Isn’t if about time we implemented abnormal heart rate alerts within the in-game user interface?
Context: Luke Goldstone’s Brompton race on Youtube: XF9m8Fc3VVQ
He’s a new racer to Zwift hitting 205bpm in the final sprint of ZRacing and quite rightly worried about those types of efforts having damage to them long term.
While Zwift easily show riders when they are outputting higher than average W/Kg on the far right pane which displays rider names & position, it does not show the current rider that they may be exerting themselves too hard in terms of current heart rate BPM.
I understand this may be tricky to implement as you would only want the exertion viewable for the actual rider, and not other riders/races who may be fan-viewing (or stream-sniping online) to gain a tactical advantage in a race, so I would suggest this feature should be enabled by default but have an option to disable in settings. That way riders who stream online may opt-out if they consider the feature a risk to their race outcomes.
Additionally, prolonged high / low bpms after a strenuous effort may also merit an in-game alert / companion-app alert to make sure the rider is aware that readings are abnormal.
Personally I don’t think it needs anything more than the digits for the BPM being colour coded to the actual rider’s heart rate zones, so they know that limits are being pushed.
Apologies if this has been suggested before, couldn’t see it from a quick search.
Without knowing his max Hr it’s hard to know what is abnormal. Looks like his max is above 200 which is not abnormal. He was above 195bpm for some time so he probably just has a very high max HR.
Zwift doesn’t actually even have the functionality yet to reconfigure your HR zones (for those that use resting HR, or threshold HR as inputs). Someone with a high resting HR might have different zone boundaries as someone with a very low resting HR with a similar max HR as an example.
For any high intensity (VO2Max style) training, ramp tests, and shorter high intensity racing I would expect a lot of people to get to very high HR zones often.
The rider would need to discuss reasonable limits with a physician, and hopefully get a stress test in a clinic to better understand the risks. Without that they’re in the dark, but that’s true for everyone. They could implement alerts on a cycling computer or smart watch such as a Garmin device.
I don’t think this is for Zwift to do that. They cannot know each user and the alerts could be wrong. Or they could miss a potentially dangerous situation for someone. Then Zwift might become liable. That’s just a minefield best avoided. You might also have a faulty heart rate monitor l. I had one years ago which had me at 240bpm. It was a glitch.
The responsibility here is on the rider to know their own body and to know when it’s time to ease up. You know what the feeling of hard efforts are, and you know when something is not right.
I might not race in Zwift, but I have a lot of IRL riding experience (at high intensity) and training knowledge.
I’m getting on in age but can still push 170bpm for 1 hour and max at 185-190bpm if I really push myself. I know how that feels, and you all should know what that intensity feels like for your own riding, then know if something feels abnormal. If something doesn’t feel right, you stop and let someone know.