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Cycling Training Tips

PowerTap

Increase your threshold power: Join Power Meter Project 2008!

Back in January 2007 I did a Power Meter Project to find out how people I didn´t know personally responded to some of my training theories. They performed a 12 week training program with power profile tests in week 1, 6 and 12. The results were really impressive with progress in all major physiological parameters.

Now I’m looking for riders who want to be a part of my project:

Increase your threshold power in 31 days

Requirements:

Ӣ Age: 18 years or older
Ӣ Own a power meter (SRM, PowerTap, Ergomo or Polar CS600)
Ӣ Training amount: 10-14hrs per week.
Ӣ Follow the training plan strictly

What do you get?
You get a free 31 days training program that will increase your threshold power. There will be self performed physical tests on day 1 and 31. Training amount will be 10 to 14hrs per week. The training program will be personalized to your current physical fitness based on self performed tests.

If you are interested in being a part of this project, please leave a comment on this post. I will contact you via email with more info.

Last chance to participate is July 7th.

Increase your threshold power: Join Power Meter Project 2008! Read More »

Power Meter Training Made Simple

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

Power Meter Training Made Simple Read More »

SRM and PowerTap Are Not Allowed in the Pro Tour 2009

APRIL FOOL: UCI has declared that power meters like SRM, PowerTap etc. will not be allowed in the Pro Tour next year. There also a couple of other implementations for next years’ Pro Tour that may surprise some of you. I will give you a short summary of the press release:

Why Power meters are no longer allowed:
Ӣ There are significant better results from riders using power meters which indicate that they have a huge advantage during the races than other riders. UCI wants to make everybody equal (at least their equipment status) to make a fair competition.
Ӣ UCI has chosen to avoid dictation of how riders should ride from e.g. power meters or radio communication. These steps should make riders using their instincts instead of just acting like a machine. UCI has already disallowed radio communication in the U23 Nations Cup this year and implements the same rule in the Pro Tour 2009.

The press release also indicates that 2009 may very likely be the last season with heart rate monitors, carbon wheels and disc wheels. Service cars leave the peloton from 2011 which should be time enough for riders to learn what to do when they have a flat tire. Seems like it is going to be old school cycling in the future…!

My comment:
I think this decision is a huge step backwards for pro cycling. Power meters have shown their relevancy in broad range of situations and made training even more sophisticated. UCI can’t disallow power meters in training situations which means that riders using power meters will still have a great advantage. UCI is obviously not aware that the biggest advantage of power meters are in training rides and post-race-analyses. During the races the bonus from having a power meter mounted is minimal (except time trials). But having data files from the races is a really helpful thing for analysis of performance.

I have started collection of names on people who dislike the mistake of UCI:

Support my campaign: Legalize SRM and PowerTap

If you want to support my campaign, please write your name here. I will send the full list of names to the President of UCI. 10408 riders have already shown their support in this way.

What do you think? Should power meters be disallowed next year?

SRM and PowerTap Are Not Allowed in the Pro Tour 2009 Read More »

Review of SRM, Power Tap and Polar

SRM FSA Crank

Kraig Willett has made a comprehensive review of the three most used power meters: SRM, Power Tap and Polar. He explains in details how these power meters measure power output and presents results from his tests. He gives us a very detailed review of how SRM, Power Tap and Polar perform in price, performance, and durability. The review might be a bit difficult to understand for beginners, but it is really worth reading.

Here are some of the points from Kraig Willett:

On how the SRM crank system measures power output
“Instrumenting a mechanical structure allows one to convert the phenomenon of interest into an electrical signal that can be subsequently analyzed, mathematically manipulated, and then displayed to the user. Strain gages do just that in the SRM power measuring device.

The strain gages that SRM uses are nothing more than a piece of foil embedded in a plastic carrier. The resistance of the foil element changes depending on how much it is stretched/strained. The strain gages unique characteristic of changing resistance under strain is what allows the mechanical deflections that naturally occur in the structure to be converted into an electrical voltage signal.”

On accuracy of power meters
“Additionally, it can even be argued that absolute accuracy is not an issue, but rather, consistency over time or measurement repeatability is most important.”

On installing a Power Tab hub
“The Power Tap system is just about as close to ‘Plug and Play’ as one can get. The straightforward steps of installing a cassette and a tire on the wheel built with the Power Tap hub are nothing too difficult for your average bike racer. Once these steps are accomplished, one must simply drop the wheel in the dropouts and install the receiver and CPU mount with the supplied zip ties. The whole process should take 30 minutes at most.”

Read the full review of SRM, Power Tap and Polar

Review of SRM, Power Tap and Polar Read More »

How to Improve Your Time Trial Training

An individual time trial is a discipline with requirements for physiology, technique, tactics and psychology. Each of these categories has a potential for optimization that will make you faster. In the first article I will take a closer look on what you can do to optimize your physical performance in time trials.

VO2 max and threshold power are important
It is clear that the most obvious parameter for time trial performance is your physiological status. Maintaining a large percentage of your maximum oxygen consumption over a long period is essential in a time trial. Genes play an important role for your maximum oxygen consumption, so you will benefit from choosing your parents carefully. (If you read this it is probably already to late, sorry”¦)

Interval training can improve your aerobic system
Forget about the genes for a while. You have a great opportunity to optimize your aerobic engine through interval training. These intervals should be focused on workloads that require intensities at maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max) or just below. Training at this intensity not only boosts your VO2 max, it also improves your performance at lower intensity. That is probably not known by all cyclists, but the physiological adaptations you get from this training is the same as you get from the long ”˜threshold’ intervals. There is nothing magic about training at the threshold, it is not better than training slightly above or below the threshold. The interesting thing is how great a stimulus you put on your oxygen system and how long time you spend on that intensity, because that is what makes you better.

Use time trial power outputs to plan future intervals
Performing a time trial with a mounted power meter or simply making a maximum power output test will give you a picture of what intensity is required in the intervals. Intervals can be performed in many ways and they work wonderful for most riders – especially if they are performed as described in this article. The whole idea of doing intervals is to split up a long ride into shorter sections with high intensity. By doing this, you will be able to get more time at your planned oxygen consumption with less effort.

Use power output to control pace
I normally recommend serious riders to use a power meter for optimization of physical performance. The reason for this is that it is possible to control the workload very precisely, securing me that they train exactly what I am interested in. There are a lot of riders who start out too fast in intervals and then slow down in the last part of the interval. The problem about this is that the first part of the interval requires such a great amount of anaerobic work that they get exhausted too early. They reduce the pace and can’t maintain the power output required to stimulate the aerobic system sufficiently. The result is that the interval subjectively is a very hard experience, but objectively a poor controlled aerobic interval. If they just know how many watts they can maintain over a given period it is much easier for them to control the pace during the interval.

How to Improve Your Time Trial Training Read More »