I thought I had heard in one of the podcasts that heart rate is not taken into account for adjusting workouts in adaptive training. Is it only power plus the post workout survey that affect changes in adaptive training.
I think RPE is a great way to analyze a workout and especially for someone like me who is just a recreational cyclist but I would think heart rate along with RPE and power would really dial in training for more advanced riders.
The job of the post-workout survey is to capture RPE, just that it doesn’t score it from 1–10, but 1–5.
The issue with heart rate is that it is influenced by things like fatigue, rest, sleep, illness, heat, etc. in all sorts of ways and inconsistently. When fatigued, your heart rate might be higher than usual or lower than usual. So just looking at heart rate data, it is hard to say whether you got fitter or are tired, whether it is currently very hot and humid, but you are fit.
That’s why it is currently not taken into account. RPE is taken into account and provides complementary information. If you pay close attention, your post-workout surveys really do impact the ramp rates for the workouts. If you consistently find that workouts have been very hard, it’ll slow down the ramp or even replace Progressive workouts with Achievable ones.
That is correct, heart rate is not part of Adaptive Training’s logic currently. Measured power and post-workout surveys, like you mentioned, are part of a complex approach in determining what your potential adaptations can look like.
We’re always considering ways in which we can improve upon Adaptive Training’s logic, and consider power to be a more consistent and reliable performance metric. Heart Rate is impacted by many factors that work against gaining repeatable results (sleep hygiene, stress, caffeine intake, Glycogen level Hydration level Temperature), but you’ll be glad to know that RPE and your perceived difficulty expressed in those post-workout surveys are being utilized effectively when you receive adaptations.
You’ve done a great job at promptly answering those surveys thus far, keep it up and it will only help AT continue to serve you the best workout at the right time!
Perhaps HRV will be able to flow in via the major providers (Garmin …) in the future, as this is increasingly receiving attention?
HRV was mentioned as an area of interest in a few of the podcasts when @Nate_Pearson talked about the future of AT. I’m not sure whether there are any news, but I think it’ll be a while. At the very least they want to be able to plug into the data stored in Apple Health, Garmin and the like.
