Got in a ride late today, trying to keep my HR and power as low as possible, to see how they correlate on the lower end. HR crept up to just over 140 on occasion (i.e. false flats), but I worked to keep it in the low 130s. I even saw some 120s, which usually I only see (and briefly at that!) when warming up. Per Garmin, I was in HR Zone 2 54% of the ride and power Zone 1 53% of the ride: almost identical measures. So now I'm thinking my old notion of HR Zones may not be inaccurate, based on power. Average power for the ride was 100W, well within Z1 (anything below 110W). HR Z1 total time was just under 2 minutes. So, what does this mean? I'm still figuring that out!
But I really like having power data.
More stats:108 W
Max Avg Power (20 min)105 W
Normalized Power® (NP®)0.527
Intensity Factor® (IF®)35.8
Training Stress Score®
Edit: I guess I had forgotten how long it takes to develop good fitness. Oh yeah, and riding once a month won’t do it.