Retesting Bike for HR

Jonathan Brown

Hello All,

What can we expect when we retest? I have know I have gotten faster. I have also seen that i can keep my heart rate spiked for longer than i used to be able too... Is this what i should expect? Faster and higher Heart rate?

Coach Rich

Faster yes, higher heart rate, maybe, though that's not a goal and we really don't care. In other words, we train hard to go faster on the bike. HR is simply the symptom of the work performed...the work (you can do more of it because you're more fit) is what makes the bike go faster. But what your HR is doing at that higher bike speed...we don't really care. 

The only purpose for periodically testing HR training zones is to capture any changes in these zones that may happen through changes in fitness. But you'll see that we have the HR athletes testing less frequency than power athletes. This is because we generally only test when we can extract objective, usuable data from the test.  If I send you out for a 40' bike TT and you finish the same LTHR as your last test, I've successfully thrashed you but we haven't learned anything very useful from the thrashing . 

jaleslie

That is exactly what I was thinking around the 30min mark of my last FTHR test....this is painful and I don't think anything will change much!....ie....what is Rich doing to me?....oh....I know....making me want a PM even more.  That's it!  

Jonathan Brown

Awesome, thanks. One day i will go with power, i just cant justify the cost this year.

William Jenks

Using "speed" on an indoor trainer is dodgy, but if you are careful about keeping the tension the same and the tire pressure the same, you should see very close to the same power/speed response curve (if you were able to measure it, which you are not).

IF YOU HAVE BEEN CAREFUL WITH THESE PARAMETERS, you can observe progress on your HR-based test by looking at your average speed (or total distance traveled during a precisely measured amount of time) during the test.

MattAaronson

@ Jonathan - my $0.02 is to add up all the money you will spend on triathlon this year, and delete whatever you need to delete to buy a powermeter. It might mean 2 fewer races (or one less travel race), not buying an expensive [fill in some equipment names here!], or whatever. Honestly, power is a game-changer. Power is no longer a several-thousand dollar proposition. A used PowerTap wheel is a few hundred bucks these days on ebay. If you want to (a) maximize fitness improvements and (b) optimize execution then it is money well-spent.

Jonathan Brown

Matt,

Its more about what i have spent already on training and races for 2013. after IMLP, i will most likely get a power meter for my birthday. (a gift to myself) but this year has been taxing on the wallet. I will be training next year (2014) with one.. just not now.

William Jenks

I am lucky to have a reasonable disposable income, but I just picked up wireless PT wheels for the $650 range. Wired go for half that. You can even get a wired Zipp 404 as if the PM were free because the market has collapsed on the wired ones.