Hard But Good Commute Today

My commute is just 25.7 kms of rolling terrain between Capitol Hill & Redmond. On fast days I can cover it in about an hour, like today for instance:

Entire workout (215 watts):
Duration: 1:01:55
Work: 814 kJ
TSS: 91.4 (intensity factor 0.941) (IF=1.0 is the equivalent of a 1 hour time trial at your threshold)
Norm Power: 268
VI: 1.22
Distance: 25.492 km
Elevation Gain: 557 m
Elevation Loss: 553 m
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 992 219 watts
Cadence: 15 142 75 rpm
Speed: 0 72.9 26.3 kph
Altitude: 2 118 51 m
Crank Torque: 0 201.6 28.7 N-m

Interestingly, I did this commute faster yesterday (e.g. higher avg speed, less overall time) but with a lower average power. Just goes to show that average speed alone isn't the best indicator of a workout, even for the same ride. (The main difference between these two rides were timing of stoplights, rather, getting a lot of reds today)

Today I just tried to concentrate on keeping my power output near my threshold of 285 watts. The thing is, it's really easy to attack a climb at 400-500w (well, not easy, but doable anyway), but then I'm cooked on the downhill and can barely put out 100w.

But by pacing like this, I was able to hold 250+ watts on some of the downhills, which I normally can't/dont' do. (And for what it's worth, it's generally more challenging to hold your threshold power on downhills)

Here's the power distribution from the commute, with a few notes:

It's hard to gauge your FTP (Functional Threshold Power, the theorhetical amount of power you can sustain for one hour) doing mostly solo rides or the big endurance rides us randos do. Which is why it takes a hard ride like this to get a better idea of where your FTP is.

And here's the graph of the overall ride (yellow=power, orange=elevation):

When I get some time I'd like to post an analysis of the 300k from a few weeks ago. In a way, this power data is kind of a like a flight data recorder. Data is just plain fun, what can I say?

PS: for the power junkies out there, I know you're missing one piece of info you probably want in order to calculate my w/kg. That would be my weight, which is as of this week 68.4 kg (~151 lbs). That's down from 160 lbs a few months ago!

A Little Bit Of Justice

So on the commute home tonight I was cruising down a little hill on Mercer Island at 25+mph, heading towards Seattle. It was dark, and I could see a car's headlights on my legs and on the road - so I wasn't surprised a sedan shot around me, of course 50 feet or so before a stop sign, a classic move. (I wonder how much fuel is wasted on dumb accelerations around the world?)

All I was thinking was that they're probably even going over the speed limit (30?) just to get in front of me and then immediately stop!

And then whaddya know? All of a sudden the surroundings light up with blue/red flashing lights!! And then a commanding voice on the loudspeaker. I've never been happier to see those lights.

Guess the cop was watching the whole thing. I made sure to come to a complete stop at the sign, with the foot down (not the usual "Cali stop"). I also made sure to give a nice wave/smile to the driver, just to rub it in. Justice!!

The ironic thing is that had the driver just stayed behind me in the first place, I'm guessing I would have been the one pulled over (for not stopping completely). Just goes to show, patience pays.

Stop Reading Here, If You Hate Power Data!

Alex pointed out that my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) was probably set too low (it was at 259w), since last weekend's 4.5 hour training ride scored 300+ TSS.

I think it comes down to the the 20-minute test (NP: 271w) I did that included cars & stop signs to slow me down. I really need to do that test again..

But there are other ways to estimate your threshold, and one (crude) method is looking for the drop-off in your power distribution chart. Well, according to that method it looks like I'm closer to 300 watts. Sweet!

(chart is not including zeroes, and the bucket size is 15w)

Anyway I still need to do another test, but hopefully the numbers are indeed better than I thought.

Training (And Playing) With Power

Well I finally broke down and bought another fancy cycling gizmo. This one doesn't generate electricity like the dynohub - in fact it measures energy output. In other words, I bought a PowerTap.

There are many choices in the PT realm, and I went with what seemed most reasonable: the PRO+ model. It ain't cheap, but I'll be sure to get lots of use at it, and shouldn't have a problem bringing the $/mi ratio to a 1:1 level (e.g., ride it more than 1,000 miles) within a few months.

Why a PowerTap?

Well it started out with my at the computer, with a debit-card burning a hole in my pocket. Should I spring for some aero wheels for the Ciocc? Those would make me faster, right?

Then I thought that perhaps I could actually improve myself, e.g. the engine. And for that, you don't need fancy wheels (well you don't really need a PT, but it makes it easier I think).

How I used to "train"

Also, a little background on my previous "training" - if you could call it that. I used to just go out for 50-70 mile rides, and just hammer away, trying to keep the intensity up. No structure really, just out pounding the pavement.

But after reading The Cyclist's Training Bible, I've come to learn what structured training looks like: intervals, hill repeats, and rest days (there's a lot more to it, but these are the basics). I'd never done any of those things before, especially "rest days," or even recovery rides. The idea of going out and not trying to go hard is alien to me, but I'm slowly getting used to it.

Is it for racing?

Not really. I've done one TT, but that's pretty much the only real race I've done. Nonetheless I'd like to do a few crits this year (like the Volunteer Park & Boat Street ones in Seattle).

But if I do decide to jump into racing, having this PT data will definitely be useful.

Is it for brevets?

I'm not counting on it, as the battery life of the Garmin 705 unit is "only" 15 hours.. Sure the PT head-unit probably would have a few more hours in it, but for something like a 600k (40 hours or less) I'm not sure the combination could last.

More importantly, the wattage data wouldn't really help you unless you were doing the brevet as a Time Trial, which is a bad idea unless you're pro. In the end, it would probably just distract you from the scenery you got out to enjoy!

The real fun (in terms of power training) starts when you analyze the ride afterwards. Then you can see where your peak zones were, when you lagged, and what you could improve next time.

Although just in case I feel the need to bring it on a brevet, I did get it laced to an Open Pro rim (sorry, Narayan!). So using it on a 200k or 300k brevet certainly isn't out of the question.. And since it's not laced to a carbon Zipp, I don't have to worry about "training" on it and having it blow up at great cost.

(It would be interesting to see the PT on the Pacer, with Honjo fenders, and a dynohub! I bet you don't see many PT's set up like that..)

That's great but... let's see some results!

Oh are there ever results. More graphs & charts than you can shake a stick at. Let's start with what some call the "e-wang" chart (e.g. a Power Profile):

Moving left to right we have:

• 5-sec power (11.79 w/kg*) - relatively weak, in the "Untrained/non-racer" category. This would be sprinting-ability, more or less.
• 1-min power (5.68 w/kg) - even weaker - ouch! (Although I haven't really done any 1-min intervals/tests yet, so maybe I'm better than that..)
• 5-min power (4.03 w/kg) - a bit better than the others, surely hinting at my long-distance background. The chart shows me at a Cat 4 level! Surely something's not right there.. =]
• Functional Threshold power (3.2 w/kg) - this one has me pegged at almost in the Cat 4 range, again hinting at my LD-background. (Although I still think I wouldn't be able to keep up with the intesity of a crit, but I hope to find out this year)

* You will notice the "w/kg" notation - this is watts/kilograms. While one may want to just brag about their high wattage numbers, your weight factors into the equation. Thus, losing a few pounds actually has the effect of bringing these numbers up!

Here's the home-screen on WKO+. It shows your wattage breakdown for the last 28 days, and just about any other datapoint you can come up with.

(edit: power zones are off)

By the way, I'm getting all these fancy graphs and data from an app called WKO+. There's a free two-week trial of it, but the cost is worth it! I love me some graphs.. and does it ever deliver - I think it puts Garmin's Training Center to shame: (here you can see it highlighting my 20min peak wattage)

A few more stats

• After doing a "Functional Threshold" (FT) test, I set my FT at about 240 watts (90% of a 20-minute test). FT is the theorhetical amount of power you could put out for one hour, at the max exertion level.
• My max 1-sec wattage is a whopping 918 watts! (Although from what I can tell, this isn't even as high as some cat 4/5ers).