power results

Yep you went out to hard on the bike as both your power and HR went down throughout the race.

Ideally your power goes up or stays even but this was only 44 minutes if I'm reading your data right and terrain can make a difference. Was it up hill to start?

I have worked on racing better with power last 3 years and now pretty much can keep even power throughout. What helped me a lot was doing time trials. I have to focus on not pushing to hard to start, depending on the length of the race, I break it down into sections usually thirds and try to increase my power in each section. Longer races I find that my increase in effort really helps my power stay even instead of falling off.

Training and racing with power adds a new dimension to training and racing that I enjoy.

Keep at it you'll get better.

what's you power threshold? how did you test it? if you use WKO+ what was your VI and IF?

I don't have enough experience to give you an intelligent answer, but knowing your FTP and LT HR would help.

And if you haven't, go book shopping today:
http://www.amazon.com/Training-Racing-Power-Meter-Hunter/dp/1931382794/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248008924&sr=8-1

VI was 1.02
cant find IF, where will Isee this on wko+

excuse my ignorance on this subject...just started using power and trying to learn....

results of test taken back in February, have not tested since, need to do that this week, not sure if this tells you my PT or not...either way its not good as it is 7 months old:

Utilizing Coggan Power Zones:

Anaerobic capacity 303-up

V02max 265-302

Threshold 228-264

Tempo 190-227

Endurance 140-189

Active Recovery 0-139



Cycle-Smart Power Zones:

Submax 303-up

High 265-302

Middle 228-264

Light 190-227

Easy 140-189

Recovery 0-139

Based on the Coggan power zones, it looks like your FTP is somewhere around 240s-250. So it kinda looks like you overcooked it at the start a little bit, then drifted back to something more sustainable by the end.

IF shows up next to normalized power if I recall. It's usually a number right around 1 for a race.


Edited by DrPete 2009-07-19 8:20 AM

Correction--IF shows up next to the TSS. It's the number in parentheses.

TSS: 116.3 (1.256)

Jorge can verify here, but you either started out way too hard or need to re-test your FTP, because 1.256 is fairly high for an IF. According to Allen and Coggan, >1.15 is considered a very hard effort, i.e. prologue time trials, track races, and short TT's.

So if your bike split looked like that and you had anything at all left for a run afterward, I can't help but think your FTP is a little higher than you think.

Edited by DrPete 2009-07-19 9:31 AM

this make your numbers iffy to consider given power changes regularly even from day to day. I suggest you to do a test* asap and test your power ever 4-6 weeks. That way you can make sure you are using the right levels, keep on pushing yourself/improving and have accurate power threshold (best 60 min power) for you to know whetheryou did a good job pacing or not.

In this case based on your "estimated" threshold seems to be off based on your IF (intensity factor). IF means at what % of your 60 min power (aka functional power threshold) you did a ride/race. Yours for the race was 1.26 or you rode @ 126% of your 60 min power, that means your rode at your VO2 max for 44 min and that's is just simple impossible as max you can shoot for 5-7 min at this intensity. This to me suggests your power threshold is higher of what it is estimated on WKO+ hence if you test soon you can update it and have better info for analysis.

In terms of pacing, what the terrain was like? was it flat? hilly at 1st and the faltish? this will help to have a better idea and of course knowing your current 60 min power; that been said it seems you did a good job pacing evenly even when your power dropped from beginning to end. That  is your VI (variable index) means what you power average was and the the metabolic cost (accelerations/decceleration aka as power spikes) was close to each other.

Terrain places an important role on pacing, for instance on a race where it is hilly at first and flat at the end it will be normal to see higher power at first and have it drop it over time, however if your VI is tight (1.00 to 1.03) it means you were on the ball park of good pacing. If you race on a flat course and your power curves indeed drops drom high to low and your VI ia 1.05> then yes you started up too hard, cooked your legs and lost steamed on your legs.

* you can use critical power to do so by doing a 20 min and a 5 min maximal test; you can find this info on the link to the winter cycling thread on my log.

just interested, and if you dont mind sharing of course,


what was the course like,
ave speed
how much do you weigh?

thanks!

not at all!!

course was rolling hills, nothing challenging at all. Elevation profile:  make sure you scroll to the right when you brin gup the link to view the whole profile...

http://www.onemillionrevolutions.org/maps/profile.php?segmentID=1924

avg speed was 22

174 lbs.

Edited by cusetri 2009-07-19 5:11 PM

looks like part of the spike might have been a combination of course and higher HR from the swim too, not totally but might have played a part is making it look worse.

i was wondering as those power levels are pretty close to mine, maybe just a bit higher.

Looked through the thread and did not see our age.  How old are you?

33 y/o