Roadie_scum said:VO2 is another potential measure of workload (not of practical import in training because of diificulties in measurement) - it lags significantly under various conditions and has many possible variables affecting it. Does this make VO2 meaningless?
Well, I've come to the conclusion that VO2 is pretty meaningless WRT training. How can you use it?
Roadie_scum said:Power at ventilatory threshold has been found to correlate well with actual real world TT performance
[snip]
HR at ventilatory thresholds has been shown to remain constant or close thereto over the length of a competitive season
[snip]
there is some evidence HR would be a very useful tool, while power would have to be constantly recalibrated to take into account training effect.
Andy Coggan, a frequent contributor here, has posted here and on wattage about an instance where he did a TT in which he hit the same power he routinely hits during training, yet his HR ave. was 20 beats lower than normal. He ended up doing just fine in the TT, but darn good thing he was pacing by power rather than HR.
Yes, Power does have to be recalibrated every few weeks, however, HR has to be recalibrated every few minutes to be valuable.
Roadie_scum said:Do I totally agree with what I've outlined above? Not really - feel free to buy me a power monitor, I'd rather use one of those. Can you say HR is worthless as a training tool? Definitely not.
By the way, I don't need a power monitor to understand the criticisms of HR you are making - I fully understand and essentially agree under many circumstances. It just doesn't make HR worthless.
I have yet to see a single practical instance of HR being useful for cycling training. In the long haul, HR tracks power pretty well, but everyone uses HR to prescribe daily workouts. Can you train by HR? Certainly, but I think that people have a false sense of precision when doing so. CTS used to have zones which are either 4 or 6 beats wide and even they are now changing their stance as to the usefullness of HR training. If the same metabolic load can produce HRs that are 20 beats different from day to day, how can you use HR to train?
BTW, used powertaps (which are the best PMs out there in my opinion) can be had for as little as $450 used (which is how much I paid) maybe even less. In a world of $8000 bikes and $400 shoes, $450 for the best training tool out there is not a lot.
I've also worn the HR strap along with the power meter long enough to see that