HRV during TAPER GOES down

Hi guys, do you also notice a drop in HRV during Taper week? It often happens to me during the competitive period even though I don’t participate in many races. Paradoxically, if I do more intense training the next day I have a higher Night HRV.
35 Night
60 Morning
70/90 during the day.



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Yupp, same with me. I take it as body getting ready for battle :oncoming_fist:t2::collision::heart:

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Ready to ride :sweat_smile:
Honestly yesterday (3 days before the race) I preferred not to do Race Preparation bike 30"Z5 3’ Z4 x4 and combu Run at Race Pace 30’ for a Z2 ride with some sprints and ample recovery and the same for the run… I felt full but sore legs and perhaps on a psychological level a limiter when I was at the threshold… I prefer to activate myself with some sprints and stops.. perhaps you should include it in the Wizard workout… like 4x 30" Z4 High cadence and 3x 20" Strides..:grin::raising_hands:

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Good observation and the drop in HRV during Taper is the desired response.

Our Plews et al. 2013 review shows this in 3 Olympic gold medalists (rowing). What you showed and experienced @Giuseppe85 reflects withdrawal of parasympathetic activity and heightened sympathetic activity that favours assisting your upcoming performance. Athletica did well. Best of luck.

cc @Andrea @Stef to note these small nuances of AI-coach in relation to taper week.

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Confirm GOOD RACE!
SWIM 1900 1’48/100mt (Athletica 1’50" stimated)
BIKE 220 WATT (PERFECT MIDDLE DISTANCE PACE)
RUN on terrain 4’30"/km (Athletica 4’36/4’24")
Yo!

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Congratulations!! Good pacing and speed!

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Congrats! Sounds like a great race.

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Hello Giuseppe !

Which is you critical bike power ? Mine is 296W and athletica says that the expected power for a middle distance bike leg should be something like 260/300w. It seems quite a lot to me. What do you thi k @Prof ?

Thanks

F

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@thekappe something does seem off with the range showing in your power profile (will look into this). However for race guidance, I often use the related key set to help guide the pacing vision. Last week you did the following below and felt good. For 70.3 pacing, depending on your durability of course, you should be around the Zone 3b. Looks like you were hitting those numbers around the 45 min section of this session. You’ll know whether or not that felt sustainable but looks like it should be to me.

And similar for your Over-under session… so probably more on the lower end. Remember that HR will need to stabilize and here you can see its slightly drifting up. WR at -20 says that our durability is only so high at this point. Not far off this but go the lower side and build into it. Be sure you can run free after the bike effort.

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Hello @Prof !!

Thanks so much for the explanation! I’d say everything is much clearer now.
In the above charts, Zone 3b is always in the 260–300W range.
The first over-unders sessions were really tough, and I was wondering how I could possibly sustain that effort during a race.
Based on how I felt, a range around 220W seemed more suitable in order to run at around 4:50–4:30 min/km pace (my FTP is 4:16).

What do you think about that ?

Thanks

F

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@thekappe are you confident about your 20’ power data from Tue, May 6 2025? The output here is at odds with your ‘feel’ of 220. However feel is typically a better indicator. It could be that that 20’ power data is skewing your threshold and zone data which makes it hard to pinpoint a good pacing strategy.

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Hello @Prof ,

yes, I am:

It’s quite a while that I don’t race a middle distance tri. During the last three years I just did long distance ones. I think that’s why I am more confident with lower pacing.

thanks a lot for your hints !

F

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Mine Is 230 (without test..only stimated) i Ve setted 240

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