I have never used a HRM, and I don’t have a cyclometer on my bike. I just go with the flow.
I raced by feel at NYC Tri and had a PR in all 3… I plan on racing by feel at Timberman this weekend and see what happens… However, I’ll be monitoring my HR for my first Ironman in October.
I exercise by feel when my instrument panel tells me to.
I don’t use a HRM, but I do use the cyclometer. Same in races.
I race totally by feel… on most HIMs I don’t even take a watch.
At IMC I will take a watch to make sure I don’t do the first few kms of the run too fast, and I haven’t figured out IM pace yet, other than that though, it’s by feel.
Trev
I’m a low tech guy, so I base my training effort on feel. No HRM or cyclometer. Probably the only thing I measure might be my mile pace, but that is not very often. I’ve been training for 10+ year and really feel in-tune with my body. And even though I train/excersise 5-6 days/week and have a few doubles in there, I generally don’t have a strict schedule, just what feels good and balanced out.
My racing results are great for my expectations, usually top 5 in my age-group in most events.
This type of training has kept me extremely happy and healthy and fit without much stress on what I should be doing and where I should be at.
Chris
the only thing I use is cadence and feel. That’s it.
I use HRM on the bike for HIM and IM + cadence to keep me honest at the start. I tend to hammer if I don’t use my HRM.
Short coarse stuff I sometimes use my HRM just for information after the race.
absolutely. never have, never will use all the electronic crap. a watch is helpful, but that is about it. race results seem to prove to me that it works pretty well.
if you know what you are doing, then sensitive human perception is FAR, FAR more accurate that the best tranisistors and software out there…
I will do Crits and short road races by feel, but you don’t really have time to slow down and rest. I pay attention to my HR when I am racing in the hills. It really doesn’t do much except let me know when I am about to blow up and get shelled off the back. If you have Zen mastered your HR, more power to you. I work with numbers all day and need the feedback.
I have the HRM (Polar S625X) with the bike speed xmtr, as well. I typically train by feel and then log the HRM data and compare to prior times on the same course to see if my ‘feel’ is getting faster.
Oh, let me add… I do use the Interval feature of the watch once a week since I don’t have a track nearby - typically 6x3 mins @ 90% MHR with however long it takes to bring HR down to 80% without walking or stopping.
i have two heart rate monitors that are somewhere around here. used one of them a couple of times. it’s just tedious to me.
learning to race and train by feel is an art…one that i believe is really important to master. (but mastering the art won’t make you fast…only training and time can do that :P)
I shoot for the “happy medium” in this area…I gauge my effort by “feel”, for the most part.
I wear a HRM during most training and racing…but I rarely utilize specific “zones”, except for when I’m trying to go super-easy for recovery. I do find the HRM data useful to examine my progress over long periods, over the same course(s). I also gain some positive feedback from the approximate calorie expenditure as well.
I don’t see myself ever going without a cyclocomputer though. Way too much important info there for me.
I *train *w/ some of the goodies (mostly on the run, or biking on the trainer - I pretty much never use a HRM on the bike) , but I race by feel.
I try to make sure my cadence stays in my happy place (generally 85-105 rpms) on the bike, or not. And hopefully remember to hit my watch so I get my splits to look at after the race.
I do hafta say, I certainly ENJOY my running more when I have less electronic gadgets with me. It’s nice to JFR, and check the watch at the end to see how long you were out, and that’s it.
I think all the doodads can help you fine tune that “feel” in training. So that’s what I use 'em for (and to keep me from getting bored).
I’ve been training since March and done 6 tris (2 Olys, 4 sprints) with two longer races coming up next weekend and again on Sept. 17th (HIM) and have never used an HRM. I have a computer on the bike that tells me basics only. How far I’ve gone and what my speed and av. speed is, etc. I like the idea of pacing based on how I feel rather than how an HRM tells me I’m doing. This is my first season of tri here in SoCal and I’m typically placing in the top 3rd in my AG, so we’ll see how it goes.
I do. I’ve tried regimented training and found out it wasn’t for me. I like to mix up sports, intensities, duration, frequency, etc., which is what I call training by feel.
Recently, I have stepped up participation in yoga, Pilates, rock climbing, plyometrics, and games of all kinds without any guilty feelings toward triathlon. I suppose I value general fitness more than triathlon performance. But the funny thing is, my triathlon performance hasn’t suffered, at least up to the Olympic distance.
I read down through most of the comments and can virtually promise anyone who races by feel that they are not riding an even-paced race. I can say this after training and racing with a powermeter/hr monitor on the bike for more than a year.
Here is what happens in a race. You come running out of the swim pumped up and your heart rate is redlined. You run like a madman through transition, grab your bike and run out. Once you jump on, assuming you have tapered, you feel great and start to pound away at the pedals. Early on you are blowing by people (assuming you are fast) and it just feels easy. As the race progresses that feel of effortless pedaling goes away and you concentrate on working hard, but not too hard. Toward the end of the race, you maintain your pace by putting a little more effort into the ride until you come to T2.
Here is what actually takes place–when you first jump on the bike you start blasting out a huge wattage that is way higher than you will average for the entire ride. Your heart rate is still lower than it would be at the same power later in the race, but you have already started digging a hole for yourself. After a while at this high watt output the magic feeling goes away and your power drops down to a decent level that you then hold through most of the race. Your heart rate holds steady for a while, but then starts to creep up as you tire. Towards the end of the race you pick up the pace, but it is only a perceived improvement as your watts and speed continue to drop until T2.
If you were to download the data from the ride you would see a continuous downward trend in power from the beginning of the race to the end, though it might be fairly gradual in the middle.
Until you race and train with power, you really don’t know what goes on. Perceived exertion is just that—perceived. Your body can be a tricky bugger and I would guess most of you don’t know it quite as well as you think.
Chad
P.S. My run off the bike has improved immensely after I started racing with power. My ride is never top-notch, but I pass a lot of people running. In duathlons especially I am shocked at how much slower athletes go on their second run.
the question is, have you been racing and training for 20 years?
a powermeter can help an inexperienced person, of that there is not too much doubt.
but no powermeter that i know of can factor in things like: your body position on the bike (aerodynamics), heat, humidity, solar load, body hydration, dietary composition/efficiency, your last few workouts, seasonal accumulated training fatigue, a level of very deep rest, an impending mild illness, and/or 10,000 other things that your body can tell you if you take the time to stop and listen.
wattage, while useful, is only one tiny sliver of the whole equation.
the question is, have you been racing and training for 20 years?
a powermeter can help an inexperienced person, of that there is not too much doubt.
but no powermeter that i know of can factor in things like: your body position on the bike (aerodynamics), heat, humidity, solar load, body hydration, dietary composition/efficiency, your last few workouts, seasonal accumulated training fatigue, a level of very deep rest, an impending mild illness, and/or 10,000 other things that your body can tell you if you take the time to stop and listen.
wattage, while useful, is only one tiny sliver of the whole equation.
Yeah, why use power? I mean, it gives you an exact measure of intensity and the amount of work done in a particular workout. It’s easy to track power trends (if your power is down you are either tired or getting sick) and easy to track “accumulated” fatigue.
But then again, maybe it’s just for the beginners. Like Ullrich, Basso, and Armstrong… I mean they are probably just trying to learn how to ride by feel.
if tomorrow, the pros that you mention were to trash all their horsepower electronics, would they get their rears kicked in future races? i think not.
there is a difference between correlation and causality…