Heart Rate VS Power VS Feel - Pros and Cons of Training Metrics

I go through what I think are the pro's and cons of the popular training metrics for cycling. Power meters, Heart Rate, Cadence, Speed, and feel.

EVERYONE is different! There is no magic workout or metric that will be great for everyone. But getting a bit more scientific about your cycling training can go a long way to improve your skill.

I also give some kind of example for when to use the metrics, but again, do what works well for you.

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[mitchellsteindler]

I think the variability in heart rate is what makes it the best. It tells you exactly how stressed your body is, allowing you to adjust your effort level accordingly, helping you prevent overtraining and illness. Power ignores your fatigue, it's just go go go. The only down side is that it does take a few seconds for your heart rate to change.

[csantos]

HR is great for making sure you don't push into the red unable to recover from your effort. If you see an opportunity to break away and go for it, HR is how you can tell if your power output is sustainable. If you can't send O2 to your muscles efficiently enough then you're going to burn out. I'd say that as a training metric it is less useful than power, but as a racing and/or pacing metric it is great. Some days your FTP isn't at its peak test and other days it is higher than you test. Power can be useful in a race, too, but HR will keep you from making stupid choices.

[martykott]

The greatest cycling training tool ever...riding with faster guys and trying to keep up with them. I've been riding either alone or with some social groups that stop and talk a lot, especially on hills. I just started group riding with younger ( I am 58 ) and faster guys, and boy I am wiped out trying to keep up. I assume that this is what I have needed.

[travischang]

The effort you devote to racing knowledge is what makes your channel really enjoyable to me. And I have no interest in racing whatsoever😂. A subscriber and a fan.

[marceloapn]

Very nice! Power is really an addiction and sometimes we lose the beauty of the ride. Please make more videos about the power evolution, goals of FTP improvement and stuff.

[peterlaskiewicz]

Best quality detailed cycling videos on youtube. Wish I had found your videos 2 years ago. The cycling content is on point. Also, you can buy used power meters now like stages for $300-400 used.

[RyanVasquez]

Excellent video! I don't have a power meter. But I 100% agree with you on heart and cadence stuff. I think it's really cool to learn how things like temperature and humidity can affect your heart rate.

[MishMash]

So glad I got a power meter, I used to ride off feel and when actually looking at the power data, was amazed how much I actually eased off. I concluded that it was because as you get into an effort, it starts feeling relatively harder, so if you try to match the same perceived effort, that same perception goes down. For example, for me, I can do 300w for around 8-10 minutes at my current level of fitness, however before power data, I often found that after about 3-4 minutes i'd have drifted down to around 270w without even realising, thinking I was putting in the same effort. There were also external factors like not realising how much I was resting just from coasting

[KD_cycling]

Feel has its place and should be part of the toolbox especially for riders who don't have an endurance sport background.
I think new cyclists can really benefit from spending some time concentrating on their breathing and rhythm before getting too caught up in the numbers game.

Endurance can be a mental game as much as a physical one. Sometimes you need a strong mind to be able to say "three more turns to the top, dig in and give it everything" when you could say "I'm almost at the top, I can back off a bit". If all you do is ride to power or heart rate you might never find how deep you can go on a good day or go way too hard on a bad day and cook yourself on the first climb of the day. Once you have the feel for your body and the mental stuff on point then progress to the other stuff. IMO 🚲

[fiddleronthebike]

I absolute agree to all you say about power meters - fantastic tool, best upgrade for the bike you can buy! But beside that I have issues with this video... to compare feel, power, HR to cadence is a bit strange, because that is another category, and HR is useless for many purposes, short efforts are done before you can see the effect in HR...

But at the end of the day (as you said at the end) you have to use them all. Since I have a power meter I ALLWAYS use power and cadence, and that are the main numbers; nonetheless feel matters, if you ride at a power you SHOULD be able to sustain, but feel and HR show that you will not...

[bubbagump]

I appreciate the honesty about power meters ruining the ride for analytical folks. I do that sometimes with strata, god knows how bad I would be measuring power. Great video.

[IamOsamaKamal]

you mentioned a good point that recently i became concerned with
i became obsessed with numbers even before buying speed computer or using HR and cadence sensors
i don't ride my bike without turning on Strava on my mobile and things became worse when i started to use speed, HR and cadence sensors .. i always look at the numbers and want to make high speeds and average speeds even when i commute so i lost the entertainment of the bike and the view around me
i don't know how to get cured :D

[rynmullet]

I thought there was a drive by shooting by my house hearing this intro. Thanks for the motivation and education on cycling bruh.

[xboxgolfdude]

Love the graphics, memes and informed chat. Congrats on 30k!

[marvino]

i'm sure that we all will notice the new beat lol

[TailHappyTV]

Amazing video brother, thanks for sharing your wisdom

[alsayers]

Concise. Really well put together. I will forward it on to friends who keep asking me questions. Well done. Dude!

[scbutler]

I'm in the market and have been getting conflicting feedback from non-racing cyclist. And I'm definitely an info-nerd

[wisskier]

Good discussion VC.

Last summer I was utterly unable to get my HR up, even after rest and some recovery. I also noticed I was achieving Strava PRs with less heart rate than previous. This clued me in on the fact I was lacking in muscle strength. I would be on a climb and my HR would top off at .7 max but I would the top (with a long flat or some minor bumps) and then hit .85 max.

The points your buddies make also ring true. I have seen this at the Y in spin class as well as on the road. Early in the season hitting max HRs or even extending that number is easy but as the season progresses it is harder and hard.

I got my Stages drive-side crank power meter late last summer. I performed an hour FTP test and found myself as a solid cat-5 power:weight. However, my short terms power numbers were not up to snuff, again confirming what I was seeing with HR. I hit the weight room late in the season and saw almost immediate improvement in my max power numbers.

There is a fair amount of stuff to learn when using a power meter and you need some software to help with analysis (I use Golden Cheetah, google it), but I find it comforting on those days when I'm creeping along into a howling headwind (like today).

[chiquiloso]

I'm new to cycling (just a few months into this wonderful world) and this was really illustrative. Good work man, thanksfor the tips!