First week in the bag

I completed my first week of training with a power meter. I really enjoy downloading my data and analyzing it.

One of the cool things I found you can do with WKO is graph your power data by your training zones. Here is a graph of my ride from Saturday.



This lets you see exactly how much time you spend in each zone.

You can also graph you heart rate data the same way. Here is a graph of my heart rate from the same ride.



It is interesting that my heart rate graph is nothing like my power graph. I can think of a couple reasons why this would happen

1) I have the wrong value set for my lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR)
2) My power changes instantly when I stop pedaling but heart rate takes much more time to change
3) The graphs just show that heart rate is not a good metric to use to determine which training zones your efforts occurred in.

It is very possible I don't have my LTHR set properly. I forgot my heart rate strap when I did my 20 minute time trial to determine my functional threshold power. I do the test again in 3 weeks though. I will make sure I bring my heart rate strap this time. The number I am using now for LTHR is slightly higher than my average heart rate on a previous 2 hour max effort group road ride.

I think I will post this question to the Wattage list and see what the experts say.

I also posted a question on mtbr about high cadence and one leg drills. I don't like these workouts. They give me terrible saddle sores. I read this article that said they are not even beneficial. I think the workouts would be more tolerable if I knew for sure what I was doing was helping me get faster.