I am curious to hear who trains/races ‘without’ HRM’s, Power Meters, Special Cranks, etc…???
and why???
Does a bike computer count? I live by cadence. So, I guess I’m not riding naked.
Funny thing is, I had one of my best sprint races when I failed to start my stop watch one time.
I do both – I do rides with HRM, GPS, etc. etc.
and I do rides and runs with no watch, no computer, no HRM, etc. I call that riding by feel or a zen ride )or zen run)
I find I can focus and listen to my body better when I am not paying attention to a clock, computer, Miles per hour, Heart Rate etc.
I call it mixing the science of training with the art of training.
I train with nothing. I have four reasons.
Firstly, I can predict my HR from my level of efforts and other parameters extremely well. Secondly, once you switch off all the electronics and concentrate on the ride, the views, and the messages that you body gives you - you will have a much better time – I felt as if I am a born again cyclist. I just had enough monitoring myself all the time and feeling better or worth because of some electronic LCD display. Thirdly, most of the features on an HRM are based on just one simple indicator - your HR. The rest is just approximations based on very simple math and they (calories, VO2MAX etc.,) are inaccurate anyway.
Finally, I trained hard with all the gadgets and my progress was slow. As soon as I switched it all off and joined a roadies cycling club (where I had to push myself to keep up) I became a very strong cyclist within 3 months and I was in a position before December to climb long steep hills extremely well.
I feel that social pressure and going back to basics is the best training. HRM and other gadgets should be used but only periodically to monitor progress. Not in order to plot performance on a 10 second intervals basis.
I don’t use anything but a stopwatch to time my overall workout/race. I even took the computer off my bike. HRMs, PCs, RCs, GPSs, etc are great but really not necessary for most of us.
That’s the way I’m building my fixie… old steel frame from st. vincient depaul $20.00 and a fixie wheel/hub $60.00. crankset from chuck’s… about as naked as you can get. Reason, just for a change.
I threw away my cyclocomputer when I upgraded to cat 2 years ago. I didn’t WANT to know how fast I was going…would have probably been freaked. Have been doing my training rides based on time now…2 hour, 3 hour, etc. When racing, I am either looking at the race clock for crits and circuits or rely on my fellow racers during road races. TTs, I pre-ride the course and know where I am on the course. I just have a stop watch on my bike now.
I use a Computrainer, GPS unit (Forerunner) in conjunction with motionbased.com and heart rate monitor and a simple cyclocomputer.
The information is only as good as your interpretation and implementation of it. In and of itself, it is useless.
I havent been training with any of the above lately. Sometimes when I do long rides I will wear an HRM and try to keep in the zone. I did use an HRM in my 1/2IM and IM on the bike last year. I cant stand wearing an HRM when Im running, its really uncomfortable, so I dont. I do this for fun so I dont want to get too anal about it, no plans on power meter or any other gadgets, but would love a disk. I use PE and it seems to work, If I feel good I’ll run or ride faster or If I dont I will go slower. I do use a GPS to measure my run routes.
I thought about weighing my food but I couldnt find a big enough scale. 
Funny that you started this. I almost started a thread when I noticed in the famous Ironwars picture of Dave Scott and Mark Allen that both look to be running gadget-free.
I infrequently use a HRM when training to see how my HR is responding.
i train pretty much “naked” i don’t have a cycle computer. just never got one. I started wearing a watch to run this year but i don’t set it. someone gave a me a hrm for xmas so it was a new toy to play with. for a week i wore it 24-7. its just extra stuff to think about, distracting, and it pisses me off. i work out hard but don’t limit myself w/ hr ranges, mph etc. maybe im missing out tho since technology, methods, or whatever seem to make olympic times better every year. my friend tried to stay in his online-coach-prescribed hr ranges for imfl but i think he limited himself he was so worried about it cuz i know he can go faster. btw it seemed to work pretty well for me last year but do whatever works for you. plus i dont like sh*t hanging off my body and weighing my bike down, crowding my handlebars. i think i swim better w/o a watch on. might broaden my horizons a bit this season to make sure i can ride x hours at x mph. if i could spend $$$ on cranks i would try them out though.
Racing gadget free is not the same thing as training gadget free…
One could argue that those two had some of the most highly honed RPE senses ever…especially Mark.
Bugger, I’m with you on this one. Too many people limit their improvement trying to stay in an artificially-prescribed low HR range. That’s fine and dandy if you can exercise for big volumes, but, if you’re like most of us 10 hour per week (at best) people, you’ll get faster much more quickly if you lose the HR monitor and just go faster. I’m not saying HR monitoring doesn’t have it’s place…just that too many are bound by it, and it’s holding them back.
I switch from “naked” to HRM and computer about every other year. I’ll use them for a year or 2 and then go without for a year or two. I just bought a HRM after mine died 2 years ago.