May 13, 2008
Training and Racing with a Power Meter
is written by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan as an introduction to power meter training and analyzing. It is easy-to-read language throughout the book and if you already know a thing or two about using a power meter, you will finish this book fast.
There is a detailed description on the different power meters on the market helping you decide which power meter is the right for you. I think this presentation is objective and quite useful for beginners. Thus, there are some pages you might skip if you already own a power meter. There is also a short intro to the main advantages by using a power meter. I agree with most of the words in these chapters.
There are some examples of workouts you can do with a power meter. The testing procedure to make a power profile and training programs are different from the ones I prefer, but it would be boring if all coaches ended up with the same training programs. There are some good basic principles in these programs and just like all other programs they should be modified individually. The major advantage is that it clearly shows beginners how to train with a power meter and also underlines the importance of post-training and post–races analysis.
The authors work closely together with TrainingPeaks which means that most analyzing refers to features in this software. This is logic but sometimes the book looks more like an extra manual to the software. When you look beside this, there is a great description of the features that TrainingPeaks offers.
Conclusion
This is a great introductory book about training and racing with a power meter for beginners. It is also a nice book for coaches who haven’t yet had the pleasure to work with athletes using SRM Cranks or PowerTaps, but want to know what power meter training is all about. This book shows you why power meters are getting so popular and gives you the initial tools to getting started racing and training with a power meter.
May 3, 2008
Cycling training should not be made more difficult than it already is. Consider how many cyclists who have won great races, championships and honour without knowing anything significant about cycling training principles, nutrition or training planning (not to mention heart rate monitors, power meters etc.) There are a lot athletes having success, because they have talent and do a lot of clever things without knowing it: They train hard, they rest and they eat proper amounts of food.
Thus, they make above 95% of their potential performance by doing these things right. Advanced training methods can only add a few watts to this, but in tough competitions these can be crucial. But for a beginning it can be valuable to read these articles to avoid the most common mistakes and understand the basic principles of high quality cycling training:
Recovery Tips for Cyclists
Basic Principles of Cycling Training
Heart Rate Monitor Training Mistakes
Strength Training Mistakes
April 26, 2008
Riding with a Power Tap or SRM Crank mounted on your bike doesn’t have to be rocket science. Actually you can benefit from using a power meter without knowing much about exercise physiology. In this article I will show you how you can benefit from a power meter without knowing anything about exercise physiology.
In the Power Meter Project I used maximum power tests to get a profile of the rider’s performance at different distances. These tests represent what freaks like me would call anaerobic alactacid sprint power, anaerobic lactacid endurance power, maximum oxygen consumption power and threshold power. But it is not necessary to fully understand these terms to get a great value from a power meter.
Example: Time trialist, 25km, personal best: 40min. avg. 320Watts.
You are a time trialist that competes in competitions with a finishing time of 40 minutes. By using a power meter in a couple of these events you will know how many watts you can maintain for such a period and then you will know how you shall pace yourself in a future race or at training sessions. Whether you try to do long rides at your maximum race pace or try to split it up in shorter intervals is not as important right now. What I want you to know is that you have a great opportunity to do some really good workouts by knowing your race pace power. Also there should be some seconds to cut off from your personal records by having a better pace strategy during the time trial. This is easily achieved with a power meter.
Suggestions for interval training:
5 x (6min 320Watts + 4min 160Watts)
2 x (15min 320Watts + 10min 160Watts)
Not that difficult, right?
April 19, 2008
Most races end up in a bunch sprint, which normally is exclusively for the sprinters. But it is only a small percentage of Training4cyclists.com’s readers who are pure sprinters and play a role on the last 200m. I will now make a short description of how you can win the next bunch sprint – at least in the theory…
1. Pick your parents carefully
When it comes to true sprinters, genes play a big role. Sprinters are born to be sprinters. It is said that you can make a slow donkey to a faster donkey, but you can never make a donkey to a race horse. This animal is simply born to be slow and it is the same situation for many non-sprinters. Naturally born sprinters have a higher percentage of fast twitch fibres than normal people. Road cycling sprinters are not as pure sprinters as you see them in track and field. This is because the sprinters have to carry themselves a long distance before they can see the finish line.
Before you give up, it is important to notice that in many races, stronger riders use the terrain to challenge the sprinters before the final 200m. They attack on the hills and make jumps in the crosswinds. That is their chance to beat the sprinters. So if you already know that the sprinters are faster than you, then you have 3 options: Attack, attack, attack… Got it?
2. Be patient
Save your energy for the final km. Until then, your job is to get through the race as easily as possible. There are many riders who could do a reasonable sprint, but they do not do it as they spend energy on desperate attacks because they do not believe in themselves. So make your decision before the race and stick to it. If you decide to go for the sprint, do it 100 percent. Otherwise forget about it.
3. Get in position
Sprint is all about position. If you are not in position you will never win a sprint even if you are the fastest sprinter. Keep the wheel of a sprinter you know is going to be among the first riders. If you are lucky or talented, you might have team mates that will help you get in position.
4. Be strong
Power is important, and for sprinters power is essential. If you want to make an incredibly fast sprint, you’ve got to train for it. That means specific sprint and anaerobic endurance training, and maybe strength training. You can read more about strength and sprint training here at this blog.
April 8, 2008
Here is an interview with Dirk Friel who is a co-founder of TrainingPeaks.com. One of his jobs is to help professional riders and coaches to analyze data from power meters. Since one of the biggest topics here on Training4cyclists.com is power meter training, it is a pleasure to get some additional info from one of the experts into analyzing of power meter files. This interview is quite long, but I hope you enjoy it, there are several good points waiting for you!
Read the full interview with Dirk Friel here!
