May 21, 2025 • 18 mins
OVERVIEW
Power, heart rate, or RPE (rate of perceived exertion or how you feel)? Which data point is best for gauging intensity during training or a race, and which is best for monitoring training progress? Coach Adam Pulford tackles these frequently asked questions in Episode 249 of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast". Although ALL THREE metrics have their place, Coach Adam reveals the hierarchy for what matters most and what metrics are used for context.
TOPICS COVERED
- Power vs Heart Rate vs RPE Hierarchy
- How to keep HR from drifting up during intervals
- Why HR might drop during intervals
- Why prioritize Power first, then RPE, and HR last
- Training at the top vs bottom of power zones
- All about Rate of Perceived Effort (RPE)
- Why three data points are better than one
ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST
LINKS/RESOURCES
- Eston, R., & Connolly, D. (1996).
Use of Ratings of Perceived Exertion for Exercise Prescription in the Elderly.
Validates RPE as a tool even without heart rate monitoring.
Shows strong correlation between RPE and physiological markers like VO2 max and lactate threshold. - Faulkner, J., et al. (2008).
Rating of perceived exertion during isometric and dynamic exercise is influenced by the duration of exercise.
Indicates how fatigue alters perceived effort. - Garcin, M., Fleury, A., & Billat, V. (2002).
The correlation between RPE and physiological variables (heart rate, lactate) in cycling.
Found strong correlation between RPE and lactate threshold, especially in trained cyclists.
Source: International Journal of Sports Medicine. - Seiler, S., & Kjerland, G.Ø. (2006).
Quantifying training intensity distribution in elite endurance athletes: is there evidence for an "optimal" distribution?
RPE used as a monitoring tool for training load in elite cyclists and runners.
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. - González-Alonso J, et al. (1999). Influence of body temperature on the cardiovascular response to exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 86(2), 599–605.
https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1999.86.2.599 - Berntson GG, et al. (1997). Heart rate variability: Origins, methods, and interpretive caveats. Psychophysiology, 34(6), 623–648.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1997.tb02140.x
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
Heart rate versus power whichone should you monitor during
(00:52):
your training session?
Which do you prioritize duringa hard training session versus
an aerobic ride, and why wouldyour heart rate drift or shift
between zones?
Or is there something else thatwe should all be paying
attention to?
My answers power, it depends,and RPE too.
Welcome back Time Crunch fans.
(01:14):
I'm your host, coach AdamPulver, and if you like short,
concise answers, that's whatthis podcast is all about.
Today, we'll be answering moreaudience questions in detail,
like the ones above about powerand heart rate.
Now, heart rate can be tricky,but it's an important metric to
monitor during exercise.
We need to remember, though, itis much more variable than
(01:38):
power, so we need to observe itwith that in mind and not get
too emotional when it's a littlehigher or a little lower than
normal.
Additionally, wattage from yourpower meter is consistent and
accurate day to day, so long asthe power meter itself is
calibrated and you take care ofyour equipment and your
technology.
Finally, rate of perceivedeffort, or RPE, is by far and
(02:03):
away an overlooked key metricthat should also be considered
when monitoring a trainingsession.
So let's read the originalquestion, then I'll recap my
answers with a little bit moredetail and nuance as it pertains
to training zones, and we'llwrap things up with a pretty bow
to end the day.
So here's the original questioncoming from an audience member
(02:26):
from the show.
Hi coach, I recently discoveredyour podcast and I'm relishing
Well, thank you, uh, the the thelearning journey.
So thank you for sharing yourknowledge with us mere mortals.
Thank you, uh, yeah, thank youfor that.
This is Mark.
Here's the question.
Uh, something that has longperplexed me with zone-based
(02:47):
training is whether toprioritize heart rate or power
metrics.
For instance, I sometimes driftinto heart rate zone five
whilst executing threshold powerintervals and or, conversely, I
may drop into tempo power iftargeting zone four heart rate.
I know power is absolute, butnot surely shouldn't ignore
(03:10):
heart rate as it factors into mytraining readiness, slash,
recovery state, et cetera.
I'd be grateful for any insightthat you have to offer.
Thanks again and keep up thegreat work, mark.
Yeah, thanks, mark.
I really appreciate those kindwords.
Really good question as well.
So here's my answer, again alittle bit more unpacked, but in
(03:31):
my opinion you want toprioritize power first.
Rpe is like a close second, butit's almost like a 1.1, if
that's a thing, and then there'sheart rate coming in third.
The main reason why you wantthree data points to check
yourself and monitor over timeis to ensure that you're on the
(03:52):
right track.
In the words of Dr StevenSeiler, power and pace, heart
rate and rate of perceivedeffort are the holy trinity of
monitoring exercise andperformance.
Now it's normal for your heartrate to drift up a bit into zone
five.
If you're doing some zone fourwork and without looking exactly
at your data, mark, thisusually means you either need to
(04:16):
better pace at zone four, youneed more training time at zone
four, or you might need morevolume to have more aerobic
capacity to handle the zone fourwork.
Okay, now, that's just if it'sdrifting up into zone five.
Now you also made a nod tomaybe my heart rate is drifting
down when I'm in zone four andit's like going into tempo and
(04:37):
it's a little all over the place.
Now I'll get into the reasonsas to why that happens.
But I think more common is thatheart rate drift up into zone
five.
So I'll kind of address that alittle bit more Now.
Assuming you have done all thefield testing, you have accurate
FTP ranges, here's my advice ifyou don't want to see the heart
(04:58):
rate drifting up on that zonefive is keep on accumulating
more time in zone at zone fourand lengthening the intervals
out to help you be more durableand kind of have that higher
aerobic capacity going.
So let's just say I'm makingsomething up here, but you're
doing eight minute intervals andyou have some drift going on.
Extend them out to 10 minutes,then 12 minutes, then 15, then
(05:22):
20, and try to accumulate atleast 30 minutes of total work
per session.
When you're aiming for zonefour training Now you can go up
to 60 minutes of time in zone aswell.
What that means is three by 10,three by 12, three by 15, do
the math and we're kind of inthat 30 to 60 minute window.
(05:43):
Generally, with my time crunchedathletes, 30 to 45 minutes of
time in zone at zone four isabout the limit time-wise.
But on a weekend you coulddefinitely rattle off a three by
20 as one of your biggestworkouts in this threshold set,
or threshold block, I should say, with maybe a total ride time
of two to two and a half hoursof that ride time on the weekend
(06:04):
.
Now just to throw this in here,mark, sometimes if you see the
heart rate kind of drifting downa bit too, it could just be the
terrain that you're riding.
So if it's an aerobic ride ormaybe you chose some interval
where you're just not on thepedals as much, that could be
because the legs just aren'tunder load the entire time, as
(06:26):
opposed to a hill climb whereyou could be riding at a 4%
gradient for those 10 minutesand the heart rate will build
and build, and build and maybego into that zone five.
That time under tension isreally important when we're
looking at what's going on withthe power and what's going on
with the heart rate.
So when it's a little bit morerolly.
I tend to find the heart ratecoming down a bit or lower than
(06:50):
like a steady heel climb effort,of which try to hit that power
but keep the perceived effort inmind.
So if it's a little bit morerolly, I'm going to say push the
art like, match the RPE.
These should feel like a sevenor an eight out of 10.
For when I'm coaching somebodyto do threshold work, that's the
RPE.
These should feel like a sevenor an eight out of 10.
When I'm coaching somebody todo threshold work, that's the
RPE range that I'm encouragingthem to do.
(07:11):
They have a power range, theyhave their perceived effort
range.
Then they're looking, checkingtheir heart rate to make sure
it's up there.
If it's going down a little bit,just push on the gas a little
bit more, maybe a little bit ofpop on those rollers and that'll
drive the heart rate you knowup there they'll drive the
perceived effort up there.
It'll make the effort moresquiggly, but that's not bad
Okay, especially if you'reprepping for a race or something
(07:33):
.
A squiggly effort is more racespecific versus a steady effort.
So take that for what it is.
But that is the other part ofyour question.
If the heart rate's slipping alittle bit.
That is the other part of yourquestion.
If the heart rate's slipping alittle bit Now, we could just
leave it there.
But if you have more time tolisten to me here and you're
(07:53):
curious as to why I say powerfirst, then rate of perceived
effort, a very, very closesecond and heart rate third,
here's my rationale.
Heart rate is more variablethan power.
I'm going to get a littlephilosophical here for just a
second.
Our bodies are brilliant,complex and smarter than we give
them credit for, and this iswhat we want, primarily because
(08:16):
all the checks and balances inplace seem to be there to help
us not die when something is outof balance, like when we get
sick, like me right now, whichis why I feel so congested and
I'm coughing in between talkingpoints or we have an injury, or
when we're pushing to our limitsduring training and racing.
And because we have thesechecks and balances, our
(08:37):
physiology is not as precise oras predictable as we always want
it to be, especially comparedto the tools we use to monitor
it.
Therefore, I encourage you tothink of your physiology as a
continuum from resting on onehand to max effort on the other,
you're never truly off andyou're never truly maxing out or
(08:59):
to the point of death, at leastnot yet.
So in other words, humans arenot binary.
Don't think of your physiologyas such, don't think of your
training zones as such.
Each zone picks up from theother and carries on to the next
in that spectrum of things.
Okay, I'll get to that heremore in a second.
(09:21):
But these complex systems thatregulate or give our checks and
balances in the body, like theautonomic nervous system, it's
going to regulate us and it'sgoing to regulate our heart rate
.
24, seven and everything inlife will influence that heart
rate.
That's life stress, accumulatedtraining stress, hydration,
(09:43):
dehydration, depletion ofglycogen and electrolytes,
caffeination or how jacked oncaffeine you are excitement,
depression, mood states, heat,cold, altitude, in-laws and lots
more.
So when things are normal,heart rate can be a predictable
normal.
However, when things are notnormal, heart rate is the first
thing to change or havevariability to it.
(10:05):
And most of my time crunchedathletes don't have normal days
always.
Therefore I tell my athletes andto you, mark, to monitor
training with a power firstapproach, then perceived effort,
not a heart rate first approach.
Another, or the second point tomy rationale here is.
Wattage is not variable.
(10:26):
Most power meters these daysfrom bigger, reputable brands
are accurate and they'reconsistent.
You definitely want to monitortraining with an accurate and
consistent tool like a powermeter, but for many reasons that
I'll get into here in a minute,the precision of this tool is
almost too much if youoveremphasize this tool is
(10:48):
almost too much if youoveremphasize the number more
than you should.
My suggestion here is tomeasure everything but don't
latch on emotionally to thenumber.
You also need to understand thatthere's a broad range to stay
in to get the benefits of zonetraining and that can be on the
higher side or the lower side ofthe range for any given day,
depending on how you feel.
I tell my athletes if you'refeeling good, don't waste a good
(11:09):
day right on the upper end ofthat zone.
Give me what you got.
Maybe you actually do anotherinterval, but stay in the zone.
On days where you're notfeeling as good, just hug the
lower end of the zone.
If we're doing thresholdtraining and I've got four by 10
in there and you just you'renot feeling, you're not tanking
on the workout, but you're notfeeling great, maybe we did
(11:30):
intervals a day before, but hugthe lower end of that zone, try
to get at least three in,because, again, right around 30
minutes of total time in zone isgoing to help move the needle
forward.
So let's try that.
So you're always kind ofchecking yourself and balancing
with these three metrics rate ofperceived effort, power and
(11:54):
heart rate.
Now this leads me to the rateof perceived effort, and this is
probably the most importantfactor in monitoring training.
But my opinion, and this is whywe can't put it first, in my
opinion we need something likepower or pace to help us get to
(12:15):
the perceived effort or help usground in something.
The scale of one to 10 needs apower or pace associated with it
to help us understand theperceived effort.
Now, this is why I call it aclose second, if not like a 1.1.
In order of priority, it'sfirst but kind of second until
you know where 250 is at, orthreshold pace, or your time
(12:39):
trial, effort, things like this.
Whatever the effort that you'redoing, I try to drill this into
my athletes as best I can to getthem highly aware of their
efforts as it relates to thenumber that they're seeing on
their power meters.
I use a scale of one to 10, 10being a max effort, one being
almost nothing and each zone hasa corresponding rate of
(13:00):
perceived effort to it.
Sometimes the zone will have arange of perceived effort as
well.
So endurance miles, or zone two, with CTS methodology, will
have a rate of perceived effortof four to five Okay, very
medium.
Now I'll provide a link to theCTS zones with rate of perceived
effort scales to it.
(13:21):
I'll put that in our show notes.
This brings me to the finalpoint here, and this is the holy
three in one, the holy Trinityof monitoring exercise.
So really, mark my answer.
If it's one thing I'm going totell you, it's the holy Trinity.
That's what Dr Stephen Seilerhas kind of popularized, these
(13:43):
three elements as to be the mostimportant thing to monitor.
And you say why?
Well, like I said, power, rpeand heart rate in that, or in my
opinion, is the best way tomonitor.
And I'll put it in like maybesimpleton coach Adam knowledge
here, but there's probablystatisticians listening that
(14:06):
could do more justice to this.
But three is better than two andthree is better than one, why?
Because three data points letsyou see more of a pattern.
It can cross, check and verifythe other data points and give
you better feedback, or morelike holistic feedback, of
what's going on during thesession, right then and there.
(14:27):
It also gives that same, like akind of quantum feedback to the
coach who may be looking at thetraining afterwards.
And with two points you don'tget that.
You may only see thingslinearly and with one point,
let's face it you could just beshooting in the dark and you
don't know exactly where you'reaiming.
If you want a more superin-depth explanation of that,
(14:51):
check out my podcast I did withDr Steven Seiler.
Just search for his name andtime crunched in the Apple
podcast or wherever you get yourpodcasts and you'll find it
there.
But real quick, what aboutbreathing?
Breath rate and breathing aregetting pretty hot again right
now and there is some new techcoming out soon about new
(15:11):
breathing devices to monitorthese things.
That could be helpful, but forright now I wouldn't get too
excited about it.
Consider it a curious companionalong with heart rate that
(15:34):
could tell us perhaps how cookedyou may be on hard intervals or
if something could be off atsub max other than your legs
just being a little tired.
I'll keep you posted as I learnmore, but in my opinion it's
not something super useful yet,and certainly not more useful
than the holy trinity ofmonitoring exercise.
So, finally, to bring this allhome, back to zone training,
(15:59):
your training zones are rangesor spectrums of intensity on
this continuum that I talkedabout before, and those zones
are somewhat in the middle rightOf resting on one side and
maximum effort on the other.
There's not an exact wattage orbeats per minute or anything
else that's going to pinpointthe end of zone two or three or
(16:20):
threshold versus VO2.
And even if you have a powermeter in the highest end
metabolic cart and you go in andyou do an LT test, you'll still
have a range of power that youwill be at for threshold,
because on any given day it willbe plus or minus, a little up
or a little down due to a numberof things in life, all stuff
(16:41):
that I mentioned, including howyou're improving over time.
So keep that in mind You're,you're, you're always kind of in
flux.
There's, there's never ahomeostasis, really Okay.
So I want you to to think aboutyour physiology as that
continuum and everything isalways, always a range, and I
(17:01):
think that's going to be themost helpful to answer your,
your full question mark.
So, in closing, if there's onething to monitor during an
exercise training session, it'sthe Holy Trinity, which is power
, rate of perceived effort andheart rate, which is a cheeky
way of saying there's actuallythree things.
Right, that's what I've beensaying this whole time.
(17:22):
Now, that's assuming that youhave all the thresholds and
devices accurate and calibrated,and that also includes your
awareness of your effort, thatrate of perceived effort that
we're talking about.
So if you want to learn moreabout how to do that, or if you
have any other questions aboutall things endurance training,
you can head over totrainrightcom backslash podcast
(17:43):
and click on ask a trainingquestion.
Those get sent directly to meand my little pod team here at
CTS and we'll do our best toanswer it on an upcoming episode
.
Thank you again for listeningand be sure to share this show
with your training partner.
So they get faster too, as theyimprove.
So will you Thanks again.
Or two as they improve, so willyou Thanks again.
(18:05):
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast that'll help you take
(18:26):
your training to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now onto our show.
Heart rate versus power whichone should you monitor during
(00:52):
your training session?
Which do you prioritize duringa hard training session versus
an aerobic ride, and why wouldyour heart rate drift or shift
between zones?
Or is there something else thatwe should all be paying
attention to?
My answers power, it depends,and RPE too.
Welcome back Time Crunch fans.
(01:14):
I'm your host, coach AdamPulver, and if you like short,
concise answers, that's whatthis podcast is all about.
Today, we'll be answering moreaudience questions in detail,
like the ones above about powerand heart rate.
Now, heart rate can be tricky,but it's an important metric to
monitor during exercise.
We need to remember, though, itis much more variable than
(01:38):
power, so we need to observe itwith that in mind and not get
too emotional when it's a littlehigher or a little lower than
normal.
Additionally, wattage from yourpower meter is consistent and
accurate day to day, so long asthe power meter itself is
calibrated and you take care ofyour equipment and your
technology.
Finally, rate of perceivedeffort, or RPE, is by far and
(02:03):
away an overlooked key metricthat should also be considered
when monitoring a trainingsession.
So let's read the originalquestion, then I'll recap my
answers with a little bit moredetail and nuance as it pertains
to training zones, and we'llwrap things up with a pretty bow
to end the day.
So here's the original questioncoming from an audience member
(02:26):
from the show.
Hi coach, I recently discoveredyour podcast and I'm relishing
Well, thank you, uh, the the thelearning journey.
So thank you for sharing yourknowledge with us mere mortals.
Thank you, uh, yeah, thank youfor that.
This is Mark.
Here's the question.
Uh, something that has longperplexed me with zone-based
(02:47):
training is whether toprioritize heart rate or power
metrics.
For instance, I sometimes driftinto heart rate zone five
whilst executing threshold powerintervals and or, conversely, I
may drop into tempo power iftargeting zone four heart rate.
I know power is absolute, butnot surely shouldn't ignore
(03:10):
heart rate as it factors into mytraining readiness, slash,
recovery state, et cetera.
I'd be grateful for any insightthat you have to offer.
Thanks again and keep up thegreat work, mark.
Yeah, thanks, mark.
I really appreciate those kindwords.
Really good question as well.
So here's my answer, again alittle bit more unpacked, but in
(03:31):
my opinion you want toprioritize power first.
Rpe is like a close second, butit's almost like a 1.1, if
that's a thing, and then there'sheart rate coming in third.
The main reason why you wantthree data points to check
yourself and monitor over timeis to ensure that you're on the
(03:52):
right track.
In the words of Dr StevenSeiler, power and pace, heart
rate and rate of perceivedeffort are the holy trinity of
monitoring exercise andperformance.
Now it's normal for your heartrate to drift up a bit into zone
five.
If you're doing some zone fourwork and without looking exactly
at your data, mark, thisusually means you either need to
(04:16):
better pace at zone four, youneed more training time at zone
four, or you might need morevolume to have more aerobic
capacity to handle the zone fourwork.
Okay, now, that's just if it'sdrifting up into zone five.
Now you also made a nod tomaybe my heart rate is drifting
down when I'm in zone four andit's like going into tempo and
(04:37):
it's a little all over the place.
Now I'll get into the reasonsas to why that happens.
But I think more common is thatheart rate drift up into zone
five.
So I'll kind of address that alittle bit more Now.
Assuming you have done all thefield testing, you have accurate
FTP ranges, here's my advice ifyou don't want to see the heart
(04:58):
rate drifting up on that zonefive is keep on accumulating
more time in zone at zone fourand lengthening the intervals
out to help you be more durableand kind of have that higher
aerobic capacity going.
So let's just say I'm makingsomething up here, but you're
doing eight minute intervals andyou have some drift going on.
Extend them out to 10 minutes,then 12 minutes, then 15, then
(05:22):
20, and try to accumulate atleast 30 minutes of total work
per session.
When you're aiming for zonefour training Now you can go up
to 60 minutes of time in zone aswell.
What that means is three by 10,three by 12, three by 15, do
the math and we're kind of inthat 30 to 60 minute window.
(05:43):
Generally, with my time crunchedathletes, 30 to 45 minutes of
time in zone at zone four isabout the limit time-wise.
But on a weekend you coulddefinitely rattle off a three by
20 as one of your biggestworkouts in this threshold set,
or threshold block, I should say, with maybe a total ride time
of two to two and a half hoursof that ride time on the weekend
(06:04):
.
Now just to throw this in here,mark, sometimes if you see the
heart rate kind of drifting downa bit too, it could just be the
terrain that you're riding.
So if it's an aerobic ride ormaybe you chose some interval
where you're just not on thepedals as much, that could be
because the legs just aren'tunder load the entire time, as
(06:26):
opposed to a hill climb whereyou could be riding at a 4%
gradient for those 10 minutesand the heart rate will build
and build, and build and maybego into that zone five.
That time under tension isreally important when we're
looking at what's going on withthe power and what's going on
with the heart rate.
So when it's a little bit morerolly.
I tend to find the heart ratecoming down a bit or lower than
(06:50):
like a steady heel climb effort,of which try to hit that power
but keep the perceived effort inmind.
So if it's a little bit morerolly, I'm going to say push the
art like, match the RPE.
These should feel like a sevenor an eight out of 10.
For when I'm coaching somebodyto do threshold work, that's the
RPE.
These should feel like a sevenor an eight out of 10.
When I'm coaching somebody todo threshold work, that's the
RPE range that I'm encouragingthem to do.
(07:11):
They have a power range, theyhave their perceived effort
range.
Then they're looking, checkingtheir heart rate to make sure
it's up there.
If it's going down a little bit,just push on the gas a little
bit more, maybe a little bit ofpop on those rollers and that'll
drive the heart rate you knowup there they'll drive the
perceived effort up there.
It'll make the effort moresquiggly, but that's not bad
Okay, especially if you'reprepping for a race or something
(07:33):
.
A squiggly effort is more racespecific versus a steady effort.
So take that for what it is.
But that is the other part ofyour question.
If the heart rate's slipping alittle bit.
That is the other part of yourquestion.
If the heart rate's slipping alittle bit Now, we could just
leave it there.
But if you have more time tolisten to me here and you're
(07:53):
curious as to why I say powerfirst, then rate of perceived
effort, a very, very closesecond and heart rate third,
here's my rationale.
Heart rate is more variablethan power.
I'm going to get a littlephilosophical here for just a
second.
Our bodies are brilliant,complex and smarter than we give
them credit for, and this iswhat we want, primarily because
(08:16):
all the checks and balances inplace seem to be there to help
us not die when something is outof balance, like when we get
sick, like me right now, whichis why I feel so congested and
I'm coughing in between talkingpoints or we have an injury, or
when we're pushing to our limitsduring training and racing.
And because we have thesechecks and balances, our
(08:37):
physiology is not as precise oras predictable as we always want
it to be, especially comparedto the tools we use to monitor
it.
Therefore, I encourage you tothink of your physiology as a
continuum from resting on onehand to max effort on the other,
you're never truly off andyou're never truly maxing out or
(08:59):
to the point of death, at leastnot yet.
So in other words, humans arenot binary.
Don't think of your physiologyas such, don't think of your
training zones as such.
Each zone picks up from theother and carries on to the next
in that spectrum of things.
Okay, I'll get to that heremore in a second.
(09:21):
But these complex systems thatregulate or give our checks and
balances in the body, like theautonomic nervous system, it's
going to regulate us and it'sgoing to regulate our heart rate
.
24, seven and everything inlife will influence that heart
rate.
That's life stress, accumulatedtraining stress, hydration,
(09:43):
dehydration, depletion ofglycogen and electrolytes,
caffeination or how jacked oncaffeine you are excitement,
depression, mood states, heat,cold, altitude, in-laws and lots
more.
So when things are normal,heart rate can be a predictable
normal.
However, when things are notnormal, heart rate is the first
thing to change or havevariability to it.
(10:05):
And most of my time crunchedathletes don't have normal days
always.
Therefore I tell my athletes andto you, mark, to monitor
training with a power firstapproach, then perceived effort,
not a heart rate first approach.
Another, or the second point tomy rationale here is.
Wattage is not variable.
(10:26):
Most power meters these daysfrom bigger, reputable brands
are accurate and they'reconsistent.
You definitely want to monitortraining with an accurate and
consistent tool like a powermeter, but for many reasons that
I'll get into here in a minute,the precision of this tool is
almost too much if youoveremphasize this tool is
(10:48):
almost too much if youoveremphasize the number more
than you should.
My suggestion here is tomeasure everything but don't
latch on emotionally to thenumber.
You also need to understand thatthere's a broad range to stay
in to get the benefits of zonetraining and that can be on the
higher side or the lower side ofthe range for any given day,
depending on how you feel.
I tell my athletes if you'refeeling good, don't waste a good
(11:09):
day right on the upper end ofthat zone.
Give me what you got.
Maybe you actually do anotherinterval, but stay in the zone.
On days where you're notfeeling as good, just hug the
lower end of the zone.
If we're doing thresholdtraining and I've got four by 10
in there and you just you'renot feeling, you're not tanking
on the workout, but you're notfeeling great, maybe we did
(11:30):
intervals a day before, but hugthe lower end of that zone, try
to get at least three in,because, again, right around 30
minutes of total time in zone isgoing to help move the needle
forward.
So let's try that.
So you're always kind ofchecking yourself and balancing
with these three metrics rate ofperceived effort, power and
(11:54):
heart rate.
Now this leads me to the rateof perceived effort, and this is
probably the most importantfactor in monitoring training.
But my opinion, and this is whywe can't put it first, in my
opinion we need something likepower or pace to help us get to
(12:15):
the perceived effort or help usground in something.
The scale of one to 10 needs apower or pace associated with it
to help us understand theperceived effort.
Now, this is why I call it aclose second, if not like a 1.1.
In order of priority, it'sfirst but kind of second until
you know where 250 is at, orthreshold pace, or your time
(12:39):
trial, effort, things like this.
Whatever the effort that you'redoing, I try to drill this into
my athletes as best I can to getthem highly aware of their
efforts as it relates to thenumber that they're seeing on
their power meters.
I use a scale of one to 10, 10being a max effort, one being
almost nothing and each zone hasa corresponding rate of
(13:00):
perceived effort to it.
Sometimes the zone will have arange of perceived effort as
well.
So endurance miles, or zone two, with CTS methodology, will
have a rate of perceived effortof four to five Okay, very
medium.
Now I'll provide a link to theCTS zones with rate of perceived
effort scales to it.
(13:21):
I'll put that in our show notes.
This brings me to the finalpoint here, and this is the holy
three in one, the holy Trinityof monitoring exercise.
So really, mark my answer.
If it's one thing I'm going totell you, it's the holy Trinity.
That's what Dr Stephen Seilerhas kind of popularized, these
(13:43):
three elements as to be the mostimportant thing to monitor.
And you say why?
Well, like I said, power, rpeand heart rate in that, or in my
opinion, is the best way tomonitor.
And I'll put it in like maybesimpleton coach Adam knowledge
here, but there's probablystatisticians listening that
(14:06):
could do more justice to this.
But three is better than two andthree is better than one, why?
Because three data points letsyou see more of a pattern.
It can cross, check and verifythe other data points and give
you better feedback, or morelike holistic feedback, of
what's going on during thesession, right then and there.
(14:27):
It also gives that same, like akind of quantum feedback to the
coach who may be looking at thetraining afterwards.
And with two points you don'tget that.
You may only see thingslinearly and with one point,
let's face it you could just beshooting in the dark and you
don't know exactly where you'reaiming.
If you want a more superin-depth explanation of that,
(14:51):
check out my podcast I did withDr Steven Seiler.
Just search for his name andtime crunched in the Apple
podcast or wherever you get yourpodcasts and you'll find it
there.
But real quick, what aboutbreathing?
Breath rate and breathing aregetting pretty hot again right
now and there is some new techcoming out soon about new
(15:11):
breathing devices to monitorthese things.
That could be helpful, but forright now I wouldn't get too
excited about it.
Consider it a curious companionalong with heart rate that
(15:34):
could tell us perhaps how cookedyou may be on hard intervals or
if something could be off atsub max other than your legs
just being a little tired.
I'll keep you posted as I learnmore, but in my opinion it's
not something super useful yet,and certainly not more useful
than the holy trinity ofmonitoring exercise.
So, finally, to bring this allhome, back to zone training,
(15:59):
your training zones are rangesor spectrums of intensity on
this continuum that I talkedabout before, and those zones
are somewhat in the middle rightOf resting on one side and
maximum effort on the other.
There's not an exact wattage orbeats per minute or anything
else that's going to pinpointthe end of zone two or three or
(16:20):
threshold versus VO2.
And even if you have a powermeter in the highest end
metabolic cart and you go in andyou do an LT test, you'll still
have a range of power that youwill be at for threshold,
because on any given day it willbe plus or minus, a little up
or a little down due to a numberof things in life, all stuff
(16:41):
that I mentioned, including howyou're improving over time.
So keep that in mind You're,you're, you're always kind of in
flux.
There's, there's never ahomeostasis, really Okay.
So I want you to to think aboutyour physiology as that
continuum and everything isalways, always a range, and I
(17:01):
think that's going to be themost helpful to answer your,
your full question mark.
So, in closing, if there's onething to monitor during an
exercise training session, it'sthe Holy Trinity, which is power
, rate of perceived effort andheart rate, which is a cheeky
way of saying there's actuallythree things.
Right, that's what I've beensaying this whole time.
(17:22):
Now, that's assuming that youhave all the thresholds and
devices accurate and calibrated,and that also includes your
awareness of your effort, thatrate of perceived effort that
we're talking about.
So if you want to learn moreabout how to do that, or if you
have any other questions aboutall things endurance training,
you can head over totrainrightcom backslash podcast
(17:43):
and click on ask a trainingquestion.
Those get sent directly to meand my little pod team here at
CTS and we'll do our best toanswer it on an upcoming episode
.
Thank you again for listeningand be sure to share this show
with your training partner.
So they get faster too, as theyimprove.
So will you Thanks again.
Or two as they improve, so willyou Thanks again.
(18:05):
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast that'll help you take
(18:26):
your training to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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