Power Meter Project – Week 1

Today is the first day in the Power Meter Project 2007. The following 12 weeks are dedicated for wattage-controlled intervals for the 5 participants. This week the riders will perform four critical power tests that will be used to calculate intervals. These tests will be repeated in week 6 and 12 to evaluate their progress.

Maximum power tests in week 1
The riders will do maximum power tests at 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 20 minutes. These tests are done to visualize their respective sprinting power, anaerobic endurance power, VO2 max, and threshold power. These parameters can be trained selectively with a power meter if you know how to do it. I will make the training programs based on their personal goals in combination with the test results.

Predictions for the Power Meter Project

I hope that this project will help the riders better understand their potential as riders. Wattage-controlled training programs are, in my opinion, the best way to control training intensity. Also, it is a perfect way to train for specific physiological qualities, e.g., anaerobic endurance.

I predict that all the riders will progress compared to the four tests performed in week 1. I have three reasons for this. These reasons should be considered when you evaluate the project:

1. Motivation – I guess that a part of the predicted progress can be explained by motivation. A motivated rider trains harder and makes better results than a non-motivated rider.
2. Structure – I don’t know how the participants’ training structure were before this project, but it is not uncommon that getting a little structure on the training program (or just having a training program) improves performance.
3. Wattage – Power meter training helps the riders to train at the right intensity. Training at the right intensity does a difference and will significantly improve performance.