sloring

This is my second season of racing and about 3 weeks ago I purchased a Garmin Vector power meter to help better develop my training. I've been using the Friel method and I'm current in my Base 3 period. Last weekend I did my 30 min FTP test and came in a 282w for a 6', 158lb 33 year old male. Heart rate LTHR was 171 bpm.

One thing I've noticed since getting the power meter is that when I'm in power z2 my heart rate zone is always slightly below my power number, but the past few weeks when I've been training tempo my power has been low z3 and my heart rate has been way up in z5 and greater. Most of my training is indoors on the trainer late at night after dinner as I've got an infant at home so I'm not able to get out and ride. I do find that on the weekends when I get out these numbers tend to align better.

I know that Friel says that early on in the season your power and HR will be equal, but eventually your power will increase while your HR stays level. I feel like the opposite is happening when I hit tempo. Anyone have any ideas why this could be occurring? Last night I was sucking major gas and my efforts didn't seem to be much less than my FTP test despite averaging 210w for 30 min.

jsk

Do you have adequate cooling for on the trainer? The harder you're going, the more this will be an issue and would definitely raise your HR if you're overheating.

sloring

I have a Vornado floor fan, but that's it. Any other suggestions?

Carbonfiberboy 

I suppose it's possible that you're tired muscularly but not aerobically and are killing yourself trying to get your power up. In HR based training, you'd naturally drop power to keep HR in zone, thinking perhaps rightly that HR is the measure of training stress you want to go by. The power folks say throw away your HRM and only go by power. I'm not entirely convinced as you can perhaps tell.

IME when I'm tired my HR drops more than my power. I'll be breathing hard and hammering along with a zone 2 HR. When my HR's low compared to RPE, I drop back to an easy cruise as I head back home. I supposed it's perfectly reasonable to be different in that respect, depending on one's muscular endurance and glandular training sensitivities.

However the usual reason for a high HR compared to power is dehydration. Make sure that's not it.