How to significantly lower HR[avg] while improving performance output On my Saturday's ascent race I was riding 181bpm HRAVG and saved some power for the last km where my HR peaked at 190 (which is my highest ever recorded HR at my 37 years or age). I felt rather normal at the top, no fatigue or extreme oxygen deficiency. Just normal very deep breathing with high frequency for about 20 seconds and I was fine. the way I usually breathe on the doing it 100% races.

This is the data from my Garmin of this ascent race.


  I should point out that my calculated HRMAX is about 182bpm although in reality it's clearly 190 (as the upper data shows). I suspect it's even higher, but anyway. I was obviously pedalling at 95-100% HR for about 50 minutes. That's surprising to me. This to me may be a good indicator that my HRMAX is closer to 200bpm rather than 190 which would mean I was peddaling at 90% HRMAX most of the time. Can anyone confirm this reasoning?


Anyway.

As I've heard some of the others were riding well below 170 bpm HRAVG but had much better time than me. I suppose this is due to larger heart volume, larger lungs therefore much better oxygen efficiency. Since my heart rate increases quite rapidly I suspect my heart volume is rather small(ish) so it has to speed up faster to deliver the needed O2.

I wonder how can I improve my performance? What kind of training will lower my heart rate while keeping the same performance level. I suppose lowering my HR by 10 bpms would give me enough room to improve my performance by more than 10%.
First off, understand that HR drops as you age, even if you stay in good physical shape.  Older riders will tend to have a lower HR.

In addition, HR drops as you become better conditioned to high-output activity.  Basically, as you suggest, the capacity of the heart and circulatory system increases so that sufficient oxygenated blood can be delivered to the muscles at a lower HR.

Also, as one trains, the muscles develop more anaerobic capacity, so they need less oxygen, and they develop more glycogen storage capacity, so they need less blood sugar.

Others probably have more specific suggestions based on research, but basically to train the circulatory system (and muscles) you keep repeating the conditions where you want it to perform.  Some accommodation occurs within a few days (mainly in the form of hormone levels and blood volume), while full accommodation probably takes 6 months or so of every-other-day full-out rides.