The Wattage Thread

[okgo]

That is his avg, the 426 number on the headunit, NP is below that out of shot. But strava has the the average as 406. I presume he might have the headunit set to exclude periods of 0 cadence or something like that which would give an inflated figure.

[okgo]

Some people do that, never understood why myself, but meh.

Decent numbers, strangely, I did a TT with him earlier in the year, and did 406W to his 396W apparently. He was nearly 1 min slower! Aero and all that!

I did a longer ride on Sunday actually, 250w avg for a bit over 5 hours, it left a fair few aches and pains despite it never really feeling 'hard' just attrition on the legs I suppose. A very good way of burning through a LOT of calories, which I promptly ate back soon after.

[okgo]

murray said:

Is that purely down to being more aero and/or better pacing?

I would imagine mostly aero.

[okgo]

z4RRSchris said:

it’s winter so i’m back indoors after work because it’s cold and i’m a wimp.

setting myself the challenge of getting to 4.5wkg over winter. currently 77kg and c305W. report back in 6 months. so 325W and 72kg would do it.

You'll need to have some sort of base though, which is pretty much impossible to do indoors. Raising CTL is generally (within reason) the way to raise FTP with a mixture of riding. Most people who go indoor only lower their CTL and have too much intensity I would wager.

Winning 2/3 cat road races is requiring more like 5 w/kg down here these days!

[okgo]

E65Ross said:

Okgo - what's your CTL, generally? There's obviously a point where too high a CTL just means you feel tired all the time. I had that last summer I was doing about 13-14 hours a week and CTL was always over 100, but I just felt tired. I improved my FTP but have reduced my CTL. I tend to be around 70-75 at the moment and that's having a very easy week every 4 weeks or so.

You have to build to these things. You could easily get a point where that level didn't leave you always tired. I know a fair few riders with huge CTL's who can manage it as they have got the capacity to handle it, but it doesn't come quickly!

No idea on mine. When training, probably around 80-90.

I know a girl who wins a fair bit, 20 min power about 300W @55kg - handy. It took most of my effort to ride up hills at same pace.

Edited by okgo on Wednesday 4th October 11:11

[okgo]

As per dizzzeeee, why train if you have nothing to train for. Even the most dedicated people will struggle with motivation if there is no goal.

[okgo]

Gruffy said:

I'm going to keep racing the LVVP winter series too. Not expecting to collect many points to be honest, but but still good practice and a decent training session. I'll work on strength training over winter and try to rebuild/retrain the muscles that still don't contribute. Lots of low-cadence stuff to fill in the gaps in my pedal stroke.

I've had three weeks off since Revolve as both bikes are laid up with mechanical problems. The final parts are due any day now so I'm hoping I'll be back on the road by the weekend. I'm going slightly nuts waiting. God knows what it's done to my power but I don't think it'll be good. The two weeks before Revolve were really light on TSS too so I've probably undone most of the year's work.

My plan is 1-2 fasted rides (turbo/Regents), 1-2 interval sessions/race and then a longer social one or audax at the weekend. I suspect I'm back to 325W @ 80kg and would like to get closer to 4.5W/kg by spring. I'm hoping there might still be some 'newbie gains' to be had by tackling those muscle imbalances.

You'll likely be wasting time with the weights stuff and low cadence I don't think makes any odds. What sort of imbalance are we talking?

[okgo]

Gruffy said:

I had five procedures on my knees between 2010-2012 and spent 4-5 years heavily guarding my knees between 30-60° flexion, where I've no cartilage in the trochlear groove (where your kneecap slides up and down). It meant I stopped using various muscles and my proprioception is very poor. Glutes don't fire properly, along with many of the smaller stabilising muscles. I'm still weak at the 30-60° angle.

I think I do still need to build some muscle but more importantly I need to re-learn how to fire the muscles. I've developed a high cadence, which is great, but I think it's masking/enabling me to avoid using the muscles fully. That's why I think some low cadence, hills and strength work will help.

I see. take a look at the forces involved even with low cadence stuff, its barely anything. Sounds like perhaps some actual weights, or even bodyweight (which will be far more load bearing than any low cadence stuff) would be a better bet for yourself.

The glute firing is I think something all physios just spit out, they said the same to me with my bad knee.

[okgo]

hmmm

I ride a high cadence, around 100rpm in time trials for example, it just so happens that I'm usually riding 55 and somewhere down the bottom of the block. Someone less fit will not be able to do that, because their legs would quickly fill with lactic. Having stronger legs plays little part in any of that. As you get fitter your cadence probably isn't going to change much but you'll find you're riding larger gears and going faster.

Nothing done in a weight room is going to make you fitter. It might well help your body wholesale, and help with bringing the issues mentioned into line, but producing more watts because of bringing those things into line is still going to be marginal given the actual forces involved as so low, and your body is very good at adapting to these imbalances anyway.

[okgo]

To both of you chaps, I hope it helps out, I just think it may not be best to expect too much gain from it in terms of actual watts, but for sure it's likely good for your wellbeing in general!

[okgo]

The Ironman stuff is anything but interesting

[okgo]

What is interesting about someone sitting at one power for 4 hours? AP/NP almost exactly the same.

Nothing. Also its not even anything remarkable in the context of cycling generally as they have to ride a marathon right after it!

I couldn't give a st about 10 or 25 mile TT's on UK courses, power for those isn't interesting either apart from when someone does a lot of it - the interesting stuff is generally to be found in road races.

Edited by okgo on Tuesday 17th October 12:09

[okgo]

JPJPJP said:

oh yes, you are right, it is dull

I am corrected

Your view has now become mine, thank you oh great one for leading me to the holy grail

What is interesting about it? Genuine question?

It is a lot of power, but they're pro athletes, many of them would make amazing cyclists, but they're having to be so reserved hence doing numbers many amateurs can do, due to the run.

Edited by okgo on Tuesday 17th October 12:17

[okgo]

NatAsp said:

Question for anyone who trains with power. What numbers do you go by in term of your power PBs?

I've been speaking to a lot of people of late who claim to hold say 400w for 10mins, but when you question them on it, it turns out it was up a climb.

I think most people myself included can hold higher numbers when climbing. For this reason I always go by what I can manage in a TT scenario otherwise I feel like I'm lying to myself! Plus my zones would be totally inaccurate unless I was permanently riding uphill.

Interested to know people's thoughts on this.

They should not be that different. And all zones have enough flex for it not to matter.

My best ever power has been on the flat.

[okgo]

I'm at my least trained state for perhaps nearly 7 years

Holiday, then general lack of caring about riding last few weeks, I was meant to do some baseline tests to see where I'm at, but have pushed them back to next week now.

My CTL is probably somewhere around 40, I'm thinking that a 20 minute test is going to be quite grim and show me some numbers I won't like the look of

[okgo]

Doesn't take long to get it back.

I have a 10 mile TT that I like to do each year in late Dec. I did 405W for it last year, so have to get my act together if I want to be back up around there me thinks.

That said I think the long period of time training has helped me in that it doesn't feel like it will take too long to get most of it back.

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ALawson said:

You wearing fancy dress? I assume this is the FCCC Christmas 10.

https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-details/...

That is the one. And no, just the usual garms for me.

[okgo]

Correct.

I'd actually recommend not dicking about with a test and just riding as usual for a few weeks as you would to buildup a log of data first.

[okgo]

Thought with loads of chat about watts in various threads maybe worth a bump, especially given lots of people now have powermeters, in fact on my strava I'd say it's quite rare for people not to have them now!

I've been mostly indoors in recent times, and not long after my last post here in 2017 I took basically 18 months out, so went right back to my 'zero' so to speak. Having never really done that in the previous 8 or so years it was quite a shock to the system to suddenly find a couple of laps of Richmond Park with mates a real struggle.

Went from circa 80kg to just over 90kg in 2018, and from around 380W FTP to 270W. A recipe for going very slowly up any kind of gradient as it turned out!

Didn't take ages to get back into some form of shape, and enjoyed dropping back to 3rd cat for a few races too

Often only doing around 4-6 hours a week now mostly indoors, not actually really tested myself recently, but would be interested to see how far off the mark I am on the lower volume, but far more efficient Zwift vs commuting.

Looking back at some posters, Gruffy for example, lots of progress over the last 2-3 years!