watts monitor v hr monitor
Discussion
having been training for 2 months solid on the works excercise bike in preporation for a London - Paris ride in mid July, I changed my approach from monitoring overall miles covered / HR monitor to average watts usage normally covering 240-250 watts for 1 hr then drop down to 200 watts for the next hour . After 2 hrs stop .....bloody boring on an excercise bike !! roughly covering 40 miles over the 2 hrs
guessing that wattage on the normal road is way different from the excercise bike routine with hills etc it will be much lower
and am i going to get murdered when i get on the normal bike
are there any watts cycling meters that anyone can reccommend for the road bike ?
guessing that wattage on the normal road is way different from the excercise bike routine with hills etc it will be much lower
and am i going to get murdered when i get on the normal bike
are there any watts cycling meters that anyone can reccommend for the road bike ?
DBSV8 said:
having been training for 2 months solid on the works excercise bike in preporation for a London - Paris ride in mid July, I changed my approach from monitoring overall miles covered / HR monitor to average watts usage normally covering 240-250 watts for 1 hr then drop down to 200 watts for the next hour . After 2 hrs stop .....bloody boring on an excercise bike !! roughly covering 40 miles over the 2 hrs
guessing that wattage on the normal road is way different from the excercise bike routine with hills etc it will be much lower
and am i going to get murdered when i get on the normal bike
are there any watts cycling meters that anyone can reccommend for the road bike ?
i'm not that au fair with power meters but if you are pushing 240 watts for an hour i would think that you are pretty much on the money for an endurance event. you really need to get off the exercise bike though and train on the bike that you are going to ride to reduce shock (i appreciate shock isnt the right term but you know what i mean)guessing that wattage on the normal road is way different from the excercise bike routine with hills etc it will be much lower
and am i going to get murdered when i get on the normal bike
are there any watts cycling meters that anyone can reccommend for the road bike ?
boardman, hutch et al pushed out something like 400 watts for their hour record attempts but the difference between a track bike on a velodrome and a road event are miles apart though its a baseline of sorts.
on the road there is a general rule for gradient, your weight and the extra watts required but i cant remember it, it will be somewhere on google.... interval training on an exercise bike will only help you so much but its hard to replicate hills because you will rarely get out of the saddle on an exercise bike
you can hire a power meter from http://www.cyclepowermeters.com/powermeter-rental-... which might be a worth while experiment for minimal outlay.
there is some good info here: (a good site in general too for training info) http://www.ironmate.co.uk/using-cycle-power-meter....
I would have my doubts about the accuracy of a cycle trainers power meter. They are sensitive and expensive pieces of kit. I find that even the power meter on my turbo trainer is usually +/- 15% what my actual power meter shows.
If you are putting out 240 to 250 for an hour then you are obviously fairly fit but in order to increase endurance you should mix it up a bit, do some long spins, 3 or 4 hours and a couple of times per week throw in some high intensity short workouts.
I find this a particularly good interval session :
10 min warm up
20 mins @85% of FTP*
5 min rest
20 mins @85% of FTP.
Finish off with 10 min warm down.
If you are putting out 240 to 250 for an hour then you are obviously fairly fit but in order to increase endurance you should mix it up a bit, do some long spins, 3 or 4 hours and a couple of times per week throw in some high intensity short workouts.
I find this a particularly good interval session :
10 min warm up
20 mins @85% of FTP*
5 min rest
20 mins @85% of FTP.
Finish off with 10 min warm down.
- FTP = Functional threshold power, which is the maximum power you can sustain for 1 hour.
pablo said:
i'm not that au fair with power meters but if you are pushing 240 watts for an hour i would think that you are pretty much on the money for an endurance event. you really need to get off the exercise bike though and train on the bike that you are going to ride to reduce shock (i appreciate shock isnt the right term but you know what i mean)
boardman, hutch et al pushed out something like 400 watts for their hour record attempts but the difference between a track bike on a velodrome and a road event are miles apart though its a baseline of sorts.
on the road there is a general rule for gradient, your weight and the extra watts required but i cant remember it, it will be somewhere on google.... interval training on an exercise bike will only help you so much but its hard to replicate hills because you will rarely get out of the saddle on an exercise bike
you can hire a power meter from http://www.cyclepowermeters.com/powermeter-rental-... which might be a worth while experiment for minimal outlay.
there is some good info here: (a good site in general too for training info) http://www.ironmate.co.uk/using-cycle-power-meter....
thanks its been bloody difficult to be honest , no choice regarding training at work ( Russia ) only boardman, hutch et al pushed out something like 400 watts for their hour record attempts but the difference between a track bike on a velodrome and a road event are miles apart though its a baseline of sorts.
on the road there is a general rule for gradient, your weight and the extra watts required but i cant remember it, it will be somewhere on google.... interval training on an exercise bike will only help you so much but its hard to replicate hills because you will rarely get out of the saddle on an exercise bike
you can hire a power meter from http://www.cyclepowermeters.com/powermeter-rental-... which might be a worth while experiment for minimal outlay.
there is some good info here: (a good site in general too for training info) http://www.ironmate.co.uk/using-cycle-power-meter....
option is the excercise bike , back to blighty in a few days then its straight on the the road bike with the event on the 20th arrive in paris on the 23rd day before the TDF arrive on the sunday still going to be a struggle averaging 80 miles a day
DBSV8 said:
thanks its been bloody difficult to be honest , no choice regarding training at work ( Russia ) only
option is the excercise bike , back to blighty in a few days then its straight on the the road bike with the event on the 20th arrive in paris on the 23rd day before the TDF arrive on the sunday still going to be a struggle averaging 80 miles a day
I did the ride in 2009, amazing. Best advice I can give you is just get the hours in the saddle. A static exercise bike will be totally different to riding your actual bike.option is the excercise bike , back to blighty in a few days then its straight on the the road bike with the event on the 20th arrive in paris on the 23rd day before the TDF arrive on the sunday still going to be a struggle averaging 80 miles a day
Good luck with it, you'll love it.
Edited by jodypress on Wednesday 13th July 16:46
Power meters are generally more accurate than HRM based calcs, so you're doing well there. On the minus side, as someone above said you need hours in the seat. Two hour sessions are not enough, you should aim to be training to at least 75% of what you plan to do in a day on the ride. Most of your training should be at a low intensity too, <70% max hr.
That said, it's pretty much mid-july now so you should be tailing off the training now if you haven't already.
Cheers,
FT.
That said, it's pretty much mid-july now so you should be tailing off the training now if you haven't already.
Cheers,
FT.
I did a 200km without having ridden more than 60km, and have recently done a 600km without having done more than 350km.
I suspect there is a pithy variation on the "In Russia..." meme that would say it better, but the bottom line is that if you are stubborn enough to do a month of two hour sessions on an exercise bike, you'll be fine.
I suspect there is a pithy variation on the "In Russia..." meme that would say it better, but the bottom line is that if you are stubborn enough to do a month of two hour sessions on an exercise bike, you'll be fine.
i do remember you mentioning russia a whlie back now, you were also adamant that you could put the hours in on the exercise bike so i dont think you will have any issues, its probably just nerves.
80 miles a day for four days is tough but to be honest if you go steady and keep it sensible. day two will be the hardest both physically and mentally, spend at least 30 minutes stretching once you get off the bike on day one, it might seem a lot but you will be grateful come the morning of day two.... come day three you can think "50% done already" and be looking forward to the ride into Paris the next day...
80 miles a day for four days is tough but to be honest if you go steady and keep it sensible. day two will be the hardest both physically and mentally, spend at least 30 minutes stretching once you get off the bike on day one, it might seem a lot but you will be grateful come the morning of day two.... come day three you can think "50% done already" and be looking forward to the ride into Paris the next day...
pablo said:
i do remember you mentioning russia a whlie back now, you were also adamant that you could put the hours in on the exercise bike so i dont think you will have any issues, its probably just nerves.
80 miles a day for four days is tough but to be honest if you go steady and keep it sensible. day two will be the hardest both physically and mentally, spend at least 30 minutes stretching once you get off the bike on day one, it might seem a lot but you will be grateful come the morning of day two.... come day three you can think "50% done already" and be looking forward to the ride into Paris the next day...
the great thing is we get to ride down the champs elysee on the saturday and spend the sunday watching the TDF arrive , Its a charity event 150 of us, so no chance of backing out now and ive got extra sponsor money if i wear Tom simpson kit for the arrival in Paris80 miles a day for four days is tough but to be honest if you go steady and keep it sensible. day two will be the hardest both physically and mentally, spend at least 30 minutes stretching once you get off the bike on day one, it might seem a lot but you will be grateful come the morning of day two.... come day three you can think "50% done already" and be looking forward to the ride into Paris the next day...
cheers
My next power meter will be a power2max:
http://www.power2max.de/power2max.php
I'm currently using a Quarq, and it's great, but the calibration is a pain - the power2max does this automatically.
I've used a Powertap previously and whilst they're cheaper than the crank-based meters the bearings don't last long and it limits wheel choice.
SRM are still popular but very expensive and whilst service is reputed to be good I don't like the idea of sending them back for battery changes.
I agree with others that the stationary bike is probably inaccurate. Still, well done for doing 2 hour sessions, very impressive.
The fastest I've ever been on a bike was after three months (Jan-Mar) of thrice-weekly turbo sessions, and none of those were over an hour.
I wouldn't worry too much about endurance if you don't have access to a road bike at the moment. Those long tempo sessions will mean that keeping up in a group takes much less out of you.
http://www.power2max.de/power2max.php
I'm currently using a Quarq, and it's great, but the calibration is a pain - the power2max does this automatically.
I've used a Powertap previously and whilst they're cheaper than the crank-based meters the bearings don't last long and it limits wheel choice.
SRM are still popular but very expensive and whilst service is reputed to be good I don't like the idea of sending them back for battery changes.
I agree with others that the stationary bike is probably inaccurate. Still, well done for doing 2 hour sessions, very impressive.
The fastest I've ever been on a bike was after three months (Jan-Mar) of thrice-weekly turbo sessions, and none of those were over an hour.
I wouldn't worry too much about endurance if you don't have access to a road bike at the moment. Those long tempo sessions will mean that keeping up in a group takes much less out of you.
NitroNick said:
Whats wrong with the calibration?
If you forget to do it the numbers can't be trusted. I've done a few races where my stats have been really high, and then afterwards I realised I hadn't gone through the calibration process beforehand, so I can't trust them. Not that it matters much I guess, but there's not much point in spending megabucks on fancy data if you end up with inaccuracies.I'm usually faffing around so much before a race I could do without that extra thing to think about.
NitroNick said:
How much are the power 2max (i see 930 euro but that can't be right for a crank and power meter)
Yeah, that's about right. You think it's too cheap, or too expensive?!?HundredthIdiot said:
NitroNick said:
How much are the power 2max (i see 930 euro but that can't be right for a crank and power meter)
Yeah, that's about right. You think it's too cheap, or too expensive?!?Must do some research on them, cos I'd be tempted to get one.
I don't mind the calibration on the quarq, its one more thng to remember but doesn't take too long. I cant fault the quarq meters at all. Excellent piece of kit.
NitroNick said:
Its seems very cheap, SRMs are 3k+ quarq are 2k+ so sub 1k seems exceptionally low.
Those prices are high unless you're including a head unit, even so a Garmin 500 is only about £200.Quarq cranksets start from under £1500 (cyclepowermeters.com), and SRMs start at £1550 from the same source.
I know someone with a power2max (the SRAM variant) who previously used a powertap and he's happy enough.
I don't know how anyone justifies £3k on the full SRM setup now that cheaper and more practical alternative are available.
HundredthIdiot said:
Those prices are high unless you're including a head unit, even so a Garmin 500 is only about £200.
Quarq cranksets start from under £1500 (cyclepowermeters.com), and SRMs start at £1550 from the same source.
I know someone with a power2max (the SRAM variant) who previously used a powertap and he's happy enough.
I don't know how anyone justifies £3k on the full SRM setup now that cheaper and more practical alternative are available.
Sorry, I was quoting euro prices. Power2 max definitely going to get very popular at those prices.Quarq cranksets start from under £1500 (cyclepowermeters.com), and SRMs start at £1550 from the same source.
I know someone with a power2max (the SRAM variant) who previously used a powertap and he's happy enough.
I don't know how anyone justifies £3k on the full SRM setup now that cheaper and more practical alternative are available.
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