Increase your Cycling Power over the winter = Faster times on 2009 (Page 14)

Micawber - 2008-11-21 11:08 PM

Puppetmaster - 2008-11-21 5:54 PM

Tonights session was better, I am getting more of a feel for the bike on the trainer.   I miss counted the 5x1'(1'), so I added them at the end of the MS, prior to the CD.  So some questions tonight for anyone

Q: Cadence, any suggestions for a cheap counter?  I do not have one and am trying to count as my leg moves, not fun.

What about an inexpensive bike computer? Something like the Cateye Astrale 8, although they may have a newer model out now. If you're stuck with using a watch, what I did is just count one leg for 20 seconds then multiply by 3. For a cadence of 90 rpm you only count to 30.

Q: Is it normal for the watt meter to jump up and down?  It seems I am keeping my cadence close, but the meter is jumpnig 10-20 watts.  Is this showing me I am not keeping my cadence constent?

Mine does that too, and the Allen & Coggan book recommends just aiming for a small range instead of trying to stay on a certain number.

Q: What is everyone doing for shifting gears?  I am staying in the same gear so far.  My thinking was to get use the the Power meter and PRE.  Is this right or should I be shifting?

Thanks

Joe

If I use my ct like a power meter, then I have to shift gears. The ct will also work in what they call erg mode where instead of reading power it will apply a specified load. It can take a preprogrammed file and set the load to x1 watts for y minutes, then x2 watts for z minutes, etc. In that mode I don't have to shift gears. Hope that helps.

what he said just to add about the power - it is hard indeed to maintain a specific number you just try to shoot to avg the range for the given interval.

week two sessions!

week 2 power

week 2 HRM/RPE

enjoy

Done with the 1st week of cycling sessions Yesterday my legs felt much better and like they began to feeling like when in shape. still far away from getting my cycling legs back but it feels good to be back in training!

how are you guys doing?

Finished the first week today.  My legs are feeling good.  I am getting more comfortable with the power meter.  Today I was putting my towel over it for short times and riding by feel.  I would pull the towel back and see where I was at and I stayed pretty close to the range.

I also did some counting and my comfort pace seems to right around 80.  If I go faster I seem to be straining and slower sucks.  Looking forward to week 2

Joe

My favorite workout of the 1st week was definitely Q3 (HRM group).  Not favorite because it was easier or harder (they were all different, and all hard, which I like)... but favorite because it was much easier to accurately guage the work using the HRM with the longer sets.  This was the first workout where I felt like I did what was prescribed perfectly (see Q1 HR graph vs. Q3 HR graph)...

(week 1 q1 HR.JPG)

(week 1 q3 HR.JPG)

Well, I skipped the Q3 workout last week, and Q1 from this week in favor of testing.  I know that my 20min test is perhaps a little off since I had it set at 270watts for the whole 20 minutes, as opposed to setting a slope and seeing what I could push.  I adjusted this for the 5 minute test that I did this morning.

Results:  20Min Test - 270watt avg:   5Min Test - 321watt avg:   FTP = 253watts 

Jorge, if my weight is 70.5kg is it just a matter of dividing FTP by weight to get your power output?  If this is right then mine should be 3.58 watts/kg.  I'm curious what a "good" number is, and what I should expect to set as a target (during this training and beyond).

Thanks

The link that Dwayne posted is good to give you an idea of how you stack vs others however bear in mind those are based on cyclists. Given yours I would say that should put you MOP/FOP for the bike leg with proper training.

As far as a goal for improvement with proper training could be like 5-10% for the season. Using this plan a 5% should be very doable which could bump your p:w ratio to 3.85 w/kg or higher

Finally got to Week 1 Q3 tonight. Not bad! Thank again for doing this, Jorge. The bike is my weak sport, and I am so glad we have this thread to check in on.

How many of you have started Week 2?