Power/Weight Thread

[Thomas. PLease.]

Good luck with that

I can't get my power anywhere near constant unless I'm climbing a nice constant gradient, just little elevation changes knock it up down etc.

I was like that when I first started using power too, honestly you'll get used to it. And on a normal day you'll be able to estimate in your head what power you're doing without looking at your stem. Will take a while though.

Cycling with power really showed me at the beginning though how much time I used to soft pedal, or ease off the power. Now I pedal much more consistently, and can hold a level of power for a given period.

 

[xdcx]

It really does take time. I've been cycling 5/6 times a week with power for a month now and only now just starting to get used to it and making the most of it. Example being on Wednesday night I done a session consisting of efforts of 5min/4min/3min/2min/1min with the 5min being at 260w avg aim wise which is 10w over FTP (I think my FTP is higher now though actually).

I had a very consistent and bang on session, didn't stare at the watts the entire time, just a quick glance now and again which made me happy as it shows my brain has established what perceived effort relates to what power output I am pushing.

Inclines, declines, gusts of wind... they are all going to make even your 3s average jump around, of course it is going to move around like that but you do get a lot better at reading this and reading the cosistent power reading rather than the spikes you see. It's just a lot of practice, learning and getting your head into that way of thinking. I struggled to begin with but could not go back now, it all just makes a lot more sense and is a great way of training when you get it all planted in your head

 

[GSVBagpuss]

This thread makes me want a power meter so much! I don't need one, just want one Dodgy figures from a turbo estiamte taken at the end of JOGLE training last year

Username - GSVBagpuss
Age - 33
Height - 5ft 8in
Weight - 73KG
W/KG - 3.24
Coggan Rating -
20min - 237w

 

[Vonhelmet]

This thread makes me want a power meter so much! I don't need one, just want one

I'm kinda the same... It's on my list for things to buy, but it comes below two other bikes, so it's a while off yet

 

[Dunks]

Could just rent a Powertap wheel for £60-80 per month for an FTP test every now and then. Would get pricey though!

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

I'm kinda the same... It's on my list for things to buy, but it comes below two other bikes, so it's a while off yet

Guess it depends on how much you value being able to ride further/faster. Something which a new bike isn't going to do. If speed/training improvements aren't a priority then I would say a PM is almost pointless.

 

[touch]

Could just rent a Powertap wheel for £60-80 per month for an FTP test every now and then. Would get pricey though!

Worth checking if any gyms nearby have a wattbike. Becoming quite popular now and a gym membership (or even 1-off entry) is cheaper than renting a powertap.

 

[xdcx]

Thing is, Stages is taking a massive plunge in price as will others with the likes of these showing their faces and power training becoming a lot more affordable than the ridiculous money it has cost in the past:

http://4iiii.com/product/precision/
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/01/update-4iiii-precision.html

 

[FrenchTart]

Yup, I've got the 4iiii in my sights. My training has dropped off a bit these last months (whereas my pie eating has increased, sigh) but once I can justify it a PM is definitely on the cards.

 

[#Chri5#]

Worth checking if any gyms nearby have a wattbike. Becoming quite popular now and a gym membership (or even 1-off entry) is cheaper than renting a powertap.

Wattbike have a location finder on their website:

http://wattbike.com/uk/company/find_a_wattbike

 

[xdcx]

Golden Cheetah Guides!


GC is available here - http://www.goldencheetah.org/#section-download
Understanding ATL, CTL, TSB & TSS here - http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/what-is-the-performance-management-chart


#1 - Performance Management Chart (PMC)

Here is a little guide/tutorial for putting together a simple and informative Coggan based PMC chart in Golden Cheetah (GC). For this chart, you can make use of and edit the PMC chart which comes pre-loaded as a chart when you install GC, it is located on the "Trends" tab. Otherwise, go ahead and click the icon to the top right whilst on the "Trends" tab and "Add Chart". Select "Metric Trends" from the dropdown -

The screenshot above shows the preset you want to select on the preset tab. When you select Coggan PMC, ensure you click "apply" also for it to load the preset. Once it has applied, you can move on to using the "Basic" and "Curves" tabs. Below is screenshots of my settings which I think gives a nice presentable and readable layout for your PMC -

"Basic" tab:
Using "Current Selection" for your date range is ideal rather than limiting it. It lets you use the date ranges on the left hand pane of GC, meaning your chart is a lot more versatile and not limited to a specific date range.

Spoiler

"Curves" tab, shows the curve types I have and edited:

Spoiler

ATL curve settings:

Spoiler

CTL curve settings:

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TSB curve settings:

Spoiler

Rides curve settings, this adds a handy line up from the date legend on the bottom of the graph to show whether you trained on that day so you can see where you had a rest day off the bike etc:

Spoiler

^^Clicking on the star icon on top of the "ride" line as per above will open you a window showing the main stats from that ride also, pretty neat!




This is a main view of the PMC with the current selection criteria being "This Month". Helpful to show your current readings and projected readings for the month ongoing:

Spoiler

This is a main view of the PMC with the current selection criteria being "Last 21 Days". Does not show projected readings for factoring rest/tapering but shows very well your training stress and form over previous 21 days which I feel is a pretty minimal baseline for planning, 1 or 2 weeks is too short a basis really for long term planning:

Spoiler

 

[Shamrock]

First "proper" ride with power this morning. A performance marker for the half-Ironman next weekend. Says my weighted average was 207W so some way off my FTP measured last Sept. I decided not to look at the power during the ride and rode as I would normally and let it collect data.

The last time I did this exact ride was at the end of August 2014. It's interesting to compare the two rides. Almost identical!

2015 - https://www.strava.com/activities/319340783/overview

2014 - https://www.strava.com/activities/185949615

10 minutes slower than I was hoping to do the 56mi half-Ironman course in so a bit disappointed!

Hopefully with a taper next week I'll be strong for the race. Been hitting the training hard this week.

 

[xdcx]

First "proper" ride .....

Nice ride man, well done. Good average speed and avg cadence! I can't see your power curve, I can send you a follow request if you want? That way I could see it.

Weighted avg power is your average from the meter across the ride calculated against the weight of you (and I am not sure, but also bike) by Strava. So ensure your athlete and bike weights in Strava are spot on for this to be as close to accurate as possible. Your weighted avg over 80km is not going to be as high as your FTP, remember your FTP is for 60mins (as you know, usually it's upward estimated from a 20min test!) so you are not going to output your FTP for 2hours+ on a ride like that. If you were to all out attempt a 60min TT in spot on weather conditions you would then want your avg power to be right around your 60min FTP but for that ride you done today, that is very good.

Don't let it affect you negatively, as you say, taper and race day boost make a heck of a difference! I'd say that ride today is a very good positive basis for you to go into your race next week

 

[Shamrock]

Thanks for your assessment.

So based on that 207W, do you think for the 56 miler I should be looking at maintaining around that wattage rather than my FTP?

Please do send a request on Strava, although I'm not a premium member so might not have a power curve anyway?

 

[xdcx]

Thanks for your assessment.

So based on that 207W, do you think for the 56 miler I should be looking at maintaining around that wattage rather than my FTP?

Please do send a request on Strava, although I'm not a premium member so might not have a power curve anyway?

Requested you

OK, it's tough to answer because it's very person specific. I can only really base it on my own stats which lucky for you we are very closely matched weight/FTP wise. But things like individual strengths and weakness play their role, like if you are a great TT'er and I am great on hills or vice versa. But either way, you simply will not be able to sustain your FTP for 56 miles/2+ hours. My drop off from a 256w FTP for 20mins is 207w for the 2 hours. Estimated by Strava that is. The problem you have is only a week untiil your race so not enough time to gather and populate all this data for yourself via a few weeks training and an FTP test.

I would recommend getting Golden Cheetah and even getting todays ride and a few through the week, it will calculate you a power zone chart which can only help. But we can base very very roughly baseline effort for your race on my stats and your ride today, only you know how you felt on that ride today but you should be certainly aiming avg 205-215w sustained over the race from what we have in front of us.

For Golden Cheetah, you'll see my first guide above, I kind of jumped in a bit too far, I plan on doing guides from the ground up for GC, so will go over setting up athlete profile and configuring basics and first usage info which I think might help some people get to grips with it a bit better as it's quite steep learning curve and daunting to begin with.

Sorry I always end up writing essays.

 

[Berger]

I was like that when I first started using power too, honestly you'll get used to it. And on a normal day you'll be able to estimate in your head what power you're doing without looking at your stem. Will take a while though.

Cycling with power really showed me at the beginning though how much time I used to soft pedal, or ease off the power. Now I pedal much more consistently, and can hold a level of power for a given period.

Riding rollers or track will make you smoother on the pedals too.

 

[Shamrock]

Did my first proper 10 this morning. Although I have done a 20km TT race before.

A bit disappointed with the time (28:46 for official segment) but I think I rode rather conservatively (still have to commute after and do a day of work!) and there was a horrible wind blowing. Plenty of room for improvement before race day on July 5th I'd say!

NP was 224W which suggests I could have given more?

114 out of 288 for the course, course record of 23:12

https://www.strava.com/activities/322248272

 

[Thomas. PLease.]

Thanks for your assessment.

So based on that 207W, do you think for the 56 miler I should be looking at maintaining around that wattage rather than my FTP?

Please do send a request on Strava, although I'm not a premium member so might not have a power curve anyway?

Depending on fitness I'd say you want to ride for that length of time somewhere around ~85% of FTP.

For reference when I recently did mine my FTP is 320w, I rode 277w (86%), where in training I did 265w (82%), so to me, race day adrenalin and taper was worth +12w. It's worth having a target figure in mind, but be ready to change it depending on perceived effort on race day.

Something that worked well for me in pacing was to manually click 30min laps on the garmin, and have lap average power as well as 3s and 10s average and a couple of other metrics (speed, cadence etc). That way you can keep an eye on your actual power, and your longer term averages, to make sure you aren't going too easy/hard.

I did this four times and got pretty consistent, then just let myself go for the last 20mins to empty the tank.

Did my first proper 10 this morning. Although I have done a 20km TT race before.

A bit disappointed with the time (28:46 for official segment) but I think I rode rather conservatively (still have to commute after and do a day of work!) and there was a horrible wind blowing. Plenty of room for improvement before race day on July 5th I'd say!

NP was 224W which suggests I could have given more?

114 out of 288 for the course, course record of 23:12

https://www.strava.com/activities/322248272

I'm doing the RP TT on 21st June on the TT bike, on the waiting list for the 5th July for the road bike.

 

[SoliD]

I was like that when I first started using power too, honestly you'll get used to it. And on a normal day you'll be able to estimate in your head what power you're doing without looking at your stem. Will take a while though.

Cycling with power really showed me at the beginning though how much time I used to soft pedal, or ease off the power. Now I pedal much more consistently, and can hold a level of power for a given period.

Not sure if I'm getting better, think the soft pedalling is definitely applicable to me though, do notice power dropping off on the slight descents, I'm fairly consistent on the flat though, and any climbs can keep a nice steady pace.

Another 25 mile TT this weekend, so shall see how I go, definitely feel I can do more, as I didn't have the best prep! Going to try to pace at 245W for first half then try to bring it up. Last weekend was 242W at half way and finished 248W ave power. Just hoping it's not raining.

 

[Shamrock]

I'm doing the RP TT on 21st June on the TT bike, on the waiting list for the 5th July for the road bike.

Cool, there are some big names in my group inc Rob Sharland who has the second fastest time!