HR

I find it the best way to ensure I am staying within my desired effort level for the race. I like how it responds to the different conditions and circumstances of a race. A PM gives you a measurement. You have to decide if you have to modify the target based on race conditions and how you are feeling.

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Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite (yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away) -Stephen Roche's reply when asked whether he was okay after collapsing at the finish in the La Plagne stage of the 1987 Tour

Definitely HR.

Seems like an unnecessary constraint to me. Heart rate monitors are inexpensive.

Just humorous for argument sake.he's constantly on me to put a power meter on my bike and doesn't understand why I won't race with one.

IMO, if you are a mid pack age grouper, HR will do a great job.

But, if you are the front of the pack, power is a lot more relevant... (if you slowdown you will not make it)

Power meter

There's too much interpretation with HR.

Is 130bpm the same as yesterday? I don't know, am i stressed, hot, tired, under-fed. How much should a person adjust?

All the same questions a person may ask when using power too but:

200 watts today is 200 watts tomorrow.

It is my understanding that the application of HR and PM are exactly opposite of what you described.
On a hot day, your HR is higher at the same effort as a cooler day. During a race, this means that you can back off to stay at your target HR and avoid over doing it. If just using PM, trying to hold your target watts would have you over doing it on a hot day.
The same goes for nutrition. If something goes wrong there, your HR will respond accordingly and you can adjust.
Or I could be completely wrong. It would not be the first time.

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Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite (yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away) -Stephen Roche's reply when asked whether he was okay after collapsing at the finish in the La Plagne stage of the 1987 Tour

Don’t think you’re wrong in this case.
Sure the watts are always a constant but when the surroundings come into play there might be more impact on the body than the week before. Sure HR takes I little while to show the effort but that is what’s goin on in your system.
First IM I tried to stick with the pace on the run (which was my long run pace to hold forever), HR was about 10 over usual.....guess what happened? Ended in a 4:50 disaster.

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-shoki

I'd go power for sure.. I know there are edge cases around being tired, racing in heat etc where you'd expect power output to be lower. You can easily account for that and aim 10 watts lower. In general people race in similar conditions to what they are used to and are well enough rested come race day. Also with power you can immediately settle into consistent watts. With HR it might take 20-30 minutes to settle down.

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Triathlon Calculator

PM and RPE only.

You swim by feel. PM stops you overcooking it on the bike. (HR has too much lag) and then you run by feel/pace based on what's left in the tank and your known pacing.

Also this minimises frustration if you are having a really good or bad day.

I can't believe we are having this discussion in 2019

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

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The only reason HR could possibly be a part of the discussion is because it could also be helpful in the run and I guess possibly swim, and the question wasn’t limited to the bike but was a tri race. Otherwise I’m with Eric.

Why?

Got rid of pm on race bike years ago. Slave to pm on trainer. HR only on race day.

Raced to power in kona the first time, ignoring hr. Blew on run. Next time kept HR in check the while on the bike, ran well.

Train to speed and hr. The dark art of going fast at z2 hr is a lifetime pursuit. I practice 5 miles at 135hr on the track all the time, and a 2.5 hour loop doing the same. You figure things out about speed.

Power and RPE for me. I mostly race short course, my biggest limiter is keeping my watts high, not going too hard. Power helps me stay in that narrow band between too easy and blowing up. Are you sure there are pros racing by HR, my understanding is that the ones who don't use power generally race by RPE alone.

For Racing it's HR all the time. For a given power your HR might be high or low depending on temeprature, fitness, digestion and many weird body things. However in my experience blowing up is very correlated to HR, whetether i'm on a good or bad day, too high HR = Blowup low HR and some food mean unlimited mileage. However on a good day i ca put big watts without blowup and vice-versa.

HR is much more interesting for pacing. It' also great for training. Because again whether you're in lactic aerobic etc... is more correlated to HR than absolute power. In the end i like power because it's instantaneous, great for short effort pacing, and also because it tell me whether i'm on a good day or not (can reach big numbers easily) and also if i'm progressing.

Heart rate

My first ironman I had some of my best bike numbers. 320 FTP (4.2w/kg), nailed the training and taper leading into the race on the bike

But one thing I didn’t really do much is swim

Get to the race and swim way, way too hard. Come out of the water exhausted

Get on the bike and 200w is hard to do and my heart rate is 175bpm

Sure 200w is 200w but it’s my heart rate I needed to listen to.

This is my understanding too, although since PMs exist I follow intensively the discussion.
Another disadvantage of PMs is the change of your FTP over time (since that should be the result of training) such that you constantly have to do FTP tests to determine your trainingzones. As I understand, and what my personal experience is, HR stays pretty much the same.

I see some usefulness of PM nevertheless:
Intervals < 5 minutes cannot be controlled via HR.
Aerotests outside require a PM.

I'm currently training for my first IM (done several 70.3's) and while not due to financial constraints, I've held off on buying a PM. Much like others have said, I feel that staying in Z2/Z3 on the bike will be the key to putting together a decent run. I do most of my training on a smart trainer so I do train with power, but most of those rides are less that 2 hrs and they're more about power and intensity than what I predict race day will be like. Part of me really wants to get a PM so I can know what kind of watts I'm putting out but I'm afraid that I'll be too focused on hitting a certain number which may wind up biting me in the arse later on.

I never look at my heart rate while racing. Power only, moderated by rpe.

I'm also shocked that so many people are saying HR. This is Slowtwitch, not the pathetic triathletes Facebook group .....

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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Time and RPE. I can't be a slave to shit on race day. If I'm hitting my goal pacing then good; if I'm over then I need to pick it up; if under then assess how I feel and determine if I can maintain or need to back off; and if I feel like shit a powermeter and HRM aren't going to help anymore than what my body is already telling me.

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By time do you mean hitting a certain mile marker at a certain time? In other words you pace by speed?

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

I've never worn a HR monitor during a race and certainly don't plan to any time soon.

yeah, thats what I'm meaning by time - pacing of my splits.

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