Gallery
CYLCE TRAINING AND RACING USING A POWER METER.
In the past cyclist trained and raced using perception of effort, then bike computers were developed then in the mid 80’s heart rate monitors were being used.
Now power meters have been used in from recreational athletes to cyclist in the Tour de France for the past 8 years. Improve by using a power cycle meter.
Due to many factors effecting performance such as terrain (up hills-down hills) Wind (head & tailwind) it is recommended by specialist coaches that even power generated is far more beneficial for optimum performance for individual events.As everyone is individual (size and weight) watching these figures displayed without compromising safety will help a lot. A heavy rider may have to generate more watts to climb a hill than a lighter rider then gravity helps the rider with the heavier mass on the down hill. Once installed then is the time to do some testing.
THE TEST
Once achieved this should be repeated every 3-5 weeks to monitor performance improvements.
Warm up for 15-20 minutes.
This should always be the same for each test. Aim to ride in the same gear or gears and same heart rate. Maybe it is cycling to a quiet road to test yourself.
Then 4x45 seconds at plus 95 revs per minute. With 60 seconds recovery.
MAIN SET
Now you are ready for the test. A six minute flat out ride not slowing down but hard enough so you can hardly up the pace for the last 30 seconds.
Record the average and maximum watts.
WARM DOWN
Warm down with 3x30 seconds at 95rpm (very little resistance) taking 2 minute’s recovery between each cool down rep.
Then ride easy slowing down for another 15-20 minutes. Always have an easy day 1-2 days before a test but not to compromise your consistent training.
Learn from watts generated cadence even pace heart rate and breathing to find optimum effort levels.
Ironmate has used the Power Tap www.cycle-ops.com to great effect for improvement or reversing the decline in performance.
This particular model provides the following instant detailed information on an easy to read bike computer screen. Watts-Current watts & maximum watts- Speed-current and average speed. Heart rate cadence trip distance and total distance.
POWER METER TRAINING
Power meters record the power you generate.
USING A HEART RATE MONITOR COMPARED TO A POWER METER.
As you get fitter your power will improve to help you go faster or your watts can decrease for the same heart rate, common with increasing power to weight ratio.
Compared to a heart rate monitor where when fitness increases your heart rate drops quicker after intervals and exercise. Also upon waking resting heart rate can be as low as 38 beats per minute.
EVEN OUT TRAINING.
The more you use a power meter the better you will be at spreading out your effort during a time trail. Rather than starting too hard because you feel full of energy and rearing to go you will soon learn to hold back at the beginning and on the hills and learn to push harder on the fast flats and down hill sections. Most triathletes have had improved results with holding back on the climbs and pushing more on the down hills.
It is rare to find cyclist who can produce the same amount of watts from each leg, the difference can be as much as 4% without it being noticeable. If you are generating 200 watts the difference could be a loss of 4 watts from your weaker leg.
FEEDBACK THINKING.
Learn to listen to your body. Before looking at your watts try and guesstimate what you feel it might be. Use your feelings of depth and frequency of breathing and fatigue levels in your legs. An important part of downloading your power meter recording is to remember how you felt as certain times during your ride. The data is a picture slide show of what happened during the cycle ride?
If you believe that you have under performed look to your power watts readings for reasons of fatigue.
Consider the following:- Think what you did during the power training ride.
“Little and Often” nutrition and drinking. Although you may need to eat and drink similar amounts every 15-20 minutes the demands of the course may require you to decrease due to intensitity (hills) or increase nutrition on the easier sections. How soon and how much do you need to replace used up energy and fluid after increased bouts of energy, how does low blood sugar level effect you?
Learn to try new types of training to see what effect it has on your power watts, how do you recover from all out efforts or long steady state power training.
Sleep is not just the quantity but the quality but how much do power naps help you? Often some athletes struggle to generate good power after a late afternoon nap while others strongly feel that it helps.
Weight can also effect your power to weight ratio? Not always noticeable on the flats but can slow you down on a hilly route or delay your recovery rate after riding up a hill at a hard effort.
HILL TRAINING
By cross examining from results of heart rate and power watts generated you can improve. Try too hard with too much power and see how much slower you are to the top.
BODY WEIGHT AND HILLS
For every 1 kilo of extra body weight you require another 5 watts to go up the hill at the same speed.
POWER TRAINING.
Power can be maintained with only small losses until the age of 50 if you fail to neglect strength work on this vital part of your training you could experience greater losses. Many an average athlete who has trained all their lives can eventually beat an elite athlete who has not done any training for many years. Using a power meter can help you work specifically in different zones using 2 week rotation training in all the various zones, to slow down the decline. Some middle age athletes have improved their best times and power by training with a power meter.
Turbo training is considered a great way to regulate at your predetermined power due to no distractions and natural factors likely to occur such as traffic and wind, road stop signs turns in the road etc..
Flat roads are more realistic to actual racing than indoors but factors can effect the goal of the session such as
(1) Wind dependant – sometimes in a tail wind it can be difficult to keep a constant pace.
(2) Out and Back, even in a cross wind expect a unique result.
Having landmarks can be very stimulating and can give you feedback by checking time splits. The actual distances do no matter. If completing a 1 mile effort and you pass a particular tree or street light after1 minute 3 seconds aim to always this as a target time. What matters is progression over the distance or holding the same time for each interval, being an odd distance is more important than making the course being used unsafe.
Circuits routes are very good also as planned target times aim to complete each lap in the same time. Air temperature can also alter your result as you will perform better at certain temperatures; this is more noticeable on a bike than running as you are going faster.
Using different bike gears on a circuit you can help to identify the correct gearing you need to use for that particular distance of training. Once achieved it will reduce another factor to help you monitor your progress.
For intensities lasting more than 3 minutes build up power over 15-30 seconds to planned wattage rather than all out in the first 10 seconds then hanging on for the rest of the duration. Aim to do this each time for a better like for like comparison.
TRAINING FOR TRIATHLETES AND TIME TRIALISTS.
You need to continually work on threshold-aerobic power to improve your performance.
POWER METER INTENSITIES.
First let me tell you my figures
Weight 65kg
Resting Heart rate 48
Max Bike Heart rate 181
Threshold Bike Heart rate 157
60 minute TT average (FTP) 260 watts
Ironman race day power should stay within 65% to 80% of your own individual 60 minute average watt figure.
Functional Threshold power (FTP) = the highest average power you can maintain for 60 minutes. You can keep going much longer when training just below your FTP>
The fitter you are the closer to 80% you can maintain and still run well after.
I have found that the best age group athletes who have good nutrition and even pace bikes can manage an average power of 75% of their FTP
RECOVERY TRAINING.(<55% of FTP)
Active recovery below 143 watts. And below 110 beats per minute
Perception of effort = Easy spinning and light pedal pressure. Automatic cycling.
Breathing – slightly more than normal.
ENDURANCE TRAINING (56-75% of FTP)
Mine is 146 to195 watts and between 112 and 134 beats per minute.
This is almost all day training (5-8 hours) with fatigue towards the end or during a tough climb.
Breathing-You should be able to hold a full conversation without any problems while breathing.
TEMPO TRAINING (76-90% OF FTP)
198 to234 watts and between 136 and 152 beats per minute
Hard cycling intervals and hard cycling up hills.
Breathing – unable to hold a full conversation without laboured breathing
LACTATE THRESHOLD TRAINING. (91-105% OF FTP)
Mine is 237 and 273 watts and between 154 and 170
Threshold one hour anaerobic sports test (TOAST).or Functional Threshold power (FTP)
This type of training will help you have excellent fitness for the Ironman triathlon. Lactate threshold training tests are a very good indicator of potential performance.
Training is just below or above the red line of your time trial effort.
Breathing – Deep fast breathing making talking very difficult.
AEROBIC POWER (106 -120% OF FTP)
Mine is 276 to 312 watts And above 170 beats per minute
Talking impossible.
ANAEROBIC TRAINING. (119% + OF FTP)
Mine is above 310 watts
Short sharp bursts of power
Hammer head athletes who continually push their VO2 max will under perform by not training at different levels.
POWER WATTS THRESHOLD SESSION.
15 Minute warm up at 40-50% of 60 minute flat out pace power watts.
15 Minute @ (91-105%) of FTP
5 minute easy spin @ below 55% of FTP
15 Minute @ (91-105%) of FTP
15 minute warm down dropping from 60% of watts max to recover
AGE
Muscle strength can be maintained with improved training technique up to the age of 50 then it decreases more dramatically.
Female V02 Max declines at a much slower rate than men after the age of 50.
POWER WATTS AND RACING.
Before considering the watts you need to generate for an Ironman triathlon you must be aware of the watts you need to generate for an even paced event and how this will impact on your Ironman marathon. Going hard from the start of the bike and slowing down will give you a different average watt power compared to an even paced ride which will considerably increase the chances of a faster Ironman marathon.
IRONMAN POWER
From using a power meter myself in many ironman triathlons and coaching cyclists and triathletes to train and use a power meter and studying numerous power data I have come to the following conclusions.
I have no doubt from the information I have observed
I believe that very few coaches have personally used and have coached Ironman athletes more than me.
Here are my observations
Even power watts throughout the 180km (112 miles) is paramount to great finish time.
Just an extra 20 watts average during the Ironman can lead to a slower overall of time of 15- 30 minutes. The bike ends up being 10-15 minutes quicker but the run can be 25-40 minutes slower. You don’t need a calculator to see you get an overall quicker time by holding back.
I know some who have lost an hour in the run due to trying just a little too hard on the bike.
If you are just looking for a fast bike then hammer it and waste energy fighting the wind.
If you hold back too much you may not be able to have a super fast run as your anaerobic threshold speed will be your limiting factor.
I have spoken to many Triathletes about power who have recorded a 6 hour Ironman bike split.
The power needed to take exactly 6 hours for the ironman bike split varies form 160 watts for a 60kg person to 180 watts for the 70kg person to 200 watts for the 80kg person.
Of course many other factors are related to power from hills wind road surface an aerodynamic bike and aero position to name just a few also plays an important part regarding speed and time taken to cover 180km
Large athletes
Larger athletes have to overcome greater aerodynamic drag on the bike. Hold back on the bike and gain more time with saved energy from the cycle leg.
The only time this fail proof strategy does not work is if it’s above 95 degrees and heat then is your limiting factor more on the run than the bike.
Small athletes
Smaller athletes go faster overall in the ironman with a more balanced bike (hold back) faster run (more energy). They are smaller on the bike but most lack the necessary power and tend to use their fitness more.
We all have a limited number of calories available for the Ironman going too hard will use them up much quicker just like fuel consumption in a car. Out bodies are perfectly designed for using fat as fuel all day going slow, not ideal if you want to race an Ironman.
You can only ride at the top end of your limit providing you consume 350 calories per hour fluids and solids any less then you will slow down towards the end of the bike or melt down in the first 10km of the run.
Power summary
Most fit Iron men and women can bike hard run slow or bike easier and run fast getting the combination correct is vital for a best time.
The faster you are (create more bike drag the quicker you go) the wiser is it to hold back on the bike for a faster overall Ironman time.
Aerodynamic drag is = The square law = The resistance increases with the square of the velocity. Whatever that means, all I know its feels more than 20% harder for going 10% faster.
Mark has finished over 400 triathlons including 31 iron distance two double distance and one triple Iron Man triathlon to date.
IRONMATE COPYRIGHT 2005 - 2010