Wasn’t sure which part of the forum to put this thread in so hope I guessed correctly.
So my question is this:
Is there any way you can set TrainerRoad to adjust your power to maintain a specific heart rate?
I am aiming to do 2 hour Z2 heart rate rides indoors and would prefer to switch off and let the smart meter adjust rather than me looking down every 5 mins to see how slowly time is going.
I have a smart turbo but want to work to heart rate (for various reasons) so not too interested in a thread about the differences between heart rate vs power accuracy…please lol.
NO! If only, though! I play this game a lot…make that up/down arrow your friend.
But I will say for the application the up/down arrow is probably adequate. You can easily get into an endless heartrate oscillation if you’re overadjusting. My strategy is to adjust by ~5%. Wait 30 seconds. Fine tune the adjustment. Wait 30 seconds.
Not easy to do if you’re doing a VO2max segment but much easier to accomplish during a Z2 workout.
I was hoping I could just sit at a steady cadence and watch Netflix and let the turbo make subtle adjustments whilst I try to forget that my backside is getting tender lol.
I just came across this post after having tested a program I just wrote to achieve this. I.e. regulating the ERG mode target power to achieve a desired HR. Of course it’s not part of TrainerRoad, but I wanted to share the results.
I did two tests were the target was set to 150bpm. The first test had a way too long settling time (forgot to start the Garmin, so it only captured the last few minutes). The second test (after tuning the program) was much better. Only 1:30 settling time, and no overshoot in power nor hr.
This is very early testing, and I just did it for fun one evening. But it should definitely be possible for TrainerRoad to implement a feature for this.
Can’t you just set the power at a known number that is comfortably within your z2? My z2 starts around 180watts/108 bpm and goes up to 225 watts/130 bpm. 200 watts puts me at about 122ish bpm, and I can ride that for a loooong time before I need to worry about my HR creeping into z3 due to fatigue (and I definitely feel it in RPE before it gets anywhere close to that).
If only, though! I play this game a lot…make that up/down arrow your friend.