Tracking Progress - W/Heartbeat Trend

dw300

So I was looking at my Veloviewer numbers and saw a very nice little pattern when viewing 'watts per heartbeat' and selecting weekly on the summary page.

So I thought I'd throw a few numbers into excel and look at the ones since getting the PM.

I took out recovery rides and then looked at a 3 and 6 ride moving average to see if it would show progress, which it does.

What I'm wondering is whether or not I should take out especially long or short rides, or rides with long breaks to further reduce erroneous data.

Do you think this is a good way to see progress that is otherwise so small that you might to notice it. (I mean because the rise in power is small, and the reduction in HR is small, but taken together it more noticeable.)

Cheers.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fpypxnoec50bqbr/powerStudy.png

Im in work so I've no idea if this link works and cant post the image, sorry.

Tom Dean

I think Trev is back on the TTF, maybe he will pop up here again

My take is that if for some reason you want a measure of fitness that isn't based on actual performance, trends in W/HR may be useful. Whether you could pick up smaller % changes this way than with other methods is highly doubtful.

dw300

Tom Dean wrote:

I think Trev is back on the TTF, maybe he will pop up here again

My take is that if for some reason you want a measure of fitness that isn't based on actual performance, trends in W/HR may be useful. Whether you could pick up smaller % changes this way than with other methods is highly doubtful.

Funny I was thinking Trev might get mentioned when I posted this.

Obviously just riding to a power, or distance would show absolute performance, but you tend not do do those 'tests' all that often. I guess I just wanted to see if there was something you could take from every training ride you did.

I am looking at power for segments I commonly ride, and try to ride them to get PB (for power, not always time.) I dont have a lot of power data yet, so its hard to spot anything early doors.

Tom Dean

I don't think it's a good idea to get hung up on testing too frequently, however you are measuring.

Team4Luke

if your actually making any progress improvements then this should be seen in training too, have you been able to hold a higher power for a regular repeated session, not much of a fan measuring gains using a pc and software, a gain on the road is a real gain, you may or may not see a change in HR on the road, you may just have adapted to learn to suffer more.

dw300

Team4Luke wrote:

if your actually making any progress improvements then this should be seen in training too, have you been able to hold a higher power for a regular repeated session, not much of a fan measuring gains using a pc and software, a gain on the road is a real gain, you may or may not see a change in HR on the road, you may just have adapted to learn to suffer more.

Where do you think the data is coming from that is being analysed?

Of course you get faster, but if it feels equally hard each time you have to have data to look at to see it, and speed on the bike, as we know, isn't always indicative of better fitness.

I'll see if I can post the Veloviewer screenie. For something people poo-poo, its remarkable how it apparently shows cycles of progress.



You might not see the image if your work computer blocks from Dropbox. It also only shows rides on the road, no turbo trainer work, which is why the winters show little activity. I've also had 2 periods of injury in 2014. Collarbone in Feb, and tendinitis on May, which I've very slowly trained through in June-July, only just pushing my limits slightly and hence the most consistant improvement in the graphic, other than my 2013 spring.

Alex_Simmons/RST

If you are not producing more power for durations of interest/relevance, then what does your HR response matter?

angry_bird

Is this actual measured power or just estimated? I'm assuming measured otherwise I can't see why you'd bother but thought I'd just check.

Personally I don't think it's that worthwhile. HR is quite a variable measure that isn't necessarily indicative of performance/fitness/whatever you want to track. For a start it is immediately influenced by how hydrated you are, not to mention the effects of fatigue or any illness whether obvious or subclinical.

jgsi

Tom Dean wrote:

I don't think it's a good idea to get hung up on testing too frequently, however you are measuring.

I FULLY concur.
I don't think.. it is simply not a good idea at all.