Power meter measures force and velocity
Power (watts) = Force * velocity
Force - torque (force applied to pedals)
Velocity - cadence and RPM, pedaling fast
More power - use a higher gear and maintain the same cadence, or just increase the cadence
Aerobic capacity (Vo2max)
- how much oxygen your body is capable of using when producing high levels of power
- when more oxygen is used at a maximal endurance workload, more fat is burned
Anaerobic Threshold (AT)
- you start to close in on your limit, % of Vo2max, closer AT/Vo2max, fitter you are and faster you can ride
Economy
- meters per millilitre of oxygen, less oxygen you spent turning the pedals, more economical you are
Power meter ANT+ technology
- Power
- Heart rate
- Duration
- Cadence
- Altitude
- Speed
- Temperature
- Other (W/KG, ZONE, NORM PWR, TSS, IF, VAM, KJ/HR, L-R)
Kilojoules
- power is also an indicator of how much energy you’re expending during a ride, the mechanical energy is expressed in kiloJoules
- 1 kiloCalorie equals about 4 kiloJoules, 25% is generated to mechanical energy the rest is lost to the heat your body gives off
Average Power
- average power during the ride (time)
Normalised Power
- expression of average power adjusted for the range of variability during a ride more closely reflects the effort or metabolic cost of a ride
- power / weight (rider)
- what the workout felt like, energy cost of a ride
Power and Time
- power and time are inversely related
Power and Heart Rate
- heart rate zones are quite constant, power zones varies a lot during a season
FTP
- Highest mean maximal power an athlete can hold for 60min
- Represent athlete fitness and can change during time
- Most important objective is to keep FTP high as possible
Power zones
- Each zone is % of the Functional Threshold Power (FTP)
- Active Recovery (zone 1) %FTP < 55, RPE < 2
- Aerobic Endurance (zone 2) %FTP 56-75, RPE 2-3
- Tempo (zone 3) %FTP 76-90, RPE 4-5
- Lactate Threshold (zone 4) %FTP 91-105, RPE 6-7
- Vo2max (zone 5) %FTP 106-120, RPE 7-8
- Anaerobic Capacity (zone 6) %FTP 121-150, RPE > 8
- Sprint Power (zone 7) %FTP > 150, RPE Maximal
Workouts
- Aerobic endurance (zone 2 and zone 3)
- Muscular force (some zone 7 and longs zone 1)
- Speed skills
- Muscular endurance (zone 3 and zone 4)
- Anaerobic endurance (zone 5 and zone 6 and zone 1)
- Sprint power (some zone 7)
- Recovery (zone 1)
Intensity
- Focus of training
- 60% of training accounts on intensity, 40% on ride length
- Relates with Power: Intensity Factor, Peak Power profiling, Pacing, Matches
Intensity Factor (%) = Normalised Power / FTP
Peak Power profiling
- Best power athlete can generate for a given amount of time
- Depends on type of rider (sprinter, road cyclist, endurance)
- Power profile shows Peak Power during time
- Logarithmic scale
Pace
- Glycogen is the storage form of carbohydrate
- More power output, body produces more acid
- Variability Index (VI) = Normalised Power / average power
- more power spikes, more NP, the VI will change
- VI of 1.0 would mean perfect pacing
Burning Matches
- Athlete has several matches to burn during a race, it depends on VI
- He needs to spent them wisely and at the right moments
Efficiency Factor
- Relationship between heart rate and power
- Heart rate is input and power is output
- Analogy: how many miles (output) it gets per gallon of fas (input)
Power-Training Components
- Frequency, duration and intensity
Workload
- Sum of frequency, duration and intensity
- Hard training causes stress and body responds with fatigue
- Body begins to adapt to the new level of stress (fitness)
- Workload increase means an increase in fitness
- Training Stress Score (TSS) - combination of duration and intensity for a single workout
- TSS = (workout duration in seconds * NP * IF) / (FTP * 3600) * 100