Continuing with the theme of the cardiovascular system, Maybe you have heard about heart drift or its most popular "cardiac drift". Next, Let's explain what it is, the information that provides us and the usefulness of controlling this parameter as a training of training adaptations or even as a symptom of possible situations that are causing a decrease in performance, either internally or external.

We talk about Drift or cardiac derives to refer to frequency elevation for prolonged effort that remains for constant intensity. We tend to associate a certain external intensity or load (watts, speed ...) with a heart rate value, And sometimes we assume that this association is linear and continues throughout the training. However, It is possible that some of your training (especially with intervals training or extensive continuous work) end up looking like this:

Following the image above we can see the power in fuchsia; In red heart rate. As we can see, Despite maintaining the same power during all intervals, Heart rate is increasingly and more.

This phenomenon of multifactorial origin has traditionally associated with the body's work for compensating the increase in body temperature during exercise, dissipating heat towards peripheral areas (skin). Other factors could be the Dehydration and fatigue of the neuromuscular system.

Drift is usually more accentuated in less trained people and this gives us a track of how we can use it as a control for the evaluation of our improvements.

If for the same rhythm or intensity, We have a lower cardiac drift from one training to another, We have probably improved, having a lower cardiac output for the same intensity (efficiency).

If you use Training Peaks to control it, The PW: HR and EF value are the indicators that allow you to control these changes. Lower percentages in PW: HR and major EF values ​​for the same training, They mean improvements related to the cardiovascular system.

If there was the case that these values ​​worsen in an accentuated manner in training, Do not fall in the mistake of thinking that you have worsened suddenly. As we have already said the drift is multifactorial, and factors such as high external temperature (summer arrival), Beginnings of diseases (colds ...) or fatigue produced by training could be affecting this value.

Do not lose sight of this value and observe how it changes during the year depending on the type of training and the time of the year you are.