Beer Drinker Appreciation Society - Open For Business (Page 82)

If LTHR is your heart rate at threshold, FTP is power (in watts) at threshold. It's used in cycling with a power meter to set power zones just like LTHR is used to set HR zones. It's more accurate than HR because power is objective. 200 watts is 200 watts whether its hot, cold, you're dehydrated or fatigued. 

Power is a more useful metric than HR, and in my opinion (when it comes to cycling at least), it makes HR almost obsolete. If it's a particularly hot day, your HR could be elevated slightly. If you're basing your effort on HR, your HR will give the impression you're working harder than you are. With power you know absolutely whether you're working too hard or not hard enough.

When I did my track race last week I couldn't see my head unit (not allowed to race track with it because they don't want you looking down at it during the race). My RPE during the race was what I expected it to be. I didn't feel like I was hammering too hard.  I would have gauged my effort at just below or near threshold. When I looked at my metrics after the race, my HR was in the mid to high 170s during the entire race( LTHR is 163bpm). Normally it would only go up that high if I were in an all-out sprint or pushing 600-700watts for a minute or more; basically, an unsustainable effort. Because the track is brand new for the Pan Am games this summer, they have the heat cranked inside the velodrome and the humidity is zero (to dry out the planks on the track). So it was really hot and dry. Since it's winter here (wet and cold) my body hasn't acclimatized to that kind of climate yet so my HR was elevated. If I had a power meter, however, it probably would have told me that I was pushing out 260-280 watts (near threshold); a sustainable pace. 

That may have been an overkill answer. 

Going good, have my next half-marathon coming up at the end of April. My foot is doing better, the PF is "stabilized" (not getting worse, not quite getting better) to the point where I'm able to continue light HM training. It won't be my fastest run but I'm feeling confident I can finish strong.

I've recently taken up paddle boarding and it's a nice cross training workout. Shoulders and back get a good workout paddling and if the conditions are choppy my legs get a bonus workout just keeping my balance.

As an analytic tool, power is fantastic.  For example:  https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/724772170 35 miles, avg speed 17.7mph, avg HR 134, avg power 162, avg normalized power 199.  My FTP is 247, so it looks like a decent, solid effort ride.  The reality is that I'm was getting my *** kicked and felt completely destroyed after the ride.  

In 120 minutes, I spent almost 20 minutes in power zone 6 (>120% FTP).  The basic numbers don't show how much I was hurting for the last 45 minutes of the ride, but the power numbers do - all that Zone 6 time is digging too deep and burning matches, so I was just beat at the end, was skipping pulls, and the others in the group did a lot of the work.  Granted there were only 4 of us, and 2 of those guys are just monsters that are in zone 2 or 3 when I'm in zone 6.

An interesting concept.

Surprisingly consistent, overall.  A lot of the bike is trainer miles, which I was just estimating.

For this year,  I think my first goal is to run 100 miles this month.  That's where I'm really lacking right now, and some volume should put me back in good form.  Swimming is just about consistency and biking, well, nobody has to tell me to ride more