Many athletes often engage in activities without using a power meter, such as commutes, rides on second bikes, or while traveling and renting a bike. In these cases, it’s essential to wear a heart rate monitor, and preferably a cadence sensor, to ensure accurate tracking of your performance.
Enabling HRDM
To enable Heart Rate Derived Metrics, navigate to Home > Profile Settings and click on the General tab. On the right-hand side, you’ll find the options for HRDM:
When activated, this feature estimates various important metrics based on your heart rate and cadence data, including:
- Xert Strain Score (XSS)
- Average Power
- Xert Equivalent Power (XEP)
- Focus Duration
- Specificity Rating
- Estimated Fat and Carb Utilization
- Difficulty Score
How HRDM Works
HRDM analyzes your historical data to identify patterns between power, heart rate, and cadence. Once these relationships are established, any activity that includes heart rate or both heart rate and cadence will be analyzed. Using a cadence sensor alongside heart rate data provides a more accurate estimate of your fatigue level, as it accounts for periods of stopping, slowing down, and accelerating. This combination enhances the estimation of all the above metrics.
Please note that HRDM metrics are only calculated for activities lacking power data. If power data is present in an activity, the system will rely solely on that data, disregarding heart rate or cadence information.
To further refine the algorithm to reflect your current resting and maximum heart rate values, disable the Auto-estimate Heart Rate parameters and manually input your resting and maximum heart rate.