Nimmerichter, Alfred , Eston, Roger G. , Bachl, Norbert and Williams, Craig(2011) 'Longitudinal monitoring of power output and heart rate profiles in elite cyclists', Journal of Sports Sciences, 29: 8, 831 — 839.
Heart Rate and power valid measures of intensity over a season but heart rate only up to a point where highly intensive sessions where the VO2max is approached or cardiac drift and cardiac lag make measurement by heart rate imprecise.
Variability of power was inversely related to performance. Backing up countless studies on pacing.
Variability is one of the main advantages of using a power meter as the nature of power application is far more precise than heart rate. The AIS MTB team used to use heart rate to track intensity the a lack of variance in a race led them to believe that steady state training over long durations was appropriate however when they shifted to SRM they found a far greater variance in power and adopted a more interval based approach to preparing for events.
So now there is published evidence that a power meter is a more effective measurement tool than heart rate for intensity and training load over a season.
Heart Rate and power valid measures of intensity over a season but heart rate only up to a point where highly intensive sessions where the VO2max is approached or cardiac drift and cardiac lag make measurement by heart rate imprecise.
Variability of power was inversely related to performance. Backing up countless studies on pacing.
Variability is one of the main advantages of using a power meter as the nature of power application is far more precise than heart rate. The AIS MTB team used to use heart rate to track intensity the a lack of variance in a race led them to believe that steady state training over long durations was appropriate however when they shifted to SRM they found a far greater variance in power and adopted a more interval based approach to preparing for events.
So now there is published evidence that a power meter is a more effective measurement tool than heart rate for intensity and training load over a season.