In this case, do you focus to stay in your HR Z4 zone or Power?
Assuming it’s power, when doing it, if the HR passes the “treshold” between Z4 and Z5 do you still continue, drop the Power to stay in HR zone or is just your body that can’t handle that length time interval? I hope I’m being clear…
It depends if you’re in the base phase or nearing your race phase of the season.
For base, my L4 intervals would be capped at Threshold HR. It means lowering the power but still remaining in L4 (Power) and keeping below the threshold HR. The goal is to have a steady paced effort, with almost table top profile on the HR graph.
Here’s an example of one of my workouts, done outside, so the power was a little up/down but the HR was close to being what the coach suggests.
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Looks like a solid workout and a steady effort; depending on the goal of the session and where in the training block it is done.
What would the threshold HR be? 185bpm is already quite high.
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Besides what @Gerald points out, the metrics you use to qualify a workout or workouts also depends on the athlete’s abilities and goals. For one athlete, cardiovascular and metabolic efficiency may be the limiters. For another, it may be muscular strength. For another, it may be mental. It may also switch for a given session, day or period of time dependant upon several factors. Thus, I recommend identifying the general limiter and goals of a session then basing intensity on targeted systems.
When using HR, keep in mind that it’s a delayed metric. The episode linked to below does a great job in pointing out things to keep in mind when tracking by HR or power in various interval durations.
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@Gerald @Howie Im in my first build week. Did some short and more intense FTP work on the week, and now more extensive work. Last time I did 20 min FTP test I did 182 average HR and 191 peak. My max is 200 (measured in a race). I have a race next sunday with 3 long climbs so I tried to do 3 times the intensity and build some time in zone
When discussing maxHR for each discipline (i.e. limbs, bike, run) be sure that the value is from the most recent year. Things change over time.
It is, yes!
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