Heart rate on the road vs turbo

[Maladict]

It's hard to compare this without the powertap hub currently working, but I find that my HR on the bike on the road runs higher than when I am on the turbo.  When I am at 160bpm on the turbo I feel I am working very hard, my legs are burning etc.  The same thing on the road, my legs are fine, and my breathing is much slower than on the turbo.

Does anyone else notice this.  Is it an adrenaline thing, perhaps?

[gonzo]

Me too. I find that I'm 5% lower on the turbo, although the difference has decreased the more I use it.

[Really Ancien]

What kind of fan are you using when on the turbo?

Damon.

[Greenbank]

Got a fan?

[EDIT] Beaten to it.

[Maladict]

Oh.

 

I have a fan.  It's not in the same room.

[Maladict]

Does anyone else notice this.  Is it an adrenaline thing, perhaps?

Sounds reasonable, particularly when cycling in high volume traffic.

Could also be that your arms and torso are having to work harder to maintain balance.

Only monitored this on Audax rides on quiet roads so it's not caused by heavy traffic.  The balance side I can see though.

[Chris S]

Top Dressing.

Having a road rougher than a really rough thing always adds at least 5% to my workload. Whenever I ride onto smooth black top, I can feel my heart rate drop as the work rate decreases.

You can hear it in the car too. Compare the tyre noise from top dressing compared to smooth tarmac.

[Maladict]

The original query was that the HR wasn't in step with the effort level, though.  Once the powertap is working again, I will see if I can measure power output vs HR for road and turbo.

My breathing rate at 160bpm on the road is much lower than the same as at 160bpm on the turbo.  Breathing rate is related to work rate but I can't measure the work rate accurately just now.

[nmcgann]

The original query was that the HR wasn't in step with the effort level, though.  Once the powertap is working again, I will see if I can measure power output vs HR for road and turbo.

My breathing rate at 160bpm on the road is much lower than the same as at 160bpm on the turbo.  Breathing rate is related to work rate but I can't measure the work rate accurately just now.

You really need to check powers with your PT to know what is going on, but a lot of people find turbo harder than road. See this: http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=16415

I've found the opposite - road seems harder than turbo. I've only just got a PT, so don't have much road data yet, but I think my frequent excursions into Vo2max (and higher) territory on the road is causing me trouble given my poor capacity at powers over FTP that I have observed on the turbo when doing intervals.

Neil