Outdoor structured workouts without a power meter

In the Elemnt app when I go in to customise for the planned workout page, there is a field for target heart rate but when I add this the field on my Elemnt is blank, is this a feature that is coming soon? Would be great to have a RPE field as well for those of us without power meters.

Anyone got any tips for doing structured workouts outside without a power meter?

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I have a PM so this isn’t a concern for me but I have read that others have used the watt range as an equivalent to RPE. You just have to know what each range feels like. Also, at the start of each interval, I think with a few seconds of a countdown, there is a text at the bottom of the screen that says what type of interval it is that’s coming up. Eg. Endurance, Tempo etc.

I also know that the request for HR and RPE zones has been made so hopefully wahoo can make that happen for folks without PMs.

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@JGreengrass Yes - that is what I do. For stuff like neuromuscular and anaerobic conditioning sprint intervals it is pretty easy as long as you have a flat area to ride with no traffic. I do it in a field with my mountain bike. NM is going to be all out whereas AC has a bit more pacing since they generally are a bit longer. MAP interval workouts are probably doable but I haven’t tried one.

Similar to the above, Standing Starts definitely works on RPE.

Endurance rides are also fairly easy to estimate RPE.

Openers works outside on RPE and is a good one to get familiar with to use pre-race if you are traveling to the event.

Rides where you are upping the effort for a short period of time and then recovering also work. As an example, I did Sub-Threshold with Surges 4 x 12 outside and it wasn’t perfect but it was achievable on RPE.

Hope that helps!

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Thanks, for the tips. I’ve just been out and done standing starts into MAP 5x1. The countdown and instructions that flash up at the bottom of display were clear and simple.

Thank you @TheMinions it’s a great feature and much less frustrating than trying to build a replica workout in TrainingPeaks.

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This is what makes them doable for me outdoors. I have a good idea of what each intensity should feel like, so having those descriptive terms appear at the start of each interval is essential for me. It also helps when I have an idea in my head about what the intent of the workout is, either from having done it indoors previously, or from reading the description prior to doing it outside.

A HR zone target would be a good addition. I know HR doesn’t change instantly but for longer efforts the HR LEDs on the ELEMNT would let you know you’re about right

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