I dont remember the code but I believe their are limiters, you might try lowering ftp and see what happens.
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I’m in the 100 watt club at the end of the workout too. My normal zone 2 is about 112 for middle of the zone. Once power reduces due to the algorithm it tends to keep going down. I wouldn’t be discouraged.
Dave
I don’t know what could be causing that and will defer to Alex
My experience with HR+ and Power is, that there is a minimum and it does not go below. It’s connected to the FTP. Minimum seems to be 40% of the FTP. Not a problem when you only do straight Z2 but if you did HR+ high intensity before, most probably you will „get stuck“ at the minimum no matter your actual HR.
Yes, I am pretty sure there is a 40% minimum. You are right, I could lower this if needed.
I lowered the FTP and that seemed to have solved the problem. Thanks for everyone’s input.
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What happens if you stay on HR+ mode? Can you show us a ride with the issue? Sometimes, HR+ takes time to react and my HR goes all the way up to 130bpm before going down. Here is an example
https://app.trainerday.com/activities/693d89e226fa611681d7e1e5
I figured it out. As Alex stated, there is a 40% limiter in place. It won’t go below 40% of FTP set in the APP settings. My solution was to just drop the set FTP to ridiculously low to make sure it wasn’t causing an issue. The other thing I did was set the %FTP cell in the workout I created as 15% so there would be no way that value would have any chance of interfering. Not sure it does, but just a thing I tried before figuring out the limiter was 40% FTP.
Here’s a ride I did last night. Very surprised to see it so low, but that’s what my HR wanted to do so I honored it. I will say I had to actually raise the set HR (from 120 up to 125) in real time to get the resistance to come up after about 20 minutes as my HR just wasn’t going up and the resistance wasn’t either. I am trying to strictly adhere to Maffetone right now and aim for 125 bpm. I start at 120 and adjust from there.
Here’s another one I did a few days ago before figuring out the 40% limiter. The result was fine as I shoot for a bpm of 125, but later as the HR drifts up the resistance did not adjust down. Afterwards was when I realized I needed to drop the set FTP even lower.
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Nice, yes, I had this limiter originally because I was not considering more extreme low hr / power disconnects like yours and trying to protect people from strange issues but now seeing how it works I could lower minimum limit to 20% if it mattered.
I think it’s fine unless you have a number of users asking for it. If it has the potential to create strange issues, I’d leave it alone for the masses.
I’m an outlier at the moment and suspect once I get my sleep issue resolved this won’t be a problem. FTP is just a number and pretty easy to remember, by the time I’m ready to train properly again it will have changed and I’d need to re-test anyway.
Everyone’s circumstances are different, but if power as a % of FTP is getting to recovery levels is it time to end that workout and get some rest?
I hope you feel better @LunethG
Dave
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3 posts were split to a new topic: Chronic Sleep Issues and Ideas
Hi @Alex,
Quick question / sanity check for you.
I recently switched to PowerMatch because my Garmin Vector 3 consistently reads ~20 W higher than my Tacx Neo, so I figured it made sense to anchor everything to the pedals.
This morning I did an easy HR-based ride, aiming for 115 bpm. Despite keeping power very steady, I noticed my HR was consistently ~5 bpm higher, and I ended up averaging ~120 bpm instead of sitting on target.
Here’s the ride for reference:
https://app.trainerday.com/activities/694556d242176b92803b80fb
The easy fix would obviously be to just lower my target HR by ~5 bpm, but before doing that I was wondering:
- Is this something you typically see right after switching to PowerMatch?
- Could this simply be the different resistance feel / micro-surging from PM nudging HR up a bit?
- Anything else I should tweak or watch for before adjusting my HR targets?
Overall the ride felt easy and controlled, so this is more about dialing things in than a real problem.
Thanks as always — really appreciate the platform and the responsiveness.
Interesting question. I don’t think we’ve really tested power match with HR plus. I have no idea how this actually works. My guess is that it does not work correctly like you’re seeing. Meaning we’re looking at your average power and assuming that it’s the same as the target. Yes, for accurate reporting, it would be better to look at them more independently.
That makes sense, and thanks for the honest answer — appreciate it.
What I’m seeing lines up with what you’re describing: power is very steady and clearly being treated as “on target,” but HR seems to float independently and ends up sitting a bit higher than intended. So it’s less about the ride feeling wrong, and more about HR control not quite lining up when PowerMatch is in play.
For now I’ll probably treat HR targets more independently (or bias them slightly lower) and use HR more as a guardrail than a hard target on these easy days — especially since the effort felt right subjectively.
Not a big issue at all, just something I wanted to understand better as I fine-tune things. Happy to be a bit of a guinea pig if this ever becomes something you want to test more formally.
Thanks again — really appreciate the transparency and the back-and-forth.
Greg
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is there info how HR workout controls the trainer?
I’m interested in trying out this feature and create my own workouts
Also, I’d like to ask if workouts can have a mix of the 3 types of variables HR, ERG, and Slope
Thanks
Not Alex, but high level there’s an algorithm that increases/decreases power it appears in 30 second increments to hold heart rate to the specified level.
I think:
If HR has reduced in the prior block then power goes up
If HR has stayed the same then power stays the same
If HR has increased in the prior block then power goes down
Try it out and see what you think. Most have found you want the HR to be close to set point before starting – don’t have power at 110 BPM in HR+ with a set point of 140 BPM let’s say.
Rough concept:
Warm up
1 minute ERG at % power to bring HR close
HR+ interval
Dave
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All these can help below, there is lots of info in the forums, yes you can create mixed types of all 3. HR+ is basically like ERG except it sets your power based on target heart rate.
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Warmup does not do much except for outside so safer to put ERG then everytime you start this workout it starts in ERG…