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W.D.L. June 2017: Transitioning from Power/Pace to Heart Rate
Despite having to log more phone calls then miles of exercise this week, I am still procrastinating like a champion! 
Case in point, I'm excited to introduce they knew's monthly series called: Watch. Discuss. Learn. In this series I will be posting a video each month on a topic that is come up in my calls in contact with athletes. It's meant to be an opportunity for you to share your insights and discuss your experiences and together we will hopefully create a better understanding moving forward as a community.
Without further ado, here is the June 2017 Video: Transitioning From Power/Pace to Heart Rate
Questions to Consider:
Case in point, I'm excited to introduce they knew's monthly series called: Watch. Discuss. Learn. In this series I will be posting a video each month on a topic that is come up in my calls in contact with athletes. It's meant to be an opportunity for you to share your insights and discuss your experiences and together we will hopefully create a better understanding moving forward as a community.Without further ado, here is the June 2017 Video: Transitioning From Power/Pace to Heart Rate
Questions to Consider:
- What is the true cost of ignoring the effect of heat on your body at peak effort levels?
- How long until you are "adapted" to the heat and can get back to regular training -- if ever.
- What's the best way to "get the work done" despite the heat?
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Heat is like hills on the run, wind on the bike - nothing you can do about it, you're just gonna go slower. So you need an alternative to standard metrics to keep you within the effort window for a given day's workout. HR gathers all those confounding factors, and helps temper the effort so we don't (literally) burn out. Seems old school in the late second decade of the 21st century, but sometimes the old ways are the best ways.
Theres a whole physiologic explanation of why HR goes up and pace slows as it gets hotter, having to do with core temperature, the need to dissipate the heat created by the muscles, the difficulty of doing when heat (as modified by humidity ) goes up. There are also intriguing changes that occur as one does more training in the heat - "adaptation" or "acclimitization". But you can never fully compensate for the heat - above a certain temp, no matter how well adapted you are, you will slow down, or you will shut down. The body doesn;t like a core temperature above something like 102.4 (a little thing called heat exhaustion, which can lead to heat stroke, which leads to ... death), and it will do something to make you slow down - cause cramps, make you walk, faint, pass out. Mind your HR when its hot, especially when racing and you are trying to over-ride your body's signals.
For a bigger guy, I adapt pretty well, once I've got a few months of hot running under my belt (ex, last year when I trained thru the summer for my trail 50k), but it's always a total sweat fest (can you say CHAFING!).
Few things:
1) In my mind, using HR for me is not something I like to use; I always tell myself if I need to hit that pace/speed, so be it with the HR, it is what it is, just need to keep working and get more fit so my HR gets lower and lower throught the time. IOW; If I need to hit 155BPM to run at 4:10/km, I'll do it.
2) As for the heat/humidity, when training inside I dont use a fan and open up the heat in the garage to simulate the heat & humidity that we have during summer; that explains the drawings that some of you have seen on groupme
3) Following 2), when I get outside in the heat it takes less time to get acclimate and get to normal
4) I always find heat "hard" when its a standalone run VS a brick run. I don't notice material difference for the bike since I train in an "articial heat" during the winter.
I take heat over winds
and love those videos, keep posting!
I also try to use time of day to manage heat on long efforts in the summer. Do them late in the day or early in the AM, run on the side of the road that will have shade on the brutal hot (and humid) days, etc..
It think this info is key for many of us who are so pace/power driven. Tuning in to the body's signals vs pushing through aka HTFU mentality in the heat is pretty important.
New for me this year is using a preload drink the night before big/hot workouts. I think it prepares me better for the work and helps me recover a bit better too (along with my regular recovery drink). It will be part of my training and racing moving forward.
Not sure where I was going with all that:o) Just wanted to chime in that HR training is indeed critical when you are in temps, or conditions, that dictate going away from pace/power analytics.
Looking forward to more of these videos.
I've read Cronk say "HR can be a limiter of actual ability" on race day. That seems incongruous with this video - seems we should at least test/train our HR limits during training before race day?
As for heat, I am guessing the aim of switching to HR is to not bonk/die of heat stroke. But assuming we do train hard in heat, is that not a way to get better (along with ideas like weight vest on run, or pull buoy in pool)?
In the end it will always be RPE, if you cant hit that power number you wont, if you cant hit that pace you wont, if you cant average the HR you want you wont, you cant just force yourbody to do something it doesnt not or will not do... yes there are a few that can push past and force themselves into a danger zone but most of us mortals have a build in circuit breaker to prevent serious damage...
YES I believe using HR for racing is a limiter ....I am pretty much a minority in that thinking so take my thoughts with a grain of salt... Racing by RPE but collecting the HR has shown me I am capable of so much more than I thought I would be... If I had known the HR at the time I would have slowed down.... Yesterday I went out to do a 2 x 20' FTP session on the bike , UH-OH Power Meter Battery died, do you know how hard it is to do FTP intervals without collecting the data??? Luckily I had my HR strap, I performed the 2 x 20' WKO blind with NO Power (did not look at HR NOT once until file was downloaded)... Long story short my avg HR for those 2 x 20's were 171 vs. the avg HR of my last four 2 x 20' wkos were 167-173... So at least in this instance HR later validated that I was indeed working as hard as I thought I was or equivilent to the last 4 similar wko's were I was using power.....
This stuff is never a either or, its just good guidance, that needs to be applied and adapted to individually!
I also see the HR as a reaction of the past few seconds effort and not the current effort, so in my mind its kind of useless
I am one of the "bigger dudes" in here from a pure muscle standpoint. I find that the heat on the bike effects me a LOT LESS on the bike. Moving along creates a constant ~20mph breeze that helps me shed some of the heat. In bike "training", I generally don't dial my longer IM training efforts back much in the heat. Like others have said, just seems like more "training" for me, but I have to be very cognizant to drink more during the effort and definitely drink more after... You have to be aware if you are digging yourself a hole and heat stress and "normal" training stress are both stressors and you have to give your body the ability to recover for them so you can lather, rinse, repeat. For me personally (YMMV), I have found that my body can handle more of this training "stress" than I have time to put into it, so more bike stress is generally "good" stress for me. However, I am keeping aware of my HR numbers as I do my long rides and watch them as I chase a Power number. I basically log them away for retrieval from my brain database on race day. Racing is a slightly different beast where if it's very hot, I will not chase a pre-race "Goal NP" if my HR is creeping up. But during a race, you generally have a lot easier time getting in extra hydration and also having extra water to douse yourself with to cool down a bit.
The run for me is a totally different animal. I simply must dial it back in hot and especially in humid days on the run. I cannot hit the same paces, and I don't get too worried about it. I can't even hit the same "efforts" that will make my HR spike up if it's too hot/muggy. The run is different than the bike in that I can dig a big hole if I do long hard-ish training efforts in the muggy heat. I can tell it puts me in a hole and no amount of water I drink during the run will eliminate it.
I am a bit different than @tim cronk regarding HR on the run during a race. For me (during an Ironman specifically), HR often becomes a whip. It took me learning and tinkering through 5 Ironmans before I could get a run HR profile that actually went up in the second half instead of going down as my legs faded. So for me HR becomes a tool to force me to tell my legs and brain to "shut up" during the later parts of the run, whilst keeping a lid on crazy high levels earlier in the day if I'm getting silly on a hill or similar.
So Power is an awesome tool for the Ironman bike, mostly for providing a whip during training (FTP intervals or chasing a 5hr Power number), and maybe providing a restraint earlier in an IM bike leg or on hills.
Similarly, Pace on the run also provides an awesome training tool and guide, and can help stabilize things on flat-ish race courses.
But HR is an awesome to to watch how our bodies are responding/working during these work efforts. And HR is also a great "calibrator" to what other external factors are adding extra stress to our bodies as our legs are turning over... (heat is a big one, humidity, but also illness, fear, anger, etc.). Paying attention to these in training will pay huge dividends when thing happen to your other tools someday (i.e. dead PM battery), or when external factors are stressing your body more than the reading of your fancy power meter or gps watch on the run (heat/humidity)...
Put it this way...try it my way. I am not saying you won't get faster...I am saying you'll get faster where it counts (sustainably across a day without fading like the competition) and when you go back and review your performance if you think you under-achieved, we can talk.
But first...take step one...
Numero Uno, I've learned that, for me, top priority in a race is RPE. That trumps everything else. I know deep within me the effort level I can sustain for any given race length, and for the remainder of that distance at any given point of the race. That takes years to learn, I think, but it should be the desired endpoint. I won't go into *how* to learn that - that's another topic.
For those still on the learning curve in terms of race execution, HR can be a useful tool especially when dealing with hills, heat, and running after swim/bike efforts (i.e., triathlon). It should be a whip to get you working when you are slacking, and a rein when you are putting yourself in danger, like going too hard for too long on too hot of a day. But eventually, you should learn how to dispense with HR and race by feel. My best races came after about 10 years into my tri career, when I actually went a few years taking my HR strap off in T2.
For those just starting to figure out how to get through a long distance triathlon while retaining the ability to run all the way to the finish, the tried and try EN method of steady power based on IF on the bike, and pace-focussed restraint on the run is a good initial learning tool except when it is hot!!!
I guess I'll never say this too many times: you cannot fully adapt to heat, meaning no matter how fit, how well trained, how many little tricks you use, you *will* go slower in a race when it's hot. Either because you will hold a lower steady pace the whole way, or you go at your "normal" pace in the early part and then slow down, walk, pass out, whatever, later on. Heat on the run is like a headwind or a long climb on the bike. You gotta work harder to sustain the same speed you would under normal conditions (again, the reasons why are another topic), and thus you'll use up all your matches before the end of the race.