Joe Friel On: Intervals For Triathlon, Heart Rate Zones Vs Power Zones And More

In Episode 4 of Watts Up, world famous coach and training guru Joe Friel answers your questions on whether high intensity intervals are necessary for triathlon or Ironman, power zones vs heart rate zones and more.
0:00 Introduction
0:10 Do you need short intervals for triathlon training
2:20 Is it better to look at normalized power or average power
5:16 How closely should hear rate zones overlap with power zones?
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Want to ask the world’s leading pioneer of power-based training how to get the most out of your ASSIOMA power meter? Welcome to: ‘Watts Up: Your Training Questions Answered’, with Joe Friel to give you expert tips on all aspects of power-based performance cycling.
A coach for over 40 years, author of several books including the ‘The Cyclist’s Training Bible’ and co-founder of TrainingPeaks, Joe is one of the industry’s leading authorities on power training. He’s also a long-running ASSIOMA ambassador and user of our pedals.
Every week we invite you to submit your questions about any aspects of cycling training, with Joe answering a selection of these in a weekly video posted here and across our social channels.
So, got a burning question about how to use a power meter to get faster on the bike? Make sure you're following us on Instagram (@favero_electronics) to submit your questions!
Follow Joe on Twitter: / jfriel
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About Favero Electronics
We make ASSIOMA. The lightest, most accurate pedal-based power meter ever made. Unleash your power.
Find out more: cycling.favero.com/

[@NARRASSAFilmes]

Thank you! I learned what I wanted with this video.

[@Favero_cycling]

Great to hear it! Keep on following us for more content!

[@troyasee]

I believe you are incorrect in the third question, would love to discuss this: as your fitness improve of course your power gets higher, but the percentage of each zones remains the same. If frequently tested your threshold will increase gradually, but the relation between the heart rate zones and the power zones would remain the same all the time, even if they don’t coincide

[@troyasee]

* improves

[@Favero_cycling]

Thank you for your comment! We'll reply by mentioning Joe Friel's words. When you improve on cycling, you'll notice that at the same heart rate, you'll be able to put out more power. If you put out more power, then your FTP test will change over time. When your FTP changes, then your power phases, which are calculated accordingly, will change as well. But not your heart rate zones. Consequently, you should see your two zone systems moving apart. This happens because while power increases, your functional threshold heart rate tends to remain the same. If you want to learn more about Joe Friel's training experience on this, here's an interesting link for you: joefrielsblog.com/should-heart-rate-and-power-zones-agree/ -Anna

[@alexanderw.9057]

@@Favero_cycling The relation however stays the same. Saying that the power numbers will change and therefore your "power zones change and drift apart" is just pointing out the obvious. Ofc they change. But only the values change, the relation stays the same. No one says: (FTP 200) I can gold 200W @175HR and 2 months later I can hold 215 @175HR - therefore the zones drift apart. What people say is - my HR is 175 around my zone 4, which was 200W 2 months ago and now it's still 175 when I'm in zone4 but now my zone 4 is around 215W. @troyasee you are right. I value the content of this channel here but this is just very misleading.

[@PacificMtn]

I understand that normalized power (NP) is possibly a better representation of physiological strain and so better for use in training, but the claim that NP is better at predicting calories burned goes against my understanding. Average power multiplied by duration gives you actual kilojoules (energy used) which under reasonable assumptions about exercise efficiency can be translated directly to Calories burned.