No Data Athlete™ is a trademarked term coined by Ho’Omau founder Andy Funk and generally refers to an athlete who plans, trains and races without an understanding, appreciation or simply a willful disregard for his or her core body data metrics. Each metric has a completely different level of importance, and combined they create what Andy calls the Competent Athlete. These metrics include heart rate zones, pace zones, power zones, lactate zones, threshold power, threshold pace, threshold heart rate (and sport-specific heart rate, pace, speed, power, threshold and lactate zones if a multisport athlete), glucose patterns, heart rate variability (HRV), environment-based sweat rates and core body temperature ranges, Vo2 max, sleep, resting heart rate, and of course, chronic training load and acute training load.
Rather than taking some or all of these data metrics into consideration, No Data Athletes typically set their training goals based on random criteria, such as a certain amount of hours per week, a certain level of desired intensity or distance, purely based on feel, what they read in a magazine or saw on YouTube, or quite often, a duration, distance or intensity level similar to what their friends do (or say they can do).
Being a No Data Athlete is not a negative thing, and it can make sense in many situations , including those where the athlete has no specific goals or ambitions, new achievements are less critical, or the athlete simply enjoys being active and outdoors while having fun and without feeling any pressure or need to improve further. Again, there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever!
On the contrary, being a No Data Athlete creates an insurmountable amount of possible issues for those athletes who set specific goals for themselves. Whether the goal is weight loss, getting faster, getting stronger, setting a new PR, completing a certain race distance, or doing the same level of training but with less perceived exertion – all of these (and many other) goals require not just knowing one’s metrics, they require a keen understanding of them.
