Rode Local Hero today, using a dumb trainer. Basically hit all the power and cadence targets (power was actually higher on many efforts, but, you know, Virtial Watts and gears) but my HR was lagging fairly significantly, at least until the last sprints; didn’t hit LTHR until well into the final sprints. While I know that my HR often takes a bit to rise, especially on shorter efforts, should this be some concern that the power numbers/efforts are too low (FF done just 2 weeks ago). Note: it was properly difficult, but HR just wasn’t budging.
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I can only speak for myself here but my range of HR is always far smaller than conventional zones would predict and here I think they only know a threshold HR, but not maximum or base. I just ignore the HR targets and meet power/cadence ones. I like the graph as you can see the shape of the curve and if the rest interval was long enough for it to plateau. The actual values I ignore.
That’s basically what I was thinking - hit power and cadence and let the HR fall where it may. That was particularly evident in this morning’s plan, which had me doing Who Dares at significantly reduced percentages, but still seemed to call for Z4 & Z5 HR. I was basically Z1 and Z2 for the full hour, and working hard not to exceed the prescribed power too much. Trust the science and the process, I suppose.
You might like this article from our Coaching team: https://thesufferfest.com/blogs/training-resources/heart-rate-and-training-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask
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Hi there. For that specific scenario don’t worry about HR.
The app shows HR as if you were working at 100%. HR isn’t scaled down for reduced intensity workouts so you can just ignore HR entirely (as well hiding the actual value during reduced intensity rides).
Hope that helps for that particular bit.
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I’m more inclined to ignore power than HR during the active recovery rides! But, yes, ignore the “target zone”. There’s a long standing, often repeated, request to have the option to turn off that HR “target” while leaving the sensor value active.
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Yes, I suspect there is just huge variability in how HR responds between individuals. There are maybe people out there for whom the numbers make sense.
I would just look at the shape and ignore the values. At threshold values it goes up and stabilises with only a small increase over time. In VO2 intervals it never stops going up. In long enough breaks between intervals it falls and stabilises. The only other use I’ve noticed is that it goes up if you get dehydrated.
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