heart rate and power decoupling
Normally, My HR is around 140BPM when I am riding at IM intensity. During my RR a week ago, it got up into the 150's even as I dialed power back. There were good reasons for this: I was riding during the heat of a south texas afternoon and I was getting sick (didnt know it as the time).
For the last hour or so I was in damage control mode riding by HR only and making sure it stayed at or below 150. I actually ran fine off the bike but it was only 6mi.
But it has me thinking: What do I do if this happens on race day? Focus on power and let the HR go? Cap the HR if it gets out of hand?
Thx!
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The high HR is a symptom of something, and you should try and get it down — it could be heat stress, dehydration etc
If it stays stubbornly high, I would coast more than normal and try and save heart beats etc.
Longer answer: as you notice HR start to get high (+5 bpm) start coasting downhills a few mph early, perhaps only go to 3rd Gear on short climbs, etc. Whatever it takes to save a few bpm. At +10 bpm, respect the HR and try and figure out why it is elevated. Are you hydrated? Fueled? But, HR becomes your limiter and you have to (sort of) ignore the watts. Still try and be smooth, but don't work harder than your HR will let you. That may be Goal Watts - 10, -15, whatever. Find what will work and try to be steady with that new Power level.
These are your tools and you should know each very well. One may trump the other in numbers as suggested above. My thing is getting to the dark place/ the suck... and embracing it dealing with it as it wants to break you down albeit getting sick being hot or in pain you have to balance all 3 to get the job done. Take things at your numbers/pace on the bike with the intent to ensure you kill the run.
Right there...huge factor. Read my race report from kansas 70.3 this year...I raced while sick and my HR was out of control. It was not good and in retrospect (i.e. after writing the race report) I think my underperformance was much worse than I first thought. If you are sick, all bets are off and expect your HR to be abnormal.
As for normal (i.e. not when sick!) decoupling, my view is that seeing decoupling is when you know you have overcooked the bike. Regrettably that puts it as a lagging indicator. Everytime I've had decoupling in an HIM race it was in the last 10 or so miles of the bike and I followed it with a mediorce run but not a disaster run because I started the run really slow and built it up. But I really think that once you see the decoupling it is too late. Better to manage your power wisely upfront. My best HIM runs have been off of bikes with minimal decoupling.
I am 42 yrs old.
Yes - Big flashing that yous all around! Whoever came up with that saying about too many cooks being a problem was not an EN member.