The Wattage Thread

Author
Discussion

Sandersports

181 posts

189 months

Saturday 10th September 2016
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16.35min new comp 10 record !! Bloody hell , It doesn't even sound right saying it . What do you reckon the avg Watts at Marcin weight and slipperiness to produce that quite frankly epic ride ... I very rarely use the word epic when it comes to the domestic scene , especially fat testers .
My ball park Guess 435-40

Sandersports

181 posts

189 months

Saturday 10th September 2016
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36.1mph average speed ... That's king of the Watts

I roomed with Marcin on a training camp 6-7 years ago , he was doing 6hrs everyday and is still pretty old school in his training , winter begins with 1hr every day for 6 then rest day, the following week 2hr everyday until he does 6hr everyday . I was in the cafe for cake and coffee while he was doing laps of the town . Was a bit of a machine even then .

okgo

Original Poster:

38,030 posts

198 months

Saturday 10th September 2016
quotequote all
450. On strava.

Still miles away from the worlds best in that sense but very impressive.

But it was a freak day up there - feel a bit bad for AD as he'd has been in the ballpark bad he been up there.

RGambo

849 posts

169 months

Monday 12th September 2016
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yes it was a fast day for sure.
A friend of mine who's been knocking around mid 20's for 2 years at the local welsh TT's and some just over the bridge has been chasing a 19 for a while but can't get there. His PB is very similar to mine and (20:37 mine to CJ's 20:27) He took a trip up north and Saturday n the same event the record went he managed 19:00. knocking 1 min 27 of his PB. that must be hell of a quick day.

JEA1K

2,504 posts

223 months

Monday 12th September 2016
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A mate of mine did an 18:19 there yesterday (32.76 mph) which was 1 second quicker than his previous PB and was still beaten by 1 min 44 seconds!

okgo

Original Poster:

38,030 posts

198 months

Monday 12th September 2016
quotequote all
It was a weird day.

I would have hoped to nick a 17 had I done a good ride, but we'll never know as I cba with that drive, unless they do a national on it again.

mattb46

241 posts

135 months

Friday 30th September 2016
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Hi All

I have just bought a power-meter (p2m) and feel quite lost/intimidated re using it effectively and not just having another set of interesting pretty numbers to look at on my Garmin.

Im hoping there are some talented, knowledgeable regulars monitoring this thread who may be willing to answer a few stupid questions as I begin trying to get my head around this training aid? I have bought the Coggan/Allen book "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" and have got some of the way through it. Its pretty dense though and after about 5 pages I have to resist the urge to go back and read it all again. So my first bone questions are:

-How do you most effectively use your Garmin (I have a 520) to record your different wattage scores for different effort durations eg 5 secs, 1 min, 5 min, 20 mins? If I do a ride and then upload it onto Strava, the ride is broken up into created segments which would make finding individual efforts near impossible. Do people start/stop for each effort or use the lap-timer facility? Are there other ways? I would like to post a Strava summary of say my first 20 min FTP effort for some feedback and see from previous threads that people have posted summaries that dont show the route etc just the graph lines, how do you do that... Basically how can I use my Garmin more effectively with wattage in mind?

-what analysis software tools do people recommend? I dont have Strava premium at the mo and am not a mac user. I am looking for something which is user friendly and quite simple to use (hopefully with tutorials etc). I want to get faster and start doing some races next season but cant really give cycling more than say 10 hours a week. id prefer something free of course!

-Id be really grateful for any links to articles/websites etc that could help me get me up to speed. At the moment I feel like Im drowning in a sea of anacronyms: TSS, NP etc etc and every discussion starts from a knowledge base that I dont yet have.

Thanks for any help and apologies again for asking such dunce questions

okgo

Original Poster:

38,030 posts

198 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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For simple - I would get strava premium, that allows you to monitor best efforts in a ride using the power curve and track against previous making monitoring improvements easy.

In terms of display, I would have 3 sec avg as my main power display, average power and normalised power (for total ride) I do use the lap button too as it's easy then to analyse it. But it's simple enough with strava to select a small portion of a ride to see what you did.

Definitely read the book and then it will begin to make more sense. Personally I would ride as you were for a few weeks to build up some data. FTP test won't hurt but not something I would worry about doing that often. Changes are easy to spot without the need for that.

mattb46

241 posts

135 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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Thanks very much for that, very good info. Will subscribe to Strava Premium as well. Cheers

frisbee

4,979 posts

110 months

Saturday 22nd October 2016
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196W at 72kg so 2.72 W/kg.

Not too bad as I've only been really commuting to work (40 miles/week) and doing some lunchtime running this year.

Going to give the 6 week FTP builder on Zwift a go, so will be interesting to see what structured training does. Could do with dropping 5-7kg as well.

E65Ross

35,069 posts

212 months

Saturday 22nd October 2016
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I've gone "back to basics" after doing my Sufferfest Knighthood....took a few weeks recovery, then picked up a calf niggle so ended up not properly cycling for around 7 weeks or so, including almost 3 weeks of no cycling at all. Been doing some gentle riding and a fair bit of sweetspot training and getting back into the groove.

Still have my FTP set at 231W and 119lbs, I'll get another 2-3 weeks of sweetspot and a bit of threshold work in my legs, take a recovery week and do another 20 minute test to get a more accurate FTP figure. I'm pretty sure it's dropped but with winter coming up I'm not that fussed. Need to look at getting my racing license for next year as I do want to dip my toe in the water with that for some targets. I'm also going to Southern France in June and will be doing Mont Ventoux, amongst others.

nacnac

103 posts

191 months

Saturday 22nd October 2016
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Just managed a 2016 9 min best of 318 Watts that's at 57 kg this morning so signs are looking pretty good for a race this weekend. It's funny how hard I have to work now for small gains but I guess that is just the way it is.

E65Ross

35,069 posts

212 months

Saturday 22nd October 2016
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nacnac said:
Just managed a 2016 9 min best of 318 Watts that's at 57 kg this morning so signs are looking pretty good for a race this weekend. It's funny how hard I have to work now for small gains but I guess that is just the way it is.
Blimey, that's seriously good. Well done!!

JEA1K

2,504 posts

223 months

Saturday 22nd October 2016
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I'm going to get some proper structure to my training this winter ... trying to maintain as much as I can from the work I've done this year so going to buy a turbo. FTP was 309 mid season and I want to see a decent some improvement next season ... the idea is to ride with more structure rather than additional time/miles!


JEA1K

2,504 posts

223 months

Sunday 23rd October 2016
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Well maybe my FTP has gone up a bit as I managed an effort measuring an average of 332w for 20 mins today during a 76 mile ride ... 0.95 of 332 is 315w.

fromage

537 posts

203 months

Monday 31st October 2016
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Managed to pick up another Quarq direct from Amazon again for only £430 for a Riken R BB30 for the TT bike. Really makes me wonder why people ever bother with stages etc when you can pick up a decent PM for sod all.

Now just to try and close the Road bike/TT bike power gap

NatAsp

175 posts

128 months

Monday 31st October 2016
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Is it normal to be, or at least feel, weaker on a trainer than outside?

I've just started training indoors and my numbers are pathetic. My best 20 minutes on the road is ~350w, yet in my garage my HR is @ 95% of max after 5 minutes at ~ 330w. Same power meter.

Presumably it can only be down to body temp? Or is there some other dark art happening?

fromage

537 posts

203 months

Monday 31st October 2016
quotequote all
NatAsp said:
Is it normal to be, or at least feel, weaker on a trainer than outside?

I've just started training indoors and my numbers are pathetic. My best 20 minutes on the road is ~350w, yet in my garage my HR is @ 95% of max after 5 minutes at ~ 330w. Same power meter.

Presumably it can only be down to body temp? Or is there some other dark art happening?
Yes its very common, it can be down to a combination of lack of inertia/flywheel effect and also heat build up

okgo

Original Poster:

38,030 posts

198 months

Monday 31st October 2016
quotequote all
Yeh very normal.

Almost impossible to keep cool on the turbo if you're pushing proper watts. I remember doing an FTP test outside, in the snow, I was almost naked and was about to pass out near the end with heat exhaustion.

okgo

Original Poster:

38,030 posts

198 months

Wednesday 11th January 2017
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Folk think they've found some more since last season?

Early days for myself but it looks like I might have found another 10W or so on the TT bike which is nice. Did my usual late Dec 10 mile TT to get an idea of where I'm at, managed about 405w up from 365w 3 years prior in the same event!

Going to get back on the core stuff soon as I found it really helped me get it all out on the drops on the roadbike, I reckon I should be able to do 420W for 20 mins on the roadbike, lost a bit of weight too, might go alright this season if I can keep it all together.