Analysing a bike ride: power, heart rate, cadence and speed over the profile

What data a ride contains

• Power (W): the work you put through the pedals at each moment.
• Heart rate (bpm): how your body responds to the effort.
• Cadence (rpm): pedal revolutions per minute.
• Speed (km/h): the result of your effort, the terrain and the wind.
• Elevation (m): the course profile, where climbing comes from.

Which data appears depends on the device and the sensors you carried: not every ride includes power or cadence.

Reading metrics over the elevation profile

A climb usually means more power and a higher heart rate, and a descent the opposite. Placing a metric over the elevation profile lets you compare effort with terrain and see, for example, whether a drop in speed comes from the gradient or from a lull in pace.

When data is missing

If a ride has no cadence or power, drawing a line at zero is misleading: zero means 'not pedalling', not 'not measured'. The right approach is to show the data as absent and work with what is there.

How Pedalytics does it

Pedalytics, still in preparation, shows power, heart rate, cadence, speed and elevation in a trace you scrub with your finger.

• Profile view: one metric at a time over the elevation profile, with a card that reads every metric at that point.
• Detail view: every trace stacked, with range selection and zoom into a stretch.
• If your file has no sensor, it says so instead of drawing an invented line: what is missing is shown as missing, never as zero.