Triathlon · HRV
HRV-guided triathlon training
with the Unbroken Protocol.
Let your body set the day. Unbroken reads your heart rate variability, sleep and training load each morning and turns them into one decision: push, activate, or recover. You train hard when you can absorb it, and back off when you cannot, so the work actually becomes fitness.
Train by readiness, not by the calendar
Heart rate variability is the variation in time between heartbeats. A trend relative to your own baseline can add useful recovery context, but a single value is noisy and does not identify the cause of a change. HRV-guided training reads that trend alongside sleep, symptoms, recent load and the planned session.
For the full science of what HRV measures and how to read your morning number, see the explainer: HRV training for triathletes. This page is about how Unbroken turns that signal into a system you can actually train by.
How we coach by HRV
Each morning the Unbroken Protocol app brings four inputs into the Protocol Score: HRV trend, sleep, recent training load and a short check-in. The score is decision support, not a diagnosis or an instruction to ignore symptoms.
No single metric decides the session alone. Read the score with the purpose of the training block, how the athlete feels and whether movement quality or illness changes the risk of proceeding.
Read the trend, not the single number
The most common mistake with HRV is over-reacting to one reading. A single morning value is noisy. Sleep position, a late meal, alcohol, a stressful day, even when you took the reading, all move it. What matters is the trend across days and weeks against your own baseline, and the context of your recent load.
A one-day dip can follow training, poor sleep, alcohol, illness, travel or measurement variation. A sustained change deserves context and a review of the planned load; it does not predict an injury or identify a medical cause. The foundations are on the recovery page.
Where HRV guidance helps—and where it does not
A fixed plan cannot know how the athlete slept or how the previous sessions landed. HRV can prompt a useful review when the current response differs from the assumption in the plan.
It cannot diagnose illness, guarantee adaptation or replace symptoms, conversation and coaching judgement. The practical value is a more informed decision about whether to keep, modify or postpone a demanding session.
Train by your readiness
See the app page and current App Store listing for supported data sources and platform availability. Coaching and the London club are separate support options and are confirmed after an enquiry.
HRV-guided training, answered
HRV is one signal in the whole system
Swim, bike, run, strength, recovery and the mind, coached as one and organised around your readiness.
Let your body set the day
Place HRV trends beside sleep, athlete feedback and training load before deciding how the day should run.