New forum

[Velocomp]

Here is a forum where you can post questions about power training.

Since the racing season is ending Boyd will be looking for things to do, so fire away with your questions...

[lorduintah]

I would have thought Boyd would be building all those carbon bikes up????

Tom

[arkiejon]

I thought the big boys trained year round?

Sure he will have the time?

[coachboyd]

I have a way of fitting 30 or more hours into a day. . .including getting my 9 hours of sleep in.

I should be able to answer the questions in a very timely manner assuming there aren't hundreds of them.
Likewise, if other people have some good information and want to chime in with answers, this could be a very useful Q&A section of the forum.

[prs]

I am a new iBike user and have had some difficulty in doing "good" interval training. Most of the roads I ride on are undulating, some bigger hills (500+ ft elevation gain) and lots of smaller hills (100 ft elevation gain). So, I am riding along aiming for a specific target wattage and I find myself much higher than the target up the hills and then lower down the other side. Any thoughts or suggestions??

[coachboyd]

My typical road that I do my 2 X 20 minute intervals is fairly flat, but has some good roller sections in the middle. What I find is that going up the hills I feel like I have to hold back, my speed goes really low but the watts will stay the same. Then as I crest the hill I keep the pressure on the pedals. Going into the downhills you really have to focus to keep the watts high. Your speed will be really high as a result and you may feel like you are working harder to maintain the same watts.

Maintaining a steady wattage on rolling terrain can be a very tough thing to do and you may not be able to do it until you practice a few times. But you are still getting in the interval training and doing this kind of work will help you to increase your fitness.

Also, you should be using the User intervals when trying to do stuff like this. Being able to see the average watts at the start makes it so you don't come out of the gate too hot and then blow up, and it also gives you motivation in the last few minutes of your intervals when you are trying to maintain the average watts for that specific interval.

[prs]

As always, Coachboyd nails the issue. It is hard to back off the power up the hills, it almost feels as if I am not trying (and how can that be training!) and then I go down hill and I can't seem to try enough!

I like the idea of user profiles, does that mean I have to upgrade my iBike Sport to a Pro???

[kauhikoa]

Hello,

I am a 65 year old, 165 lb, cyclist who just got an iBike sport and would appreciate some help with using it to achieve my goal which is to complete the Cycle to the Sun race on August 20 in under 5 hours. My best time in previous years was 5 hrs 9 mins. The cycle to the sun is a 10,000' climb of Mt Haleakala in approx 36 miles.

I've completed the calibration and fitness test which said I was a level 4 with w/kg of 3.18 which translates to a FTP of 227. To complete the climb in under 5 hours I believe I have to average approx 190 watts. So if I can maintain 227 watts for one hour how do I calculate how many watts I can average over 5 hours, assuming I am adequately fueled and hydrated? And the corollary is what FTP do I need to be able to achieve that average wattage?

Although I have read a lot of articles about interval training with power I have not seen, or perhaps understood, how to use the power meter to improve endurance to the 5 hour or so level. The emphasis seems to be on preparing for crits and TT's. Does anyone have any advice for preparing for endurance?

Thank you for any advice anyone can provide.

[racerfern]

Cool stuff and great goal. Here's my take. ASSUMING no wind, you'll have to average about 175w to complete the ride in 5 hours. With an FTP of 227 that comes out to an intensity factor (IF) of .78 which is doable over this distance.

So... in theory you're right on the edge of being able to do it. How to train for it? If you're going to do a long steady ride then practice long steady climbing rides. Train hard, ride easy. Try doing long steady state rides where you maintain an even level of power. That's fairly easy to do on climbs but very challenging on flat or rolling terrain.

Very important to not forget about a significant loss of power above 4000'. I feel the effects of altitude at 3000' although small, it's still there. By the time you get to 7000' you're going to be way down on power. So if you attempt to be above 175w at the lower altitudes you might burn yourself up by the time 8000' comes around.

Go find some long climbs at altitude and ride and ride and ride.

Keep us posted.

[still-chasing]

Hi Fernando,
Is that prediction table found in the software? Thanks.

[racerfern]

WWW.BIKECALCULATOR.COM there are options for metric or english. Also for deriving power requirements from other data or deriving speed from known power. Cool site.

[still-chasing]

Thanks!!

[kauhikoa]

Thank you Fernando.

I live on Haleakala so no problem finding long steep rides!

So you seem to be saying build endurance rather than power? This will be my 6th attempt to break 5 hrs and I have always focused on endurance in the past with long steady climbs so this time I decided to work on building power to see if I could get my time down. So I think I'll combine some uphill intervals with the steady climbs to improve my FTP.

Interesting point you make about losing power at altitude, I'll do some climbs above 7,000 to see how the power declines.

[racerfern]

Here's what happens to me and it's ONLY 6900' to the top. This is from August 2010 and I've since learned to keep my cadence up. However, the end result is the same. Power drops as you climb and climb. There's no stopping it. This is 20 minute smoothing.

[kauhikoa]

Very interesting, thank you.

This chart shows available O2 by altitude



It shows a 10% drop at 7,000'. Your power seems to drop from around 190 to 140 - a 26% drop so perhaps the extra 16% is due to fatigue.

There's also a calculator here http://www.skyrunner.com/story/pikespeako2.htm
which shows a different result - closer to your actual power loss.