The Wattage Thread

[anonymous-user]

okgo said:

An easy week for sure, but certainly there is never a case where having a week off totally is a good thing unless you mentally need it (which I can see might be the case for some people).

It is when your sick.

I was chatting to a guy this am about it ad he had the same bug, knocked him back a good few weeks as well. His numbers now are beyond the previous PB and he is pretty positive about it. At the end of the day if you have worked hard on a good base then you will remain strong. This virus that took me and a few others just keeps on giving, total pain in the ass but all you can do is let it go and maintain whatever level your body is happy with until it clears up

[okgo]

For a while you will, then the freshness subsides and the fitness you lose becomes apparent.

But if you're ill, you're ill, nothing can be done about that sadly.

[anonymous-user]

So first proper ride back, held intervals, felt comfortable and fixed a puncture. Go figure?

[BMWBen]

yonex said:

BMWBen said:

Only half the story though - what about the week of missed gains?

Well what about 3 weeks, that's what I am working with. A week away working, then a week off sick then a week of apathy.

TBH I am bored of looking at the drop in 'fitness' and really cannot be bothered at the moment. On one hand I feel guilty about pissing away all the work I did over winter but on the other;

1. It's freezing
2. I don't get paid for cycling
3. Much work is taking place on the house which is taking up my energy
4. Maybe I will start to look forward to riding again instead of constantly 'training' for 'xyz'

Looking at CTL at this time of year is just depressing. I'm ignoring it until the clocks change and the weather improves!

[anonymous-user]

BMWBen said:

Looking at CTL at this time of year is just depressing. I'm ignoring it until the clocks change and the weather improves!

I was taught last year every 10 points on the PMC would equate to a useful uplift in performance. Working on my losses I am 30% off of peak which should mean I am weaker than pre January 2015 and pre start of coaching 2014, it's just totally incorrect. It is fairly obvious the base is still there. Some threshold is going to be short but that will bounce back. For an hours hard ride I don't think there is much difference apart from I ache today more than I should. It's a bit of a lesson as it's very easy to get sucked into the numbers and not consider anything else. For example the PMC doesn't know I don't drink anymore and that my liver is free from processing alcohol, which is probably worth a bit more than a few 'points', as is my decreasing weight. Holding a lower TT position and not feeling my gut being pummeled is pretty sweet

When a pair of us headed to Tenerife last year I had my mate do an FTP test. Knowing I was more powerful helped my cursing no end chasing the fker up Teide. There is so much more to this than raw data. Despite having the crap knocked out of me and getting all sorts of fed up with things it has been a useful exercise, and a bit of a lesson to be honest. Read Cav's book, two things that I am taking on board from now on. It doesn't matter what you do, just make sure you do 16 hours on the bike each week. Forget static tests, it is more about your ability to suffer than a spreadsheet.

Sorry to derail the thread, carry on

[Grandfondo]

yonex said:

I was taught last year every 10 points on the PMC would equate to a useful uplift in performance. Working on my losses I am 30% off of peak which should mean I am weaker than pre January 2015 and pre start of coaching 2014, it's just totally incorrect. It is fairly obvious the base is still there. Some threshold is going to be short but that will bounce back. For an hours hard ride I don't think there is much difference apart from I ache today more than I should. It's a bit of a lesson as it's very easy to get sucked into the numbers and not consider anything else. For example the PMC doesn't know I don't drink anymore and that my liver is free from processing alcohol, which is probably worth a bit more than a few 'points', as is my decreasing weight. Holding a lower TT position and not feeling my gut being pummeled is pretty sweet

When a pair of us headed to Tenerife last year I had my mate do an FTP test. Knowing I was more powerful helped my cursing no end chasing the fker up Teide. There is so much more to this than raw data. Despite having the crap knocked out of me and getting all sorts of fed up with things it has been a useful exercise, and a bit of a lesson to be honest. Read Cav's book, two things that I am taking on board from now on. It doesn't matter what you do, just make sure you do 16 hours on the bike each week. Forget static tests, it is more about your ability to suffer than a spreadsheet.


Sorry to derail the thread, carry on

I disagree!
16 hours of st training will make you good at being st!
Far better doing 8 hours of quality workouts IMO.

[RGambo]

I'm buggered then, I can only manage 8-10 hours a week and they're probably pretty st

[okgo]

RGambo said:

I'm buggered then, I can only manage 8-10 hours a week and they're probably pretty st

Lot of conflicting debate about volume/specific stuff of late.

I mean it all needs to be specific to a point, but there are guys experimenting with doing all their training at one (fairly intense) level vs doing intervals.

[anonymous-user]

Grandfondo said:

I disagree!
16 hours of st training will make you good at being st!
Far better doing 8 hours of quality workouts IMO.

How very dare you, I was always good at being st

[nammynake]

Got my first race next weekend at the York circuit (4th Cat only). Did a training session with my local club today including a 1 hour race. Managed to stay with the pack for the whole hour and even had enough left for a sprint at the end. Averaged 24.6 mph for the hour in fairly windy conditions. Still don't have a power meter but one of the 3rd Cat guys said he averaged 240W which is similar to 2/3/4 races he's done.

I'm glad I stuck with the pack for the hour and wasn't totally out of my depth. I'm not quite so nervous for my first race and now understand the importance of positioning if I'm to have any chance of getting points in the sprint.

[MadDad]

Great effort, sounds like you are on for a good season!

I was going to try my hand at my first race this morning since my teens (a very, very long time ago)....when I went to register I discovered that Surrey League now require anyone taking part in one of their races to have undergone two 'race training' sessions - run by Surrey League at £20 per session! Currently there is no availability on any training sessions being run this side of May.....not keen on racing at spillingdon so may be forced to look further afield - possibly Wessex.

I think the idea of race training is a good one to ensure everyone taking part has some sort of bunch riding competency, but two sessions run by the organisers.....surely a better idea would be some kind of BC recognised universal training session which applies to all leagues and goes against your license?

[okgo]

BC are money grabbing fools and dont hae any interest or want to change racing for the better so it's down to people like Glyn at SL to enforce initiatives for his own league. There are more than 2 I think, our team hosted one not long ago at Cyclopark.

[MadDad]

okgo said:

There are more than 2 I think, our team hosted one not long ago at Cyclopark.

Any idea where I could find the details? The SL web-site is not the easiest to navigate!

[okgo]

http://www.surreyleague.co.uk/news/novice4thcattra...

You tried all those ones? Always was going to be a bun fight with so many people taking up racing.

[Ponk]

Here's a question, how does weight loss impact on power?

My FTP seems to have plummeted since a ramp test at Christmas (270w vs 240w). I've lost about 10 lbs (174 lbs vs 164 lbs) since then but at least half of that was Christmas blubber! I need to retest really as last week's threshold test wasn't the best.

[Dowks]

okgo said:

http://www.surreyleague.co.uk/news/novice4thcattra...

You tried all those ones? Always was going to be a bun fight with so many people taking up racing.

I signed up for the 15th one yesterday which still had spaces so may be worth a try, listed on Rider HQ

[Dammit]

I've been going to the gym quite a bit recently, following a routine that includes deep squats with the heavy bar - although not that heavy at the moment, probably around 30kg (not sure of the weight of the bar!)

Anyway, my short-duration sprint power has been going up quite rapidly, which is interesting - I'd not expected a result in such a short space of time.

[MadDad]

Dowks said:

okgo said:

http://www.surreyleague.co.uk/news/novice4thcattra...

You tried all those ones? Always was going to be a bun fight with so many people taking up racing.

I signed up for the 15th one yesterday which still had spaces so may be worth a try, listed on Rider HQ

I have to admit I hadn't seen all of them, thanks for highlighting them.....

I would join you on the 15th but it's my son's 16th b'day that weekend and we have 'family stuff' on all weekend, I might see if I can get on next weekends though.

BTW Dowks - I rode with Tim B last week, he said you are a wheel sucker and needed to put a bit more effort into climbing.......

[okgo]

Dammit said:

I've been going to the gym quite a bit recently, following a routine that includes deep squats with the heavy bar - although not that heavy at the moment, probably around 30kg (not sure of the weight of the bar!)

Anyway, my short-duration sprint power has been going up quite rapidly, which is interesting - I'd not expected a result in such a short space of time.

It does depend what kind of base you're starting from. People who aren't sprinters naturally (if you were you'd be able to hit getting on for 1400 without ever having ridden) can add a lot by training their sprint. I know a lad go from 900 peak to 1250. But ultimately if you aren't a sprinter you'll never train yourself to be one but you could get good enough for slightly longer sprints. That all said I who'd recommend doing sprint drills rather than squats, all the squats will do is damage muscle more than it needs to be and hinder the rest of your riding. But you can do sprint drills without much residual fatigue while still getting the benefit of the session.

Ponk - never had an issue when losing weight myself, doesn't harm most people unless it's really extreme, maybe just ill or fatigued?

[Ponk]

okgo said:

Dammit said:

I've been going to the gym quite a bit recently, following a routine that includes deep squats with the heavy bar - although not that heavy at the moment, probably around 30kg (not sure of the weight of the bar!)

Anyway, my short-duration sprint power has been going up quite rapidly, which is interesting - I'd not expected a result in such a short space of time.

It does depend what kind of base you're starting from. People who aren't sprinters naturally (if you were you'd be able to hit getting on for 1400 without ever having ridden) can add a lot by training their sprint. I know a lad go from 900 peak to 1250. But ultimately if you aren't a sprinter you'll never train yourself to be one but you could get good enough for slightly longer sprints. That all said I who'd recommend doing sprint drills rather than squats, all the squats will do is damage muscle more than it needs to be and hinder the rest of your riding. But you can do sprint drills without much residual fatigue while still getting the benefit of the session.

Ponk - never had an issue when losing weight myself, doesn't harm most people unless it's really extreme, maybe just ill or fatigued?

Strange isn't it. I've felt pretty good with my cycling since then, including a few races so maybe it's partially to do with the two tests not correlating. I've been working silly long hours in that time so that's probably not helped.

Another 20 minutes of pain scheduled for this week. We'll see what that delivers.

I dream of 1400 watts, trying to break the 1000 watt barrier at the moment. The first 5 weeks of power meter ownership have been good fun turning everything into a test over X duration.