I would just like to state that I am not a physiologist I am a Level 2 coach and therefore I may have made some statements here which are fundamentally wrong, if so I would be glad to hear about it after all we are here to enhance the cycling communitys knowledge base. These questions were posed after I asked members of my club for their questions about the use of power for cycle training. A lot of them would have won races, set place to place records and even rode age categorised world championships and are reluctant to spend more money on another gadget, they are quite informed about current scientific methods and approaches to training. Having trained with a PM for 2 years and achieved my best results this year I am convinced that adopting this tool will bring most riders onto a higher level. Added to this if I had to choose between a new pair of wheels or a PM I would undoubtedly go for the PM. Again this is only a tool which has to be used in conjunction with a training program so it is very necessary to have a coach/sports scientist help you prepare a plan to bring you to top performance the PM cant do this for you. Heart Rate has been in use for the last 20 years or so and was brought into mainstream cycling by Conconi and Moser. Up until recently this has been the best method to measure the intensity of an effort and has lead to an improvement of fitness by athletes who adhered to HR based programs. The HRM still has a place and role in training programs however, with the advent of cheaper power meters cyclists are now able to better analyse, monitor and improve fitness. Allied to the accuracy of the power meter is the software available to analyse your training/racing sessions. It is vital to become familiar with it to get the best from your PM.
Q. Firstly I think you need to clarify your comments to me that HR meters tell you nothing? You stated that they don't react when you make an effort- this is something I have to disagree with. For sure if you hop on the bike and ride flat out from resting HR, then your heart will take time to react, but if you are riding tempo and then an attack goes, I can see my heart react immediately. Surely they are still the best tool to tell you what you body is feeling?
A.I was wrong to state that HR doesn’t tell you anything but in the context of improving fitness HR only tells you how fast your Heart is beating. HR is affected by dozens of factors your level of hydration, core temperature, how well you slept, the level of stress in your life. HR responds to a stimulus in our case the effort on the bike but it could also be by being chased by a bear in the phoenix park, having to do an interview for a new job, going on a blind date etc. Specifically HR doesn’t respond quickly enough for efforts up to 2 mins. Therefore it is impossible to ensure you are exercising at the correct intensity and also that the correct energy system is under stress which is ultimately the goal of training.
Q. My threshold might be 300 watts, but that doesn't mean I can ride a flat tt in a 39*23 at 300 watts for an hour- my HR would be hitting the 190's+ in no time and I would blow. Neither can I ride a hilly tt in the 53*11 at 300 watts- my legs would explode. Although these examples are extremes I believe you can do two training sessions at the same power level but which have very different effects on your body because you might not have been riding them in the same gears.
A. Your HR hitting 190 doesn’t cause you to blow it is the accumulation of lactic acid that eventually causes you to slow down(one cause). Again if we go back to the energy systems it wont have a different effect on your body but these extreme examples may cause changes in the muscle fibre type been recruited to do the work. But believe it or not you would be able to complete the task if 300 watts was below threshold power. What you have touched on here is a phenomenon known as cardiac drift where the HR will increase even if the same load is applied to the body, another reason why HR is a lot less desirable as a monitor of intensity than power. To counter this if you where to ride for one hour at 172bpm (HR threshold) you would see a decline in power over the course of the hour.
Q. Measuring recovery after efforts- I can measure my recovery by looking at the graph of my HR after a race or interval session. When I'm fit I can see and time my recovery from say 180 down to 110 beats. If I see that the recovery is slower than normal, I know that I'm overcooking things and am a bit tired. A graph of your watts over time wont show this valuable information?
A. Actually it will show you that you couldn’t sustain a particular wattage over a period of time and this could indicate that your are tired "Many still cling to HR an indicator of overtraining – though declining power for a given PE (perceived exertion) is the deciding (and often first) sign of that, too (www.midweekcyclingclub.com/power.faq)"
Q. Can power training be used for my strength sessions- I.e I do the 10/15/20 mins in the 53*11 up the Embankment- but always keep my HR
under 160. As such my focus is solely on my legs. This important type of training has been promoted by top coach’s inc. Paddy Doran for a while. You might say ride at 200 watts in the big ring, but your HR could be heading to threshold level.
A. Absolutely. The PM can be toggled between Wattage and Torque. Torque can loosely be described as the strength element of the power formula. Physiologists are questioning the effectiveness of training to improve strength on big gears for long durations. It is now widely accepted that to improve strength the only way is to do max strength intervals i.e. big gears from a standing start for 10secs. This cant be monitored by HR. But you have to try disassociate your heartbeat from the effort that you are putting into a particular interval, it takes a while! The heart may be heading upwards but this can be because of a variety of factors rather than an increase in load. So using your logic should I decrease my effort in order to keep my heart at x bpm? If the answer is yes then I am actually undertraining.
Q. HR meter tells you quickly if you are tired- as your heart wont react to activity placed on it. If I cant get my heart up and its not reacting fast to changes, I would adjust my training session and take it easier. How will the power tap wont allow you this luxury while your out on the spin?
A. After a block of hard training it is likely that your HR will be lower for a given workload however that doesn’t mean that you are tired. The Heart is a muscle and it gets tired. You will still be getting a benefit from the training exercise. Tour riders will start the tour fresh and therefore have heir normal HR levels. As the race goes on and the body fatigues they will still be racing as fast as ever but the HR will be lower than the at the start of the race. This wont preclude them from winning a stage. (See reference above and http://bjsm.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/38/1/55)
Q. In training we are trying to create efficiencies in the 4 basic energy systems in the body by focusing our efforts in specific zones. Scientific research tells us that we maximise our rate of improvement by focusing our training on one zone per training session. Racing crosses many zones and is not controlled hence why top pros control the amount of racing and training. Not quite sure of the names of zones but I will use (anerobic/fat burn, aerobic, 2-3min efforts, sprints ).
A. The 3 main energy systems/pathways are The Anaerobic (ATP-CP) Energy System , The Anaerobic Lactate (Glycolytic) System, The Aerobic Energy System. Theses systems can be subdivided which can then be matched against the levels we use in HR and Power training.
Q.Your heart rate is a measure of your bodies response to effort but there is time delay in your heart responding to effort (This is the single drawback with HRM). This sounds like a small weakness but with that in mind look at the training zones and the effect of a lag....
A. There is more than a single drawback as I have stated above day to day variability up to 15bpm, drift etc....
Q. anaerobic/fat burn - So for the slower efforts particularly LSD/Anaerobic efforts the delay is minimal and negligible. i.e. if it takes my heart 1minute to get 140bpm and I intend to stay there for 3 hrs then 1minute over three hours is not relevant. However every time I drop below/raise above 140bpm there is a delay in my body responding to the true effort. Over a 3hr spin this occurs more quite often thus reducing my efficiency. But can you realistically pin your power output down we are not machines so even riding to power you are likely to experience similar variations. My verdict - On a long spin variations in gradient and conditions (wind etc) will probably result in the same level of efficiency. (Power Meter 1-1 HRM)
A. I have to agree that for aerobic/LSD efforts that HR is as good as PM because of the stochastic (jumpiness) nature of power. However, you can easily use the AVG power on the computer to monitor the effort as easily and the power meter has the added advantage that it will accurately tell you what energy you have expended while doing the training.
Q. Aeroboic - This is more of an issue. Over 15minutes it can take 2-3minutes for your heart rate to rise to reflect the effort it is feeling. That is not to say that the first 20% of the interval is lost but that you are in effect training blind with the likelihood that your are over or under exerting yourself. That is not to say that a power meter offers you a 20% advantage but you need to have a good feel for what is your aerobic level effort and pace accordingly while you ramp up. Again when you reach the zone the HRM will react more slowly to increases and decreases in efforts. On level terrain with few bends there is only a slight advantage to a Power meter. If your interval is on rolling terrain or with bends and you are able to control power output then you have the advantage. we dont all train on a track so ....(Power Meter 1.5-1 HRM)
A. No I disagree here. For one who is concerned about energy systems I assume you should be very concerned about 20% of a given effort. If you are doing a 15 min interval on the turbo and are trying to raise your HR to 172bpm (Threshold) you will be exercising at a much higher power than the one that you want to stress. You will probably be well into the anaerobic zone. But you are right in saying PE is important here but all the guess work is gone with the PM. I cant quantify what advantage the PM will give you but it will enhance the effectiveness your training. Unfortunately none of the questions people have asked are about energy use (kj), monitoring fitness, sprint power, threshold improvements, race analysis including tactical prowess, pacing, efficiency of position, mobile testing lab which are all additional elements that you get from the PM and not given to us by the HRM. Just to digress, think about the tests you do in Trinity or any other Lab for that matter. How do they control the stress on the body? It is an ergo trainer which changes load (watts) at a given time interval, they don’t ask you to raise your Hr by x beats after 3mins. Does that make sense (the words I mean)?
Q. 2-3min efforts - Given that the interval starts when you begin your effort it is almost pointless training these with a HRM as you are all but finished by the time your heart rate displays 90-95%. I used to train these effort by time. I would select a hill (say Killiney - ~3minutes) and race up it the first time ensuring that the HR got to 90-95 at the top. Then in subsequent efforts i would ensure that the heart rate got to 90-95 at the top AND my time was within 10-15sec of original fresh effort. Clearly this is vague and inefficient. A power meter is precise and consistent in terms of the load on the body and most important efficient every time. (Power Meter 2.5-1 HRM)
A. You said it! “Remember that heart rate takes about 2-4 min to fully respond to a set workload, so it’s essentially useless for short events of less than 6-10 min as a pacing tool. In longer time trials, remember too not to gauge your initial effort on heart rate, because you’ll be going far too hard if you try to peg your initial pace to your lactate threshold heart rate, and will end up paying for it later” http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/default.asp?pg=fullstory&id=3970
Q. Sprints - A sprint is an all out effort for a short duration of time. These would not normally be done using a HRM as the sprint would be long finished by the time the HR has responded to the effort. So with that in mind using a power meter you can strive to stay above a given watt output. However the watt output required for this session should require close on an all out effort to achieve it. In this respect regardless of a HRM or a power meter you will give the same effort and are unlikely/unable to keep a check on the effort when sprinting. The power meter will however let you review your result and show how well you sprinted. Using time over a set distance you can see how well you are sprinting but it will not take into consideration conditions (wind etc). (Power Meter 3.0-1 HRM)
A. Again I agree but I take it you have never trained with a PM. I know that my sprint isn’t as good as last year because I am not producing the same watts in the sprints. I can’t tell you when I was sprinting well with the HRM, I can’t compare from season to season because as I say above, the HRM is only telling me that my heart was beating fast. I can tell you when in the last 2 years I did my best sprint! I can also tell you the training I did in the sessions prior to my best sprint this is a key element of the PM so therefore I would give a score of PM 10 HRM 0 if 10 was the maximum.
Q. On the whole for more efficient training the power meter is a more efficient training aid. As Noel says HRM still has its uses particularly in showing recovery from efforts. So ideally you would use both and know when to use each one most efficiently. Also looking at CSC - possible one of the most progressive teams where every rider must use a power meter for every training ride - nobody uses a power meter in racing. Look at pics of Basso, Cancellara in Roubaix and Schleck in Amstel - it is all HRM in racing and power in training - training is training and racing is racing. I guess the question is now down to cost and can you justify the €800 against the added efficiencies. Also I would imagine that as a last point to use a HRM or power meter correctly you should have your fitness level assessed so that you are assigned the correct zones with respect to your current level of fitness!!
A. Again I disagree that nobody uses a PM while racing. Landis used it in the tour last year. Also if you are interested this link will let you have a look at a rider in a big race who obviously used a PM http://www.srm.de/englisch/prod_awbsp_tagesrennen.html Barjne Riis in a spring classic. If you have ridden the Ras over the last few years you will notice that all the GB Pursuit squad raced with Power Meters (SRM). These are multiple world champions! I questioned Tim Buckle (GB rider) about it and he said they do all their races leading up to the worlds with the PM and analyse them after the race to ensure they are heading in the right direction fitness wise. Also, you can go to http://www.srmdataserver.de/Telemetry/ for current live bimetric data.
