Pro HR data anyone?

The pros race at a higher level relative to their threshold (at any distance) because they are faster.  I could maintain the same relative effort as them, but then I would "collapse" well before the finish line.

I can say that in a picture of Sinaballe, his Polar read 134 bpm.  I always try to zoom in on the pictures to see what their watch says.  Other than that...can't help you.

agreed....i should have used threshold instead of saying they were in better shape

dan, what leg of the race was that on? im assuming it was IM distance as well, so the HR info would be considerably lower than HIM HR. still, that dude is a machine, his bike splits avg upwards of 25mph if im not mistaken.

Edited by JonCT 2009-06-11 2:14 PM

Your observation is still off.  The average AGer can't go at the same relative effort simply because they aren't as fast.  Not because they have "more left in the tank" and are "short changing" themselves.

He was on the bike and he looked as if he was 'getting' after it.  Can't say which distance because it was an advertisement.

I read that Macca has to keep his heart rate under 154bpm because anything over that, his body expels more liquid than he can ingest. Not sure if thats true. Seemed plausible.
I would think that the pro's run faster at much lower heart rates. I have read a lot of research based around the whole run slower to eventually run faster. Keeping your heart rate in zone 3, etc... I am sure there are people that know more on this than I do.  I guess where I am going with this is the pro's are going to keep their engines in check so they can maintain a higher level over distances and all three events.

It is about the amount of work you can do over time. Let's assume you have the same height and weight as a pro hence for both of you it will take roughly the same amount of work to run let's say 10 miles. The difference is that the pro can do that work much faster; that is to sustain a higher power because for him/her the distance while the same for both and it takes the same amount of work (again assuming your both have the same height/weight) he/she can do it in a shorter period of time. 

For that reason and based on your fitness level, if both of you had the same power (plus height/weight) then both could cover the distance (do the same amount of work) at the same intensity/speed; however since that is not the case the pro can afford to run at a higher power/pace just because he will spend less time doing so than you. You on the other hand might very well be going as hard as you can for the distance but given your lower fitness level (power/pace) you will have to go at a lower intensity to do the same amount of work. Still RPE wise for both of you the effort should feel very hard if you are going all out, he/she will go just be going faster than you

HR is not the best indicator for effort since it can be affected by other variables not directly connected to the work done on your muscles, HR only shows cardiovascular strain; that is how hard your heart is working at a given time/intensity. But factors like diet, temperature, dehydration, sleep, stress, etc can affect it up and down. Pace/power on the other hand are a more direct reflection of the work done on your muscles, hence knowing that information can help you gauge your effort more precisly hence avoid under/over pacing your efforts.

Remember, race pace is a function of distance and fitness level. You can be in killer shape and run the 10 miler in x time and be in terrible shape and run it much slower. Both times the effort will feel very hard because you are going as hard as your current fitness allows you to hence RPE both efforts will be hard, but power/pace wise it will be different and that means faster/slower times. Or to quote LeMond: " it never gets easy, you just go faster!"