raft for sale anyone?

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Ron,

Wattage is a measure of power(or energy per time). It is volts X amps as you said but it can also be represented in other units. For example, 1W = 1 J/s = 0.23901 cal/s = 0.7376 ft lb/s = 9.486X10^-4 Btu/s = 1.341x10^-3 hp. I think I read somewhere that top bike sprinters can output over 1000watts for a very short timeframe. If I recall, I think Lance Armstrong puts out something like 4-500watts continuously on average.

This being said if you generate 200watts it means you are producing 2.68 horsepower, or burning 47.802 calories per second. Be careful the 47.802 calories aren't the same as the 100 Calories in a pack of crackers. The Calories in food is actually kilocalories. This means the crakers aren't 100 calories but rather 100,000 calories.

ron - wattage is useful bc it adds another factor that can be analyzed in training - and a very important one. a lot of people train off heartrate on the bike, which is good, but can be very inaccurate. wattage plus heartrate = the total picture. at first you want to find your lactate threshold, max hr while compiling wattage data. the easiest way to figure out what you push at different speeds is a series of tests - 10 sec max wattage, 1 min max wattage, 5 min max wattage, 10 min max wattage and 20 min max wattage. with these numbers you can compare yourself to pros, cat 1s - 5s, etc. someone mentioned that cipo pushes 1000 watts or more for 10 secs - totally accurate. after the wattage test you see where you are and train your wattage and lactate threshold (ie - the point where lactic acid builds up in you muscles and your muscles can no longer filter it out). for triathlons its important to know threshold bc you want to stay beneath it for the entire race or at least until the latter stages of the run. anyways - if you just train with hr thats all you see - and you cant rely on it. eg - so you go out for a training ride and your hr is at 165 going up your favorite 3 mile climb, just as your training program said to do - and you feel good. two days later you do the same ride but you have to work harder to get up to 165 but you do it. two days later you cant even get up to 165 so you plod along at 160. basically - you shouldve called it quits on the second day and taken a rest. you know this by using wattage bc you should be able to push 300 watts at 165 for the 3 mile climb, which you did on the first day. the second day you finally got up to 165 bpms but you were only pushing 225 watts. the third day you were pushing 200 watts and struggling at 160 bpms which was totally detrimental to your training - wattage just provided you with a great look inside your body. another good reason to train with wattage is that you can see improvement. if you ride a 3 mile climb or do a 20 min max tt effort without wattage its much harder to recognize any gains/losses. wattage also takes over for hr as to what guides your workout and its much more accurate bc it updates every second while your hr lags. ie - push 400 watts for 5 min on a flat - so you start off and your wattage shows you exactly when youre at 400 watts (it took you 15 seconds). with hr you wld prob want to ride at 165 for 5 mins but the first minute is spent accelerating to 180 bpms as your hr monitor catches up to your hr, oh oh, you then slow to 150 bpms (but you didnt know it bc of the lag as your hr slowly came down on the monitor) then you accelerate again to 165 bpms for the final 3 mins of the interval and hold it there. thus you just wasted 2 mins of a 5 min interval. i hope this makes sense as im rambling a bit. obv i cld go on all day about it.

hi lara - thx for the advice re the wetsuit. i think oceanside cali is bw sd and la - closer to sd. portland in the summer is awesome - great time of the year to move up here! cheers

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exactly - the swim and run are adjacent to the base but the entire bike loop goes around camp pendleton. should be interesting / painful :-)

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very cool - the 1/2 IM is on april 4th - thankfully the warmer is a lot warmer in so cal than it is at the oregon coast

thanks for the detailed replies clightle and riggler.  am definitely going to maybe try to incorporate something like this in the log for the future if it is indeed benificial and many people use.  maybe could use your help or maybe incorporate it into the log and have someone write up a detailed article on how to use watts to effectively cycle train.  technical cycling skills is something that i have not....not even a clue...BUT many people need more info than just 'upping the minutes' once they progress to a certain stage to continue making gains.

I would love to learn more about watts. When in College I was on the crew team and during the winter training we would row on the erg's and the coaches looked at watts. All I knew was it was a number and knew it should mean something but didn't pay too much attention to why. I have asked before on this site about cycling training and as Ron mentioned do I just ' up the minutes' during my cycling training. Not much info I have found on cycling workouts/training. Any info you all can provide puts me that much more ahead of where I am now. I know nothing other than how to ride a bike for recreation. Basically I don't need training wheels, or 'turning wheels' as my 4yr old son called them when he had them on.

Ron,

Riggler would definately be the one to discuss wattage training....I know very little about the concept except for what I have read. One thing to think about though...and this was sort of brought up in another discussion. You can create the same power output (typically transmitted into speed assuming a constant resistance) which is measured in watts by either pedaling fast and easy, or by pedaling slow and hard. The example listed before also applies here, and that is the difference between Lance and his next competitor (Lon I think). The difference between the two is very little (which would suggest same wattage (assuming roughly same weight and resistance)) even though one of them pedals higher cadence while the other pedals lower cadence and harder.

I'm pretty sure Lance was actually a triathlete that ended up going to pro-cycling later....fyi

Edited by clightle 2003-12-18 6:25 AM

if you plan on riding 3 times a week you can mix several different workout into your program. the nice thing about tri's is that you dont need the sprint day most cyclists have every week - although short efforts can be very helpful in improving your power on the bike. utilizing wattage is simply the most accurate way to train but its kind of spendy (ie - you dont suffer the lag from HR monitors and HR monitors simply tell you how your body is feeling while wattage tells you what your exact output is to the second). hr is better than nothing so if you have an hr monitor then you can def start to focus your workouts. i know friel has a cycling specific book and edmund burke also put out a few cycling specific books before he passed away last year. in the meantime you can work on building your aerobic base, power and lactate training by a) finding your max hr and Lactate Threshold b) mixing up these workouts. aerobic workout wld be spinning 95+ rpms about 20 beats below your LT - 30 - 45 mins depending on how much time you have. hills or 75-80 rpms on a heavy gear on your trainer is great for building power, esp in conjunction with an off season strength training program. 5 min reps of power, with 5 mins of spinning inb/w. sub-lactate training cld be 5 to 10 min intervals at 95-105% of LT (prob start at 5 and work up - 2 or 3 sets to start with equal rest inb/w). you can turn any ride or terrain into a good training situation! hope this is a bit helpful. you can also go to www.trainright.com and scoop some free workouts from chris carmichael

Riggler,

You mentioned Lactose threshold testing. I have been thinking of using this type of testing to determine how well I am getting into aerobic shape. I have Friels training bible which suggested basically a 30 min test using a hr monitor and percieved effort. The HR over the last 20 min is averaged and that is supposed to be close to your lactose threshold heart rate. Without having the expensive wattage equipment, which lactose threshold test would you recommend?

clightle - i wld recommend investing $50 bucks or so to get the test done professionally bc its so important to training. some college campus' athletic departments will prob do the test for free, some cycling coaches can prob do the test for you and a lot of fitness and probably fitness therapy places should have the right gear to administer the test.
otherwise, the conconi test is a way you can do the test with a hrm, trainer and speed monitor on your rear wheel - when i did this test it was off by 5 beats - ie - too high compared to the pro lactate test. conconi works best when you have someone to help you out. you describe perceived effort to them throughout the test, and they monitor your hr and you increase speed by .5 mph increments every 3 mins. i think you warm up for about 15 mins - then begin the test at 20 mph and go from there until you cant maintain speed - eg - at 26.5 mph you drop to 26 and then 25.5 = test over. your lactate threshold point is just below where your hr plateaus. if you type conconi test into google something describing it more accurately should come up, www.cyclesmart.com may also have the conconi test protocol on the site.
the wattage/lactate test is pretty cool and simple provided the administrator knows how to prick your finger and measure the lactic acid level in your blood. the machine they use is similar to what diabetics have and it isnt painful - esp when youre used to suffering a bit while training and racing so no worries. anyways - you basically warm up for 15 mins easy and start the test at 100 watts for 3 mins and increase the wattage by 50 everyone 3 min (a compu-trainer locks in the wattage so its stays at the same number until you increase it by 50 - and so on), keeping your cadence bw 70 and 90. blood is taken every 3 mins with your hr and the wattage number. you ride until you drop below 70 rpms and the test is over. you will then be able to see what your max wattage was and the administrator will use the blood samples and hr info to find out where your lactate threshold is, the corresponding hr and the corresponding wattage. i cant remember the exact measurement of lactate acid in your blood at threshold but its a fixed number and the test is pinpoint accurate. i hope this helps a bit.

Riggler,
Thanks for this info. I may check out places in my local area to have it checked professionally, but I think I also need to do a test myself to measure progress of training(throughout the season also). Living in southeastern Ohio (I actually work in West Virginia (You know...the movie "Wrong Turn")) which is pretty rural, so there aren't alot of fitness therapy places. I have been putting off some of my training with the excuse that I don't know my threshold limit. I am still in an aerobic endurance base build period, so I don't need speed, but still need to be raising the intensity level a little.

Edited by clightle 2003-12-22 5:24 AM