Autoethnographic Insights from Double Threshold Cycling Training: A Lived Perspective on Data, Effort, and Adaptation
Abstract
Competitive endurance athletes invest substantial time and effort into structured training to improve performance, often using sports technologies to guide the process. These technologies provide extensive physiological and performance data, and SportsHCI needs more detailed accounts of how athletes use this data to both carry out demanding training and to evaluate whether their training is producing the desired improvements. The paper addresses this need through an autoethnographic account at the intersection of sports science and HCI. The author completed two 12-week cycling training blocks using different threshold-training structures and documented the experience through activity files, workout notes, reflective writing, and laboratory lactate profiles. The analysis shows that executing this type of threshold work involves controlling effort, interpreting training responses through relationships among metrics, and continuing to invest in training before its value becomes clearly visible. This account contributes to SportsHCI by highlighting underexamined dimensions of athlete-data interaction in structured endurance training.
