I often see these guys with a black chest strap when their jerseys are zipped down. I can’t think of what this is other than a HR strap. Is it something else?
Smart people monitor both HR and power.
Even if the athlete doesn’t know what to do with HR numbers, the trainers certainly do.
I often see these guys with a black chest strap when their jerseys are zipped down. I can’t think of what this is other than a HR strap. Is it something else?
I spent the last week of the tour with the Astana team in the bus and cars. They absolutely use HR and of course power.
Definitely heart rate. Not all riders use heart rate monitors, but a lot do.
From what I can gather they don’t necessarily look at the numbers real time. You can either follow an attack or not, or hold on in the breakaway, or not. Heart rate won’t really dictate the success or otherwise of this. However, the numbers can be very useful for the coaches to gauge things such as fatigue and potentially the onset of illness, both huge issues in a 3 week grand tour.
okay. but heart rate gets a bad rap around here. i’ve always found that HR was a useful metric in training, but if you mention HR in this forum you get shat on.
Aside from the basics of having HR data available, having heart rate is a great backup if you power meter craps out mid ride (or stage). I would image at least some pros have that in the back of their mind when they strap up.
okay. but heart rate gets a bad rap around here. i’ve always found that HR was a useful metric in training, but if you mention HR in this forum you get shat on.
that’s similar for many things around here. HR is a very useful metric, possibly more useful than power. Both give data, which you can use to monitor performance and fitness and work very well when used together.
Each to there own, but I’m a fan of HR and have been for long before the power meter existed.
So true. I think that says more about the people that frequent this forum, than the use of the heart rate monitor itself (ducks behind table waiting for abuse).
Save for finding the strap uncomfortable (i don’t, but can understand why some do), I can’t think of why the rider/coach would not want to see that information and retain it for future reference. So much can be drawn from it, especially as more and more data is gathered and trends can be identified.
A power meter is great, but it’s all well and good saying “my FTP is 300 watts” if, on a given day, trying to hold 300 watts pushes you to, or near your max heart rate. Having an FTP of 300 watts, and being told you are pushing 300 watts won’t overcome your body being unable to do that for as long as you think you can.
HR gets ragged on here due to how it is impacted by external environment and is slower to respond than power. But I would guess it is a very useful metric in monitoring an athletes condition over the course of a grand tour or even a classic.
okay. but heart rate gets a bad rap around here. i’ve always found that HR was a useful metric in training, but if you mention HR in this forum you get shat on.
Yep, everybody that doesn’t understand HR will pop up with their opinion.
Tour cyclist have used HR longer than anybody.
Americans poo poed Conconi with his claims of the usefulness of HR, meanwhile europeans continued to train and race by it and Americans never getting close.
When there are a bunch of attacks happening, HR and percieved effort will give you a far better idea of how much you are getting knocked around than power will as well as giving an indicator of genuine fatigue.
Power is a great adjunct to HR, but has huge holes in information to be used by itself.
The single most successful team uses what Slowtwichers percieve as the worst power meter on the market and not only the worst but ridiculed as being useless.
Enough said.
okay. but heart rate gets a bad rap around here. i’ve always found that HR was a useful metric in training, but if you mention HR in this forum you get shat on.
Yea it’s not like anybody has ever won 6 Ironmans without using power.
Back in the late 90’s I used HR extensively for training and found it quite useful. I tracked my morning resting Hr and during all my workouts. I got to the stage where I knew what my HR was before I looked at my watch. One mistake I made was using Hr real time during running workouts to control my effort. I wasted a lot of time slowing down and speeding up and trying to stay in a particular zone instead of just letting the workout flow and accepting cardiac drift. However, I paced a few IM races based off Hr and seemed to do fairly well with it. Looking at morning resting Hr was also VERY good for monitoring recovery and early signs of illness.
I jumped on the powermeter bandwagon quite early with an Ergomo (remember those!) and then pretty much stopped using heart rate believing Power was the new messiah. I have found power to be very good for real time use when riding either steady state or doing intervals.
Recently I have gone back to using Hr and have actually found it very useful. Following a Vo2/lactate test in a lab for the bike and run I now use Hr to make sure I stay in easy mode for the bulk of my endurance workouts.
I agree that Hr monitoring has been thrown under the bus around here since the evolution of the powermeter, but I find Hr extremely useful in conjunction with RPE and power. I can understand why some pro teams/athletes may choose to use other metrics as their primary or real time feedback but when you are looking for marginal gains, I can’t believe any serious athlete would completely disregard Herat rate.
Once the wrist worn Hr monitors become a bit more reliable I think 24hr/day Hr data could be quite interesting too.
Will
HR gets ragged on here due to how it is impacted by external environment and is slower to respond than power. But I would guess it is a very useful metric in monitoring an athletes condition over the course of a grand tour or even a classic.
I hear you on the response rate. But I think one of the benefits of HR is that it is responsive to environment.
not for me…for example, when it is chilly out(below 60) my TT HR will not get out of the 160s, while when warmer and humid(80s,90%) my HR for same effort(duration and power) will be in the upper 170s. how is that useful to me other than to tell me one day is warmer than the other. yes environmentally HR is responding to the environment, but it is having no impact on my power output.
I’ll never understand one’s reasoning for not using HR when they say its affected by fatigue, stress, illness, high dew points, etc…like no shit why wouldn’t you want to take those things into account when trying to solicit the desired adaptation for the appropriate prescribed stimulus…
And holy schnikes, I have to wait 2 seconds for the HR lag to tell me what I just did two seconds ago…rant over…i’ll see myself back out
okay. but heart rate gets a bad rap around here. i’ve always found that HR was a useful metric in training, but if you mention HR in this forum you get shat on.
If that’s HR-only then it makes some sense.
Individually RPE, Power, Pace & HR are all flawed, but the combination of them gives you some decent insight.
ie. ‘The ride felt ok, legs sore from yesterdays run, cardio good RPE:~6, hit the 220W target, HR was 2 beats lower than last time’
not for me…for example, when it is chilly out(below 60) my TT HR will not get out of the 160s, while when warmer and humid(80s,90%) my HR for same effort(duration and power) will be in the upper 170s. how is that useful to me other than to tell me one day is warmer than the other. yes environmentally HR is responding to the environment, but it is having no impact on my power output.
But you should be able to go faster when it’s cool than when it’s hot. If your HR is that much lower in a cool TT maybe it’s telling you that you could be going harder without blowing up 
except my best power days are when it is warm. I know others this way too, we might just be reptillian
I often see these guys with a black chest strap when their jerseys are zipped down. I can’t think of what this is other than a HR strap. Is it something else?
Manssiere
Everyone seems to have glossed over this post
Weirdly i folllwed an astana car from lugano / genoa last thursday all the way to the aosta valley…
I thought they might be lost