I asked this before and never got a good enough answer for me to wear one.
I wore one for > a year with a one-on-one coach and we never made one decision based on it. I found it rather interesting but stopped wearing one. I see no point if I’m not gonna make either frequent or very important changes. (it’s possible he made a decision without telling me…or perhaps my heart just never got out of line with what he wanted or something…I dunno that for sure).
Can anyone show me something they specifically did as a result of a heart rate monitor?
like I sometimes saw a drift but kept going anyway. my HR was 10 bpm faster at a higher cadence. as I got fitter, my HR slowed a touch. but like…I could also feel it be easier. I didn’t need a monitor for that.
genuinely curious. i’m not saying they are useless. I’ve been riding without one for a year and a half and don’t miss the data. I would love to hear / see some specific ways a HR monitor changed anything you did ever.
(yes I know it’s nbd to put on, but it’s just one more thing…already kind of a pain to get dressed and worry about batteries etc. i’m not saying it’s a big deal…just the minimalist in me doesn’t like to use or have things that aren’t useful. and “wear one cause it’s easy” is not a reason for me)
Few weeks ago was pushing things too hard (not eating enough, lifting too much, accepted ftp bump I shouldn’t have) and decided to do a workout anyway on a red day (day after the day that bumped my ftp). I did an “easy” 1 hour endurance ride one of the ones where its like warm up 5 min, ride 50 at constant power, cool down 5 minutes. I also decided to do it with no fans, despite choosing an easy workout due to fatigue. I had a good deal of cardiac drift from start to end 20+bpm on an effort I should have been able to hold the starting heart rate. It was good confirmation I was overdoing it. I didn’t back off enough and had rough 2 more weeks but I have that data point now of if I see it again should back off.
The next was my race last weekend. I normally don’t look at heart rate when racing but I noticed it was bang on and steady at about 166, I felt great even though pushing 170 is usually when I get uncomfortable when on the trainer. Since I noted it early on I kept checking back and it was 164-165 anytime I looked. After the drift incident a few weeks before I knew I was feeling good and could keep pushing.
Other than that I generally ignore it other than making some mental notes, like oh I feel like crap, ok yeah I am at 172 sort of thing.
HR is good for managing your effort. Depending on circumstances, power might not be a great indicator of what’s going on. For example, you’re supposed to be doing a 3 hour Z2 ride, your power is in your normal Z2 range but your HR is 190. For most people that’s no longer Z2. There is something going on (e.g. heat, altitude, illness, etc.) that’s causing the high HR and increasing the load of that particular workout, so you’d need to dial back the power or your easy Z2 ride just became a brutal sufferfest that will take a while to recover from.
I actually ditched my HR monitor (Apple Watch) for the whole month of August and didn’t miss it. Have started to wear it again mostly to track HRV and resting HR, and in outdoor rides the peace of mind with crash detection/emergency call. I try not to look at it too much when riding, although when fitness is lower it’s nice for tracking HR drift on longer rides. If I track workouts I also get HR Zone breakouts which can be useful for determining RPE. Apple and Garmin don’t play well so I don’t even get a reading on my bike unit but that’s probably for the best anyways. For very fit riders tracking power I would tend to agree the usefulness is less. For less fit heart rate can be a limiting factor.
I’m kinda old school. Pre power meters. Ex-Runner. I think power meters are great for training. Tons of positives.
When it comes to events I use my heart rate as a guide. My heart rate is a better judge of the effort than my power meter. While I should be able to put out X amount of watts at Y heart rate, sometimes this is not the case. It can go either way. More watts or less. My heart rate monitor is my tool to confirm how I feel.
monitoring effort on z2 rides as power is just so variable on our rolling lanes. I like to see a solid block of z2 hr graph on my Fenix if I am aiming to do a z2 ride
health monitoring. I’m a proper stress head and my heart rate does indicate my current level of stress. If I’m off work and chilling (but still training) my RHR tends to be around 8 beats lower than when I’m at work during stressful periods. If the elevated RHR goes on too long I know I’m in for a hard time recovering so I have to do something about it. I dont pay much attention to HRV but it does go down under acute (rather than chronic) stress and illness
knowing how badly heat is affecting my power data….in the summer I was often tipping into tempo on z2 rides, unintentionally, because I am just not good with heat (never have been). Obviously my Garmin condition was through the floor, garmin VO2 was going down, but it’s nice to actually see it and make some kind of N=1 corrolation over time that, when its storming hot, my hr goes up, and when cool, my hr goes down. I am not getting less fit, exactly. Its a bit of a comfort blanket reminder of this fact.
When I used training peaks I loved the HR data on there. Always interesting to see how my body was reacting to bigger days. Toward the end of the day if it’s decoupling then I know I’ve really stressed the system, but often on long rides it would be negative (slower for the power) as I relaxed into the flow of the ride and finally stopped stressing about whether I can manage it. Then I know that the ride wasn’t too much to ask and can learn from that. I wish TR showed the same data tbh.
So I guess I use it as a guide mostly for my ridiculous stress response.
For me heart rate is a very useful secondary metric for workouts and I use it to pace outdoor rides as heart rate fluctuates less than power.
Heart rate, especially heart rate recovery for intervals, enters my decision making process on whether to push through, modify the workout or pull the plug. (To be precise, I take into account power, heart rate and RPE, and if two out of three indicators are in the red, I seriously consider pulling the plug.)
I find heart rate to be a useful secondary metric. It requires context, though.
I like to correlate power and HR. But I find power better at tempo and threshold generally, especially for training. But for group rides when I’m going 60-90% MaxHR I have a better idea of how much more I can push. I also like to pace longer rides of HR. And with shorter VO2max stuff whilst I go off power primarily, if I’m not going over 90% Max HR (especially towards the end of a block) I’ll push that wee bit harder.
Coaches will use HR to track cardiac drift - which is a great measure of aerobic fitness. Mine used it (reduced cardiac drift) as a trigger to move on with harder training.
As said above, watching HR for a longer interval reduce for the same power).
For those who ride mostly mtb how do you manage to stay in zone on power only? I struggle with this, even though on pavement and trainer i have no trouble. (for context I mostly ride xc type trails in florida)
My answer was to use heart rate to pace endurance rides. Gusts of winds, rows of trees and houses + wind, power can vary wildly on the road. Off road it is even harder.
I’ve been recording cycling HR since I got my first cycling Garmin back in 2010. I use power and HR is not something I go by when riding, but occasionally look at it just to see what it is. After the ride, different apps use HR data to judge physiological response, fatigue, and recovery and present a metric(s) to reflect that, which can be useful. Monitor-wise, I started with a classic Garmin chest strap (which still works) but have also used optical arm bands and most recently a Garmin watch. Why not?
For training, I use power. But I could do all of my workouts without power using RPE, though HR would make it a little easier.
For racing, it is 95% RPE, 5% HR, 0% power. Absolutely worthless to me on race day. The 5% HR is mostly just to confirm how I am feeling. If the HR doesn’t match how I feel than it tells me I need to go harder, but that pretty much doesn’t happen anymore.
The point of a heart rate monitor is internal load check. The same watts can cost very different strain, depending on sleep, heat, illness, hydration, caffeine, or several other factors. Your heart rate can tell you the physiology behind the number.
Also, your heart rate during a workout in combination with your resting heart rate and 28 day baseline can give you a go or no go for training. For example, during your warm-up your heart rate should settle after 8 to 10 minutes based on previous warm-ups and trends. If not, you may need to back off or switch to recovery. Also in post your heart rate can indicate your aerobic durability and fueling. Looking at your heart rate drift on long zone 2 can confirm whether aerobic stability and hydration is on point. Additionally, during intervals how fast your heart rate drops between reps can indicate your readiness to train hard or race.
Your power meter is telling you what you are doing and your heart rate monitor is telling you what it’s costing you. If your heart rate is running away for no apparent reason based on previous data, it’s an early warning that something is off. However, if you’re not paying attention to these trends and analyzing your Heart rate data then it’s all pointless to wear a heart rate monitor in the first place.
EDIT: during racing heart rate is valuable if you are trying to pace your effort and use some type of redline rule. Not to mention invaluable when analyzing your race efforts if you get dropped or tend to struggle consistently at a certain time or power duration. Heart rate can fill in the gaps of what your limiters may be.
Lastly, if you ever develop some sort of health issue, your heart rate and baseline trends can send up red flags. This was the case for me when my heart rate was peaking early, wouldn’t settle and I couldn’t figure out why. It turned out that my hematocrit was very high and I was iron restricted. This allowed me to address this issue with my doctor immediately.
Useful for pacing true ‘zone 2’ rides but I don’t massively see the point in them either and and think it’s a real headache that you need one to even compete in certain - completely inconsequential - Zwift races.