Usually I’ll do 10mins+ after the Tiny races quartet or a Zmonthly has finished at ~75W, until I’ve completed a Km and my heart rate is back under 100bpm.
I used to get away with very little if any warmup before long covid but over the last 26 months, as my fitness has dropped while my weight has increased at the same time as the weakest pen allowing stronger racers to join under Racing Score, I’m starting to think I should try and get ~15mins warmup in beforehand.
It’s amazing, only here would one of the most respected and experienced coaches in my country be written off. Which is basically what is happening.
Maybe not all trainers can do this, but I can save the ride, which then returns me to the home screen, and I just keep pedaling away to cool down for a few minutes or so. Of course I’m not riding in the Zwift game then, so there are no miles being counted, but I don’t care about this.
What I’m missing though is my HR (and to some extent - power). I like to keep an eye on that and make sure it’s coming down and to a point I feel okay about stopping. As an older rider and without getting into the coach/study debate, I like to spin down after an effort. I feel better and safer not stopping abruptly.
Good points. I suppose you could click on the pairing menu if you want to just see those values?
It’s a good habit. And when you are older you know how your body responds - it’s different to when you were 10-15 years younger.
Some of the track meets I used to go to, you always saw riders doing warmups before a race (and between races) on the rollers and cooldowns on the rollers before they finish and pack up.
Heart rate isn’t particularly necessary provided you’ve got accurate power information. You can just also go by feel.
Some of the Zwift workouts have the cool down sections with the watts too low. So I copy the workouts and modify those sections so it’s a more reasonable percentage of FTP.
For older people (I am 65) - it could be to late if you don’t feel good!
I personally never race without HRM.
I should have explained it better, you can feel the effort in your legs what is hard and what feels easy. I also use HRM like you and agree with your statement for those reasons.