Pace vs Heart Rate for measuring intensity

Pace vs Heart Rate for measuring intensity

There are many ways to measure the intensity of your training and racing… triathletes often get caught up in time and pace. My preference as a Coach is to guide people to use heart rate as their measure of intensity.

Why?

Using heart rate, along with perceived exertion, is a much more reliable source of your intensity because it is real data. It is your physiology and a measure of what is happening. The use of heart rate also means we can understand the energy system in play at set heart rates.

What that means…

It means that training can be more specific to adequately preparing your body for the demands of racing… because we can a) measure it and b) train it. If we have trained the right energy system then come race day we (and our bodies) know what to do.

Furthermore, using HR narrows it down to one data point being used (along with learning to understand the perceived exertion of certain heart rates and zones).

Also, the average age-grouper is often quite inexperienced with regards to managing their effort and expectations come race day, so these zones can help guide and manage their performance!