The Guinea Pig/Coach

I thought it would be a good idea to start posting occasional power files from myself throughout the year so that everyone can start to get an idea of how a power meter is so helpful and how it can help you progress.

Here is the power file from a Threshold Test I did yesterday. Power and HR are shown. Highlighted are two intervals a 5 minute effort and the 20 minute TT test effort. What this shows is that as of now my functional threshold power, or the amount of power I can generate for 60 minutes is around 325 watts. We take a 20 minute TT and subtract a few percent to estimate a 60 minute TT since an hour TT is really not much fun. So I took the 335 and deducted 3%, normally I would deduct 5% but the rolling course I used and the wind made for a small amount off "less than TT wattage". I can adjust this number later through data collected as the year progresses along with more testing, but its a good starting point.

What does all this mean? Well, speed on a bike is very plainly a result of your power to weight ratio, the higher the power in wattage versus the lower the weight in kilograms the faster I can pedal my bike. I weigh around 80 kilograms, so my power to weight ratio at threshold (or 60 minutes TT) is 4.06, or we will call it 4. To put this into perspective guys like Ivan Basso and Alexander Vinokourov are at around 6 to 6.5, a decent domestic pro is usually around 5.7.

So does this mean that since I have to race frequently with domestic pros that I should downgrade to a Cat 4 (a Cat 4 with a 4 or greater power to weight ratio would be extremely competitive and win often)? Well you have to take a look at the year-long schedule of the athlete (this is where a coach is helpful) and take the test results into context.

If you were to look at my year-long training plan, you would see that I am just entering the first build period and have yet to do any real training that would increase my power at threshold. In the coming months I will start to train at threshold and race more. By July, for masters nationals, I should be able to bring that number up to around 5-5.2 (hopefully).

Subscribe to the blog to see how I progress as the year rolls on. Healthy Day!