arthroscopic surgery ~ 8 weeks ago on my knee so training has been rather low by the standards I was once accustomed to. I did a 1/2 iron man 4 years ago and several 100mile 10kft rides before so I knew my metrics very well… I’m now 55yrs old and my training for the last few years has been sporadic and meager. Anyhow, I used to be able to keep my heart rate in the mid 140’s for hours on end. 150’s was warning, not for IM, for cycling climbs and for only several minutes (10 or so then recovery). 160s was rare and redline, 30 seconds max and then I would blow up. I just did a strenuous spin, lowish cadence for 20 minutes. The highest sustained power in over a year. Anyhow my average heart rate was 160 (including warm up)! I touched 171. Prior to this in many years of cycling I only touch 172 once! The bizarre thing is when I hit 171 I was working hard but in absolutely no danger of blowing up. This is quite a bit higher than I expected. I’ve definitely noticed my threshold heart rate is higher. However, this is the first time I’ve push this hard in a long time. The fact that my perceived effort at these elevated heart rates is so much lower is a bit shocking. Oh, BTW I’m >70lbs lighter than the beginning of the year. However, I’m still 15 lbs heavier than my IM and 25lbs heavier than my lightest in my adult life. I’m curious where this leads and @ianrobo has pointed me at info for this in the past. None the less it’s still surprising…
Highest sustained heart rate ever!
great stuff and I would say the real benefit of fat adaption is the aerobic level and base which allows you to push much higher into the upper zones without using up all the carbs and FASTER showed this as well.
do you have a link to a file with the data ?
It uploaded to strava. In my earlier life I didn’t use strava. However, I think there’s a fair bit of my sporatic training there. I don’t know how to share it with you. But I bet if you messaged me an ID or something I could figure it out…
Here’s a golden Cheetah screen shot:
search for Ian Robathan and you will see two rides today.
very good steady power (some weakening at the end as expected for a 20 min z4 effort but Herat rate very good presume your max is say 175 or so ?
I started following you… I have to learn more about sharing activities via strava. I’ve always been a solo guy because I had kids, coaching sports a job etc. So sufficient training was always adhoc. >50% very early morning.
Anyhow, I always though my max was 172 eight years ago when I was a fair bit younger and high 160’s was relative inaccessible unless I was willing to blow up or recover after rolling over the top.
175 is a good guess. I’m still shocked that I can approach it w/o completely blowing up!!! Cool! 
BTW, I’m 6’5". Lowest weight 203 in great shape. Keto’s been good to me. If it stays as such I’d like to get to the low to mid 190’s which was my target before. It helps with climbing so much.
that is unlikely you can raise it but the aim is to operate in higher zones. I note though as you said you did it on low cadence and I would urge to start pushing that up through drill exercises say 3x 3 mins at 90 then rest in between etc.
but as you say your starting point is key and to make the improvements from there and especially on recovery.
Thanks for your support and encouragement. My cadence should be up closer to 90+. I tore my quad doing cadence drills. Bad diet, prediabetic probably screwed up my small capillaries. Big tear near my knee and a 17cm feather tear through the core of my right quad. It was inconceivable that I tore it that way so it took two months of reinjury before I saw a doc. I’m was thinking about rebuilding my cardio base some then start going after cadence. My thinking is strength first (tendons, ligament and a preponderance of fast twitch for climbing, lots of big hills here in northern CA) then work on slow twitch fibers…
Sounds a very good plan and best thing is plenty of stuff out there to guide you with. I do however as we spoke before just love MAF now and combined with high cad makes mAssive difference
Check out some of the rides I did in June and July
Will do. I clearly have more research to do. This is the first ride where I’ve been able to drop the training wheels because of rehab and knee surgery. I knew myself and my boundaries very well before. With keto they’ve clearly changed! Bizarre! I’ll be back on my real bike very soon. I know it’s touched pro cycling. I really wonder how deeply this has changed the highest levels of pro cycling and triathletes. It seems very powerful…
very unusual to tear that on the bike though but yeah under MAF you are correct about that, e say on the body and the odd HIIT session
I did it doing cadence drills after I built a cardio base. However, I was probably prediabetic. It was inconceivable that I tore my quad. Thus I waited till swelling went down and started again… For two months… ugh! Again I think because I was prediabetic my capillaries were damaged somewhat and muscles were deprived of oxygen and I just pushed through the pain… No pain, no gain mantra. It didn’t work out so well.
I dug around and found the post by Peter Attis about ketogenic atheletic performance. He got blood read for a few different points on cardio performance. He then was keto for 12 weeks and did the tests again. The results were astounding and he was only keto for 12 weeks. My results seem to correlate well in terms of threshold heart rate.
Also, I’m beginning to look at MAF. I wonder if you’re already fat adapted if some of the beginning stuff gets shortened. Madge tone does not seem to be a keto guy so the beginning stuff might take longer if you’re not completely fat adapted… Did you buy his book? It’s only ~$17 so I’ll probably buy it unless there’s better references.
I found the the MAF method from various podcasts and you tube vids nd once you listened to them - especially Brad Kearns it became so clear. I am not full on MAF but 80% of my rides are in that zone and I have improved
Pretty well. My right quad and knee are not limiting me. My left knee probably needs to be cleaned up. It aches under normal load and when I hop out of the seat it is not confident at all. I’ll meet with my ortho next week for a 12 week follow up on my right knee which is great, not perfect, but great. I’ll talk to him about left then. Training this last week has been inconsistent. My wife went on 10 day travel leaving me as a single parent and my son had weekend activities in addition to regular extracurricular activities. Thus the amount of trading is somewhat limited. That said, the amount I can load cardio is probably the limiting factor. I’m looking forward to when I can get 2+hrs of cardio/day and 5-8hrs on the weekend… Cardio being the fast responder is coming along nicely as is expected when restarting. Confidence with understanding my power/heart rate/cadence/time limitations is coming along nicely also. I just got back from another ride, which in context is meager, is a step in the right direction. It was a 823cal unfueled ride…
How is your injury coming along?
Second thought, MAF training talks a lot about heart rate training. I wonder how much of this is a proxy for power though? I.E. At high power levels your body can not metabolize enough fat to meet fuel requirements thus glycogen is consumed. At lower power outputs your body can supply the fuel requirements almost entirely from fat if “fat adapted”. My point is after surges required to get through rollers I’ll just power along at a sustainable power level and my hr will recover. It’s just a tad slower than if I wound it way back and let it recover.
Lastly, I wonder if MAF is more about getting your body to essentially be super fat adapted?
Also, traditionally if you’re a carb burner and you crank up the cardio you almost completely shut down fat metabolization and can “bonk” if not careful (I’ve done it and it completely sucks). I wonder if you’re fat adapted if your body more readily switches between fat and glycogen for fuel sources…??? Froome eat. al.?
A lot there !!
Yeah thanks my injury is better, as you may have seen got out but sore still and still no idea how it happened.
Lastly, I wonder if MAF is more about getting your body to essentially be super fat adapted?
That is EXACTLY what it is. By doing MAF you increase your aerobic energy (zone 2 in all but name) allowing you go longer/faster on same energy levels and eventually no need to even touch carb stores.
Which then mens when fully in the ‘zone’ those surges are easy because you can switch easily to get them and nicely topped up.
And yes most pro cyclists will be fat adapted even if they do not admit it, that is a consequence of what they do and what they eat. Country to popular belief they do not eat loads of carbs and most will be less than 40% during races and probably much less in training.