Question about Cardiac Drift

Do you pay attention to cardiac drift in the early phases of your plans? In Joe Friel’s training bible 4th edition he mentions it but I don’t see it in the 5th. He talks about a 5% or less decoupling as a goal for a 2 hour ride. What are your thoughts on this?

You can absolutely use it as a way to analyze your data. The best way to get the most accurate indication of your cardiac drift is to ride a steady zone 2 power. Have to keep your power consistent.

TrainingPeaks does have the power to heart rate ratio (pwr:hrt )which you can compare your endurance days. See if that percentage drops.

The other thing you can look at is cadence. Cadence is a good indication of fatigue. Usually as a rider gets tired their cadence tends to drop. So you can compare your cadence between intervals or from the start of a ride to the end of the ride.

With all this said just #FtFP and it will all work out for you!

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Yes Yes Yes ! :muscle::trophy:

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Awesome Jake and Frank thanks for the reply. Is there a number you are looking for? For some reason 5% or less is technically what a rider is looking for from what I remember to say they have build a decent base to build from.

Yeah less than 5% is what you are looking for. But also it can vary by a few factors. One of them is heat and humidity like summer now. Can really impact heart rate. Really if you were going to do a true test 2 - 3 hour zone ride consistent power you would just want to see an improvement from early season to midseason.

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