How does one reconcile HR and power on hilly courses

trisumai

A few questions for the experts.  I recently completed a fairly hilly HIM and upon reviewing my power profiles I had several questions.    It was a 2 loop course so the hills repeated.  I tried to get them to match up as best as possible.  During the race it was evident early on that my HR would be my major limiter as Coach P advised me to keep my HR < 154 bpm.  The problem I had was that my HR would be easily over 154 before I hit my race wattage goals so I raced with 2 caveats (1) keep HR <154 except on some climbs and (2) keep upper limit of power at 227-237W on the climbs (goal wattage + 5-10%).  Course profile is below.  I listed the10 significant climbs of 200-950 feet and got the following info listed below.<img alt="" src="/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=xVGqViW-G34%3d" />

 Hill#   Climb (ft)        Dist            NP            HR

1,6      616, 564   2.24, 3.2    180,213     160/156

2,7     255, 230    .94, 1.16    204,191     158/154

3,8     950,934     5.42,5.22   204,180     158/153

4,9     377, 453    1.07,1.46   205,195     156/157

5,10   264,231     1.19,1.13   204,198     152/154

The questions I have are:

1.  Did I approach this wrong?  How does one reconcile riding an even VI when going by the metric of HR on a hilly course where HR seems to be a big limiter esp on the climbs?  Or are they mutually exclusive.  The only thing I thought, in hindsight, is that I could have been working harder after the climb knowing that there is a HR lag?  I admit that once I made this decision, I really didn't pay as much attention to power as my HR was consistently around 150-154 except on the hills.  On the descents my avg HR was 145-150 so I wasn't really coasting too much but this was likely HR lag (in hindsight).

2.  And, how does one reconcile a power difference with HR?  It is most pronounced on the climbs I listed above (which I never even was able to hit goal race wattage w/o my avg HR being the limiter). I have noticed this in my outdoor vs indoor training as well.  It appears that my HR settles in around 154 but my IF would be approximately .75.  Indoors, I can ride at .8 for 2h with an avg HR of 140

3.  I am not sure how to reconcile this difference moving forward.  Do I accept a lower wattage when racing or go to a slightly higher HR to hit my power?

Peter Greagg

I am no WSM, and certainly no Coach.
That said, I don't know why you would worry about heart rate on the bike in an HIM?
I use power on the bike without worrying about heart rate in all races shorter than an IM.
Did you take it easier for the first 30 mins to allow your heart rate to settle after the swim? The target here is 5% less than your target Pnorm.
In a HIM I do use heart rate on the run if it has some significant hills to help me moderate running up them.

trisumai

I did take it easier after the swim which was very comfortable (and no strain on me at all). The problem in this ride was that the hills were very steep and long (at some points, 2-5 miles of clmbing) so my HR would climb into the 160s. I think my issue is that I didn't push hard enough when I crested even though I thought I was. This was limited by the fact that the course was extremely technical so there was really minimal chance to carry speed down the hills.

Al Truscott

First off, if I remember right, your run that day went fairly well, meaning you certainly didnt over cook yourself on the bike. You may even have underworked the bike. I'd like to know two additional things:

• How did the climbs feel? were you working close to the RPE you have on an FTP interval? or did it feel more like a steady state ride on the flats?
• What's you maximum HR, or if you don't know, what HR do you hit at the end of an 5k running race or TT, or at the end of a 20 min FTP interval on the bike? You're in your 20's, right, so 154 seems like a kinda low HR to be using as an upper limit when climbing up hills, especially if it means you are not hitting your power target, much less target + 5-10 %.