If one goes out for a LIT ride at say, 60% of max HR. And assuming nutrition/hydration/sleep ok, but maybe overdid it recently, when to stop as decoupling to get progressively worse while at the same HR.
Is there a general consideration as to when to stop % wise?
Or since Watts are dropping in a ride that still feels easy, should one continue because watts are lowered accordingly and so the load gets progressively lower?
What power are you seeing during these rides at 60% heart rate?
How long are you trying to ride?
micomico
I would keep it simple and use the PW:HR metric and use the window if 1-6%. Anything above that and into b=double digits indicated ineffecienies as long as the effort is on the longer side, so endurance rides are fine and intervals that are longish at 12m+. Cardiac drift can also be used if you have the software to support and identify???
If you are targeting 60% of MaxHR allow power to be what it is until you see that decoupling or PW:HR go outside that 1-6
% window.
If you are targeting 60% of MaxHR allow power to be what it is until you see that decoupling or PW:HR go outside that 1-6
% window
Could you explain what you mean by 1- 6% window?
Sure, see this link to some more info, if you have Training Peaks this is easy to see on any given ride or effort more than 15+M.
thanks, I read it and looked at the EF scores in my endurance rides. Too bad it shows after the rides, not during it.
It shows as a ratio expressed as one number, e.g. 2.3 or .98
Not sure what you mean by “1-6% window”.
-And if TP shows decoupling, does it serve another purpose? - Just edited this, I saw the answer in the TP site: Decoupling shows EF first half versus second half. EF is just for the entire ride. I can see either by selecting part of the ride.
micomico,
The 1-6% window is for decoupling or the Power:HR ratio- what kind of relationship are they in for longer steady efforts. You want that to be in the 1-6% window. EF is a seperate metric and is another way to look at aerobic effeciency over the course of time, say 6-8 weeks of intensity below threshold and your want to see EF rise as a sign of becoming more aerobcially effecient. The key is you need to measure like rides that have very similar if not exact routes, lenghts, time of day etc. An example might be same HR but more power for a given zone 2 90M ride indicates iorovemnt in effeciency.
Thanks, that clarifies it for me. So endurance rides at no more than 6% decoupling, which I think is in line with what Friel said.
For a base ride that has around the right type of effort, with nutrition/hydration taken care of, what would you expect decoupling % to be as each hour passes?
micomico,
Glad to help! You can decoupling or the PW:HR metric for any intensity under threshold which woul dbe considered aerobic as a energy system, so this can include zone 3 and for some athletes based on their physiology low threshold at 90-91%. I use the metric for longer tempo efforts of 20-60M and then look for average power increases with same HR or even lower HR over a given period of time. As for the % of decoupling per hour I am not aware of any expectations or guidelines as it varies between each athlete’s unique physiology. Besides what you mention with nutrrition etc being the same, fatigue is a big piece, like what kind of rides happened the 1-2 days prior etc. The main thing is measuring and tracking similar rides and durations to get a trend and then trying to improve based on those inefficiencies.
I’m working on a Garmin IQ field to show decoupling in real time. It will have customisable settings for a warm up period and rolling period for calculating decoupling.
For instance you might have the warm up as 20 mins, then baseline efficiency calculated over the next 45 mins. Then it calculates efficiency factor over a rolling 45 mins window and compares to baseline to determine decoupling percentage.
It’s in beta at moment , last update was to write the decoupling percentage to the Garmin fit file, so it appears in the Garmin Connect graphs.