The Wattage Thread

[nammynake]

Thought I'd post here rather than starting a new thread. Looking for some pointers for training for road racing (crits and road races). I've built up a good base over the past few years (just over 4000 this year) but have largely focussed on endurance events (recently completed a 7-day race over the Alps). I'd like to put the long endurance stuff aside for now and focus on racing. I've only raced once (back in March) - this was a 30 minute closed circuit race - I got dropped on the last lap when I slipped to the back in the last hairpin, but learned a lot about positioning and felt pretty strong throughout.

I'm fairly light (63kg) so the flat circuit races probably won't suit me that well, in which case I'll probably focus on road races with a bit of climbing.

Does anyone have any training plans they could share? My training this year has been mostly long hilly rides, together with some chaingangs. I'll stick with the chaingangs but are there any other useful sessions I should be looking at? I can probably do 7-10 hours per week.

[nammynake]

Shameless bump...can anyone help?

[okgo]

Its difficult to say as we don't know what your weakness is?

We could assume that it may be absolute punch to stay with it when it gets tasty near the end, which would be expected of a 60kg bloke.

Perhaps you could share your power profile and then maybe it might be obvious where you should concentrate your efforts/types of circuit that would help you out...

[Ponk]

I wouldn't write off flat races. I have a friend that is a similar weight to you and he has a hell of a kick. It's all in the training, well up to a point anyway.

From the description of your riding it sounds like you're missing out on the short burst power. I've found exactly the same to be honest so I'm starting to work on 20/40s and some big gear stuff.

[nammynake]

Thanks for the reply. Power profile below from indoor trainer (Kickr):

[anonymous-user]

nammynake said:

Thanks for the reply. Power profile below from indoor trainer (Kickr):

For crits it's more about going at the right time. If you have a good level of endurance you may find you can get away. Waiting until the last lap isn't for everyone. I've always had a half decent sprint so i generally just sit in. Have you tried Hog Hill or something similar, that may suit you better than a flat circuit? Either way train for z5 efforts, routines like revolver work well. Best advice ride to your skills

[okgo]

You not got anything from outside? I've never done over 1000w on the turbo...

[nammynake]

okgo said:

You not got anything from outside? I've never done over 1000w on the turbo...

I don't have a power meter on my bike, just on my turbo. I live in Yorkshire so Hog Hill is a bit far. Thanks for the tip regarding Z5 stuff, I'll incorporate that into my training and see how I get on. Endurance is definitely my strength although this could a direct response to my training rather than my natural strength. Although not necessarily comparable I have good endurance at running but also have a reasonable pace over 100-800m.

[nammynake]

Picked up a Stages power meter this week. First ride today so just getting used to the data. Could someone confirm if the following settings on my Garmin 500 are correct? By 'correct' I mean to provide sensible and not inflated power averages:

- 1 second recording
- Autopause OFF
- Include zeros in averaging

I've read that Normalised Power (NP) is a good metric for average power during a ride. I can display this on my Garmin but don't see it when I upload to Strava. Strava only shows the 'Weighted Average', which I'm guessing is different? Are the two comparable, and if not, is weighted-average a decent enough stat for comparing rides?

Ride from today shows 239W weighted-average over 43 miles. This was 1h:56m moving time, and 2h elapsed time. Does the weighted average include the 4 mins non-moving time (I switched off auto-pause).

https://www.strava.com/activities/353622839/analys...


Thanks

[murray]

I've got same settings on my garmin although I normally have auto pause on. Weighed average is the Strava equivalent of NP but the figure on Strava tends to be a lot lower than NP on garmin connect and Training Peaks which are identical.

[okgo]

You should turn auto pause off as it only messes up the NP and subsequent TSS scores.

Strata weighted average is different to NP yes.

[upsidedownmark]

Also add that NP, TSS, IF and friends aren't much use until you've set your FTP..

[okgo]

Anyone seen any increases?

After having a month or two of actual training without constant tapers for races and such I seem to have kicked on a bit, managed 390W for a 10 mile TT on Saturday which in past years has traditionally been about 15-20w below what I go on to produce in the summer, got another session in the velodrome to try and get more slippery so I can push for podiums in the national TT's, but will have to see how that goes. I'm going to try some 50 mile TT's as I think it could suit me.

Back racing as a 2nd cat next year, should be interesting - think my 5 min power is better too, now instead of 450 feeling like its really hurting its more like 500, did 500 for 3 mins in a club run yesterday and it felt doable, so reckon I may probably be able to do over 500 for 5 mins now, doesn't matter much, but a fair improvement.

[ALawson]

Okgo I saw you time on the Bentley TT very impressive even if that only bagged you a 2nd. I hear the chap with the xmas tree was a DNF. I assume it was out into the wind with a bit of a tailwind coming back?

[okgo]

ALawson said:

Okgo I saw you time on the Bentley TT very impressive even if that only bagged you a 2nd. I hear the chap with the xmas tree was a DNF. I assume it was out into the wind with a bit of a tailwind coming back?

Ha there were some good costumes!

Yeh though not as rapid a return as it was this time last year

[fromage]

okgo said:

Anyone seen any increases?

After having a month or two of actual training without constant tapers for races and such I seem to have kicked on a bit, managed 390W for a 10 mile TT on Saturday which in past years has traditionally been about 15-20w below what I go on to produce in the summer, got another session in the velodrome to try and get more slippery so I can push for podiums in the national TT's, but will have to see how that goes. I'm going to try some 50 mile TT's as I think it could suit me.

Back racing as a 2nd cat next year, should be interesting - think my 5 min power is better too, now instead of 450 feeling like its really hurting its more like 500, did 500 for 3 mins in a club run yesterday and it felt doable, so reckon I may probably be able to do over 500 for 5 mins now, doesn't matter much, but a fair improvement.

I feel like I'm finally back to where I was around this time last year maybe a little higher/better. CTL went from 125 in March down to 54 in Aug. I have scrapped the easy longer winter rides and just done loads of Z3/SST/Z4 1 1/2 to 3 hour rides and feel great for it and CTL hovering around 100 at the moment.

[m444ttb]

I only recently bought a power meter (Garmin Vector 2S) and I think I may have botched the FTP test on my turbo. It was the second time I'd used the power meter and I forgot to calibrate it. Only after two months of getting into some Sufferfest videos do i finally feel that my FTP might be about right. I'm going to re-test again using The Sufferfest's Rubber glove video in January and see what i get. Last time the 20 minute peak was 292 giving a 277 FTP.

One thing i've definitely found the power meter good for is making the msot of the turbo. it has shown me that your mind can definitely convince you you're giving it 8/10 when in reality you're aren't even riding at threshold power. It has also shown how some technique improvement can generate more power. Still a long way to go on that front though.

[okgo]

fromage said:

I feel like I'm finally back to where I was around this time last year maybe a little higher/better. CTL went from 125 in March down to 54 in Aug. I have scrapped the easy longer winter rides and just done loads of Z3/SST/Z4 1 1/2 to 3 hour rides and feel great for it and CTL hovering around 100 at the moment.

Yeh its a tough one isn't it, the balance of what to do!

I've just downloaded a free trial of WKO4 and while I can't work out how to use most of the functions, its telling me I have a CTL of 82 currently.

[Ponk]

okgo said:

Anyone seen any increases?

After having a month or two of actual training without constant tapers for races and such I seem to have kicked on a bit, managed 390W for a 10 mile TT on Saturday which in past years has traditionally been about 15-20w below what I go on to produce in the summer, got another session in the velodrome to try and get more slippery so I can push for podiums in the national TT's, but will have to see how that goes. I'm going to try some 50 mile TT's as I think it could suit me.

Back racing as a 2nd cat next year, should be interesting - think my 5 min power is better too, now instead of 450 feeling like its really hurting its more like 500, did 500 for 3 mins in a club run yesterday and it felt doable, so reckon I may probably be able to do over 500 for 5 mins now, doesn't matter much, but a fair improvement.

Ballsed up my last FTP test in November (cocked up the timing) but managed 288 watts for 25 minutes which is a few watts up on my summer 10s. Considering its winter I'm thinking that's a good sign.

I did a huge amount of mileage in November (around 37 hours, which is huge for me at least) in prep for next year. In to some sweet spot work and some Z6/7 intervals now to get me in shape for winter crits. I was 2 points short of 3rd cat this year (my first) so I'm keen to make a good start to 2016!

[NerveAgent]

Noob incoming!

I only really got into cycling in August and have only had the ability to measure my power for about 6 week (turbo + trainerroad). My first FTP test came out at 215w. I have since upped this to 240w (3.35 w/kg) although I don't know how much of this is down to improving my fitness vs knowing what to expect from the test.

I'm enjoying the science side of things and I'm just talking myself in to spending lots of money on a power meter :-D