The Wattage Thread

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Dowks said:

My first time trying club 10 this evening (Farnham RC H10/8)

24.06 on my road bike which I was pleased with and 317W for 20 mins which was a PB for me. My first time with a number on and a much preferable way to test FTP than I have done before!

For sure, just never try as hard when its not a race!

I'll be on Bentley on Saturday for a 25!

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Dowks said:

Hope you have weather as good as we did today

Who is the 25 with on Sat? I like the 10/8 course, bit of pacing and being a bit more thoughtful about aero may help me also - 25 is the next challenge after a few more 10's

I hope so too, unilkely though I would imagine!

Errr, I think its with Farnborough and Camberley CC - its an open event vs club though. There are plenty on that course over the year, and as they go its pretty simple and fairly quiet.

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Yeh the pro numbers in sprints are always 'fairly' normal in a very good amateur sense, until you work in the fact they've been riding for half a day beforehand - I think my best peak is very close to 1630 also, but I don't think it was in a race.


Been doing more riding of recent weeks due to not working, seems it gets you quite fit, managing a lot of strong numbers without going totally into the red, 455w for over 6 mins today, felt fairly alright, and was about the fastest I've ever done Boxhill also. All this on legs that felt a bit heavy when I started off, weird.

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SoliD said:

Be interested to see how my club boys (Fareham Wheelers) go against you on Saturday!

If I don't go under 50 then something will have gone wrong!

Main competition will be Mr Dewey, not sure I can beat him all that easily now he's got his position sorted out, I'll give it a good go mind. James Copeland from your lot is quite quick I think. Should be a good one.

Edited by okgo on Wednesday 13th April 17:58

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Think his FTP may be a bit low tbh. I think it said 415w which wouldn't be that high for a lump like him.

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I'm doing Liege in a couple of weeks, probably gunna take about 10 hours, need to not nail it up the hills early doors I feel!

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SoliD said:

Be interested to see how my club boys (Fareham Wheelers) go against you on Saturday!

Think James was the quickest of your club?

Managed 370W for 49.35 which was a power pb by about 10w and netted me a time I shouldn't really moan about given the ste weather, still managed to get beaten by Dewey, but I have a few things to change which should get me close.

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Pretty good going, that!

Be wary of increases like 1%, they're just too small. IMO I'd only ever increase FTP by 10W, anything below that is just noise and form on a given day really.

That chap in our club who is 45kg did 270W for 20 mins the other day, which is 6 w/kg, crazy. He's starting to give it some effort up the local hills now and predictably is going up them rather quickly.

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Not sure on height, but he is bloody thin, and small!

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I think he probably thought he might be closer given he's been near to winning on there before. Weather wasn't fantastic tbh.

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Box ticked - 404w for 21 min last night

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Clinton is not very big and quite aero though vs me who is not that small, though still pretty aero. But yeh I should be able to get closer to him this year than last. He's been hitting decent numbers indoors, but not outdoors, I think there is something up with that personally, but we'll see.

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broster said:

Does anyone use the Strava power curve and estimated FTP as a means on monitoring gains out of interest?

Yeh but you really need to have done max efforts of most durations up to about 40-50 minutes for it to be worth worrying about. It said my I was 394FTP after a ten minute 430w effort but has dropped to 385 now I've done some longer efforts. Which I think is about right.

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It will be about right if you've done all the hard efforts at multiple durations, otherwise it won't

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Seated low cadence drills are totally idiotic.

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Granfondo said:

Better let Joe Friel know!

All for in the saddle work, but grinding along at 50rpm is just stupid. Not fussed what Friel has to say on it, I'll listen to my own coaches.

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Rolls said:

If your w/kg is 4.2 you'll go well...
Mine is a chunk underthat! (about 3.8 or so!)

As said get involved : its as much as learning to ride (properly) in a bunch, and hold wheels as it is about numbers!

w/kg means almost nothing in a crit.

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Cancellara 440w AP for TT yesterday, 470w NP - beast

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You could probably get 10w more out if you paced better, but it makes little odds, as long as you know the number within a reasonable range then you're good to go.

Good starting point though.

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Try one in the evening, you'll probably find you can do 20w more.

Difference for me between morning and evening is HUGE.