Polar & Training

[Edogawakikkoman]

I'm pretty much a lazy trainer but one thing that helps me in races I do regularly (yearly) is to record the races on my HRM (Polar 720Si) and then use that data for training for the following year's revenge ride.
I can see the speeds and heart rate fluctuations and get on my indoor roller a few times (more if possible) and simulate the same intensity of the race trying to mimic the heart rates, speed and imagining all the bends and hills on the course as I'm training. For Saiko's race I even have the course on DVD driven by car at 40kph for one lap and it's almost the same speed we do the race.

Here are my 2 latest Polar graphs of Hakuba Hill climb 406 and our Tuesday night trainings.
Red = Heart rate. Blue = Speed, Brown = Elevation Green = Cadence. (My cadence is terrible at the moment....

How do you use your Polar or Garmin HRMs to help you improve. I'd love a Garmin but then I'd have to scrap my Polar which does the job for me...

Also a link to my blog where I post much the same as I do here... http://mcentyre.com/McBlogg/

 

[chazzer]

Garmin Edge 305

plus Ascent software is the best combination I have found so far. However Ascent only runs on OSX.

http://www.montebellosoftware.com/

I also post some rides on Motionbased which I can do straight from the Edge 305 via the Mac (PC works as well).

http://www.motionbased.com/

Here is one of my recent posts

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5914042

Beyond that I have not really done too much and I have not really tried to analyse the data too much beyond observing that I am generally fitter, having a lower HR for the same cadence over the same territory. I also observe that I get better as the day wears on, i.e. less likely to hit peak HR and generally a smooth decline over the course of the day for similar efforts. This is shown well here if the HR Activity Dashboard is shown and the Elevation displayed.

Not sure why this should be though ! Thomas has also concurred that he also has the same perception. Someone told me that as you get tired you cannot reach peak HR so easily ?

chazzer

 

[Phil]

I like those charts...they really highlight the difference in effort profile between a hill climb (steady state) and agressive group ride (surge and rest, surge and rest).

Don't have much in the way of experience and methods to contribute. I hardly use the HRM, though I've found it useful for self-monitoring in the time trials. I do want to do something more systematic with it, starting with find my max rate and zones, so I can zero in on getting maximum effort out of TTs and hill climbs (never done the latter, of course, but can't avoid it forever )

 

[xtrca]

training with hr is great however, in my opinion, cycling and performance is all about one formula.....watts per kilogram. so improving this is the most crucial aspect of training. hr training alone has too many variables. i think looking at your hr in relation to your power generation and your body weight gives you a clear indication of your body's fitness and health. if your hr decreases for the same power output then your fitness is improving. if on a TT you are having an off day then you can't rely on hr to pace you but relying on both symbiotically never fails.

 

[shohgun]

Hi, Monsieur EdogawaK! I'm one of the new comers to TCC and am really happy to read posts thrown on this web and trying to pick up some of Tours de so and so appropriate to me to participate in.
As the matter of facts, I'm really admire to read your threads and others of TCC acknowledging that your are very keen to improve your riding skills. I'm very happy to be able to join to the part of your whole activities.

Shohgun (which comes from my first name Shogen)