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Efficiency Factor (EF) questions on my 40' zone 3 ride

stephanbstephanb
in General Training Discussions


I have a question regarding my last bike ride,  week 8,   Here is a link that I think will work to it on training peaks.  I downloaded it from Trainerroad's recording of my data. http://tpks.ws/CEv7

The middle section is a 40 minute zone 3 ride (my power meter gave out once or twice, hard to get a good signal for some reason on trainer road).  What I was looking at was the large range of my heart from beginning to end of the 40 minute segment.   EF factor of 1.65  I started on around 115 bpm and ended around 148.  Could I get some feedback on that?  Anything I can learn from it or work on based on that?  Thanks. 

Comments

  • Coach PatrickCoach Patrick
    Stephan - I am not sure how many folks will know what Efficiency Factor is - I certainly don't. image That said, your heart rate always goes up during an interval. I did 3 x 10' yesterday and between intervals my HR was 120...but by the end of each interval my HR was 157. So the delta from 120 to 157 isn't really anything. Rather, I ended up sitting at 154-157 for the second half of my interval...which is my Z4 HR...which I "expect to see" so all is well.

    So if your HR for the last 1/2 or 1/3 of your "40' interval" is typical, all good.

    I think the HR drift stuff is more useful for longer ride or race evaluations where (A) athletes are warmed up, don't think I see a warm up for you and (B) reflects an attempt at steady power output and thus the true physical cost of that work. IOW, you might pick 200w for race day but if after 3 hours, or 4 hours, we see the HR bottom out (you crash) then that's an unsuccessful ride.

    Bottom line if we have power, we'd prefer you to look at VI (Variability Index) for the ride, then the last half of the ride, then the last hour all first....
  • Edwin CroucherEdwin Croucher

    Stephan, As Patrick stated EF & decoupling are more for a long steady state workout. Here are two articles by Joe Friel regarding this topic. If you want to track this, you really need to be doing longer workouts that limit outside interference. You also want to have very good power data or the results will not be accurate. 

    http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/aerobic-endurance-and-decoupling

    http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/efficiency-factor-and-decoupling

    IMO, heart rate information is good to know for activities that last 3 hours or more. Under that, HR is variable. There are so many factors that effect it HR. Is the workout exactly the same as the last workout? Is it done at the same time of day, on the same course, bike Trainer? Did you sleep well the night before. Are you hydrated the same as the last time. And there are many more. On the other hand, power is power. No matter what the other factors are, it is the same every time. Just my opinion.

  • stephanbstephanb
    Thanks for the feedback and the links. I have a lot to learn and it looks like some good studying is still required before I can take advantage of that information on my longer workouts this summer. I will try not to pay attention to that red line of mine moving higher on these shorter distances. It just didn't look good to me and then I saw the 1.65 and was worrying that I had really lost something with my fitness.
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