The Wattage Thread
Discussion
okgo said:
E65Ross said:
I'm not so sure it's totally worthless. A friend of mine weighs a similar amount to you his FTP is higher than mine, but I'm producing more watts per kg and in general over the rides we do I don't think he's ever been quicker than me. He weighs around 75kgs and I think he's around 275 if I remember,which is a fair bit more than my 219,but I'm just shy of 54kgs!
What do you think RE weight gain? I'm only 5ft 5 but clearly a very low bmi.... Not that I particularly mind. I'm quite happy with how I am in general and at least with a power meter I can monitor my own progress which will still improve my speed.... But may be worth trying to put on a couple of lbs.
You have size on your side, you're obviously not punching a big hole in the wind, if you were taller it might be more marked. What do you think RE weight gain? I'm only 5ft 5 but clearly a very low bmi.... Not that I particularly mind. I'm quite happy with how I am in general and at least with a power meter I can monitor my own progress which will still improve my speed.... But may be worth trying to put on a couple of lbs.
I actually went out on a ride with someone who was 50kg or something mad, he is pretty strong for that size, similar numbers to you, but he was on his limit at all points other than up a steeper hill. In this country I would far rather be 75kg and 4wkg than 65kg.
You will probably find you'll struggle to gain power in line with weight, you clearly are of small build, I don't think its easy to change the fundamentals.
Just out of question, when you do longer rides (if you do...?) of say 3-4+ hours, do you generally try to keep in your endurance zone, or do you do the odd effort around threshold, VO2 max etc, or do you save those efforts for the shorter sessions? That book you recommendeded seems to suggest doing various types of efforts inside endurance rides....
E65Ross said:
That book you recommendeded seems to suggest doing various types of efforts inside endurance rides....
I follow a few pros on Strava and take inspiration from their training. From my observations, they often do intervals midway through an endurance ride. But I find it easier to do intervals on a turbo or gym bike. Cycling outdoors up and down the same hill works well, but get's rather boring.wemorgan said:
I follow a few pros on Strava and take inspiration from their training. From my observations, they often do intervals midway through an endurance ride. But I find it easier to do intervals on a turbo or gym bike. Cycling outdoors up and down the same hill works well, but get's rather boring.
The races they are training for are generally quite different to what an amateur is doing though, which will dictate what sort of stuff they're putting into the mix...okgo said:
The races they are training for are generally quite different to what an amateur is doing though, which will dictate what sort of stuff they're putting into the mix...
Cheers. I feel less bad about not doing what the pros do now 
E65Ross: There's lots of interesting training info on TrainingPeaks Sorry if this has already been mentioned.
okgo said:
Was bored earlier so tried to find some numbers to try and get an idea of what Cancellara may be able to do for an hour. Found some SRM data from a 4 min prologue in 2008 for him at 629W on a TT bike with corners, even if he has my 4 min > 20 min drop (which is about 20%) that would give him a realistic 20 min figure of around 500-510W. If we assume that on a 4 min climb all out on a roadbike he might be able to do another 5% and get that 4 min number up to 650W or so and his drop is probably better than mine then we're looking at around 530W for 20 mins giving him probably an FTP of just shy of 500W - this stacks up well with Boonen apparently avging around 440W for the last hour ish of Roubaix where he broke away solo for the win. Lots of folk were impressed when he avg'd 285W for 6.5 hours to win 2010 Roubaix, but clearly that number is a piece of piss for a man with that at his disposal.
Check out JTL's recent ride LOL: https://www.strava.com/activities/483541516/power-...
ked is that meter!! Or he really is 80kg!I re-tested my FTP on Saturday. 11W down on October. However I know I'm fitter and I the October test was the first time I'd used the power meter (Garmin Vector 2S) and I hadn't calibrated it. Looking back at my IF scores for recent Sufferfest videos they would have been about on target with the current FTP so feels about right.
okgo said:
I think your last sentence is key, if you keep doing the same thing you'll often keep getting the same result. Certainly a mix up of things is the way to go, which way to mix it up and when in relation to an event is slightly more difficult to get right...
I'm meant to be doing a long ride tomorrow, I've done quite a lot lately, my last 7 days TSS is currently around 610 and tomorrow would take that to almost 700 (if I add what I should do tomorrow minus what I did last Friday) so not sure whether to make it a pretty tough 3-3.5 hours or an easy one. I'm having Saturday as a rest day and then a hard session Sunday! E65Ross said:
I'm meant to be doing a long ride tomorrow, I've done quite a lot lately, my last 7 days TSS is currently around 610 and tomorrow would take that to almost 700 (if I add what I should do tomorrow minus what I did last Friday) so not sure whether to make it a pretty tough 3-3.5 hours or an easy one. I'm having Saturday as a rest day and then a hard session Sunday!
Check the weather forecast. Around me, in the W.Midlands Saturday will be wet and windy whilst Sunday most dry with sunny intervals. I know which day I'd rather make my rest. Don't become a slave to the training plan wemorgan said:
E65Ross said:
I'm meant to be doing a long ride tomorrow, I've done quite a lot lately, my last 7 days TSS is currently around 610 and tomorrow would take that to almost 700 (if I add what I should do tomorrow minus what I did last Friday) so not sure whether to make it a pretty tough 3-3.5 hours or an easy one. I'm having Saturday as a rest day and then a hard session Sunday!
Check the weather forecast. Around me, in the W.Midlands Saturday will be wet and windy whilst Sunday most dry with sunny intervals. I know which day I'd rather make my rest. Don't become a slave to the training plan I'm looking forward to this years season, I've put in a really solid block of training, I actually managed 1300km this Jan, which for me is a lot. But I've been following a couple of the trainer road plans and they have started to pay divedends.
FTP test last night and I got the pacing pretty good, possibly went off a bit easy, but I held a good solid 365w for the 20mins and actually finished the last 2 mins at around 390W (hence why i think I started a bit easy). I've never felt this good this early in the season, it might mean I'll peak around April :-) but hopefully not. Usually I am always around 20W down from turbo to actual bike, so I should be looking at around 385W for a 10, last year I snuck a 20:37 on less power and I peaked for the Welsh champs.
Fingers crossed, if I can keep it up and the stars align I might get a short 20, which I'll be very happy with.
FTP test last night and I got the pacing pretty good, possibly went off a bit easy, but I held a good solid 365w for the 20mins and actually finished the last 2 mins at around 390W (hence why i think I started a bit easy). I've never felt this good this early in the season, it might mean I'll peak around April :-) but hopefully not. Usually I am always around 20W down from turbo to actual bike, so I should be looking at around 385W for a 10, last year I snuck a 20:37 on less power and I peaked for the Welsh champs.
Fingers crossed, if I can keep it up and the stars align I might get a short 20, which I'll be very happy with.
okgo said:
Decent numbers, surprisingly slow 10 time from them - I think you may have mentioned that earlier in the thread though?
Yes I have, hopefully I can improve my position a little and shave a bit more weight off. I'm aiming to be around 83kgs by April (currently 86).I'm also going to really look at getting my pacing a little better, I think I go off a little hard sometimes and then just hang on, it might pay to hold back a little and go later. I did check out the split times to the turn for the welsh 10 and out I was on the money with the guys in the 19's ( a bit behind as you would expect) but 75% of my lost time was on the return leg. plenty go faster on less power, so there's definatley room to improve.
Question regarding power balance, when just going normal sort of pace, I have an imbalance about 55-56% to the left, rest to the right, but when I'm riding TTs my balance is always smack on 50/50 or 51-49 in either direction. I'm guessing this isn't something to worry about and is consistent across all my bikes, as soon as I am going at anything above 85-90% then my balance levels out. Should I be working on my right side individually. When I got a bike fit the guy suggested that as I was right footed and played a lot of football when I was younger my left leg/arse was more dominant which could suggest the numbers.
Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff