Here - Joe Friel
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1. 129 163 Aerobic capacity VO max 29 Aerobic Endurance zone 2 51 63t Aerobic endurance workouts 65 156 157 162 and triathlons 177 178 Altitude display ALT FT ALT MT GRADE FT GAIN MTR Gain 37 38 Anaerobic Capacity zone 6 52 63t Anaerobic endurance workouts 67 68 150 161 Anaerobic threshold AT aka lactate thresh old 29 30 as percentage of VOjmax 30 See also Lactate threshold heart rate ANT technology 35 Armstrong Lance as combination artist and scientist athlete 14 Artist athletes 13 14 Average power 41 Barometric pressure display 37 38 Base period training 91 92 105 aerobic endurance workouts 93 95 95t and aerobic fitness 92 century rides 201 203 202t 203t decoupling 97 101 98f 99f 100f 157 efficiency factor EF 92 95 95t emphasis on general fitness 91 key workouts 147 road races 147 156 158 156t 159t sweet spot workouts 96 97 97t time trials 147 156 158 156t 159t triathlons 176 179 177t 178t 180t Bonking 194 Build period training 91 92 105 emphasis on race specific preparation 92 101 and intensity factor IF 101 road race specific workout 102 103 102f for road racing 147 149 159 161 160f 161f for time trials 147 149 161 162 160t 163t and training stress score TSS 101 triathlon specific workout 103 105 104f Byrn Gordo 165 Cadence calculation of by power meter 25 display RPM or CAD 37 and prod2. All rights reserved JOE FRIEL is the cofounder of TrainingPeaks com and TrainingBible Coach ing With a master of science degree in exercise science he has an exten sive background in coaching having trained endurance athletes since 1980 His clients have included novices elite amateurs and professionals The list includes an Ironman Triathlon winner USA and foreign national champi ons world championship competitors and an Olympian Joe is the author of several books including The Cyclist s Training Bible The Triathletes Training Bible The Mountain Bikers Training Bible Cycling Past 50 Your First Triathlon Your Best Triathlon and Total Heart Rate Train ing and coauthor of Going Long The Paleo Diet for Athletes Precision Heart Rate Training and Triathlon Science He has been a columnist for Inside Triathlon VeloNews and 220 maga zines and he frequently writes articles for other international magazines and web sites He conducts seminars and camps for endurance athletes and pro vides consulting services to corporations and to national governing bodies As an age group competitor he is a former Colorado State Masters Triathlon Champion and a Rocky Mountain region and Southwest region duathlon age group champion He has been named to several All American teams and has represented the United States at world championships He also competes in USA Cycling bike races and time trials Joe Friel may be contacted through his
3. The changes will be rather dramatic You ll be looking at 34 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved power numbers to determine how hard you are working At first that will take some getting used to if you ve been watching heart rate or monitoring perceived exertion Over time the changes will gradually become smaller and more refined Eventually you ll be an old hand at training and racing with power I ll help you get there one step at a time The first step is to understand the figures that are being displayed on your handlebar computer which is also called a head unit What you see displayed there depends on the type of power meter you have Some head units are specific to the power meters with which they came If you have such a device you must use the head unit that came with the meter If there is a wire running from the power measuring device to the head unit on your handlebars then there s no doubt that the one that came with the device is the one you must use Most power meters today are wireless and a wireless system may give you more options for head units Many wireless systems use what s called ANT technology This is a type of wireless communication between the handlebar computer and the power measuring device in the crank bottom bracket pedal or rear hub Its becoming a common standard Any ANT power head unit can be us
4. always the most useful measurement for our purposes Instead as you ll see in a moment you will want to use Normalized Power NP for most of your analysis Getting Started with Your Power Meter 41 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Normalized Power Why Not Just Average Power Even though I will occasionally use average power as a metric in the chap ters that follow I ll frequently refer to Normalized Power as it is better at taking into account what you experience while riding Normalized Power is simply an expression of average power adjusted for the range of variability during a ride and therefore more closely reflects the effort or metabolic cost of a ride than does average power So what does normalized mean One way to normalize data is to divide one set by another For example we could normalize the power of several riders for their weights and in fact we will do so in a later chapter To do this we divide power by body weight For example if rider A weighs 180 pounds and his average power for a given ride was 210 watts his power normalized for weight would be 1 17 watts per pound 210 180 1 17 We could compare that with rider B s data on the same course If B weighs 120 pounds and had an average power of 150 watts her power normalized for weight would be 1 25 150 120 1 25 So we could conclude that even though A puts out far more averag
5. desktop application and the data is stored on your computer s hard drive With WKO you may also upload it to TrainingPeaks for backup in case something goes wrong with your computer WKO is compatible only with PCs it can t be used with a Mac unless you have virtu alization software that enables Windows software to run on a Mac What About a Coach Some riders strongly dislike anything to do with analysis They want to know how they are training and what they can do to get fitter and faster but they don t want to even glance at software charts and graphs My wife is one such person a strong rider who has no interest in analysis She has me to help I hope that s not the only reason she keeps me around If youd like help I highly recommend hiring a coach to do your analysis and planning I ve trained hundreds of cycling triathlon and mountain bike coaches to use the methods explained here You can find them listed at cycleops com coaches HAVING READ PART I you now should have a basic understanding of what a power meter is and generally how it can help you become a stronger cyclist Now it s time to move on to Part II and how you can start training and racing with your power meter to become fitter and faster 48 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Abilities 65 69 Active Recovery zone 1 51 63t Acute Training Load ATL
6. explore in much greater detail later in the book For now let s look at how they interact Power and Time You re probably already starting to get some thoughts about how to train with power From the last section you should now understand that the power data on your handlebars is closely related to your effort and expended energy while riding a bike Power is also closely related to the duration time of the workout or race or a segment of one of those 44 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved As time increases power decreases if you are working at or near maxi mal effort This should be obvious by now if you ve gotten in a few rides with your power meter You ve probably done a short sprint of a few seconds at some point in a workout or race and seen the spike in power on your head unit and in the software chart after downloading the session Do you think you could hold that same sprint power output for an hour Absolutely not Would you be able to hold that sprint power for a minute Again absolutely not if the sprint was an all out effort of only a few seconds Your personal power levels are specific to the duration of the output As the time of the workout increases the normalized and average powers will decrease if you are riding with a high effort This should be obvious in racing It is also true of intervals which we ll examine in
7. head unit or in software you can refer to the Glossary for help KiloJoules In Chapter 2 I told you that watts the unit of measure for power is an indi cator of how much energy you re expending during a ride That may have seemed a strange way to explain something that deals with how much force you are generating and how fast your cadence is But they are really one and the same The greater your power is owing to the combination of force and cadence the more energy it takes to pedal the bike As humans we usually think of energy expended in Calories A Calorie with a capital C is the same as 1 000 calories and the scientific term for the Calories we burn is kiloCalories The distinction is pointless in general conversation but it is useful for training You see mechanical energy the kind you create on your bike and that your power device senses is expressed in kiloJoules This is what your power meter is measuring and what shows up on the head unit And the relationship between kiloCalories and kilo Joules gives you a good picture of how much fuel you burn which in turn can help you plan your nutrition 40 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Here s how it works 1 kiloCalorie equals about 4 kiloJoules actu ally it s 4 184 but we don t need to be nearly that precise here Humans pedaling a bike are rough
8. in the energy you used to pedal Normalized Power does The concept of Normalized Power is critical for power meter training because it reveals the true effort of a ride by accounting for variability I will refer to NP frequently throughout the following chapters to help lock it in let me give you a real life example of NP from two of my recent rides Not too long ago I had only 1 hour to work out between other com mitments You know how it is sometimes you have to shoehorn bike rides in whenever you can by working around other responsibilities I happen to live at the top of a 1 mile hill that is about a 5 percent grade What I did for this short workout was repeats on the hill for 1 hour On the climbs I rode at a hard effort with several short surges thrown in all the way to the top Once at the crest I turned around and coasted back down without pedal ing After 1 hour my average power was 141 watts The next day I was a bit tired from the hard workout the day before so I went for a moderate effort steady ride on a flat course Interestingly my average power was once again 141 watts Now there was nothing about those two workouts that was even remotely the same except for the average power I burned a lot more calories per hour climbing and descending the hill than I did riding steadily In fact NP reflected this difference The hill climbing workout had an NP of 176 watts For the moderate effort ride it was 149 watts If I had onl
9. much greater detail in later chapters Power and time are inversely related when one changes the other changes in the opposite direction The 5 Percent Rule explains this The 5 Percent Rule says that when the duration of a session or a seg ment doubles the power you generate to ride at a maximal effort for the longer duration decreases by about 5 percent For example if you do a short time trial race that takes 20 minutes and you will soon do another that is expected to take 40 minutes you can estimate that the power of the longer one will be about 5 percent less than that of the shorter race So if your aver age power was 240 watts in the 20 minute race the estimated average power for the 40 minute race would be 228 watts 240 x 0 05 12 240 12 228 The 5 Percent Rule is helpful whenever you try to calculate from a known duration to a new duration so that you can estimate the required power for a maximal effort There is an interesting exception to this rule that Pll explain in Chapter 4 in the section that describes how to determine your Functional Threshold Power Getting Started with Your Power Meter 45 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Power and Heart Rate You ve probably been training with a heart rate monitor for a long time now They ve been around since the late 1970s and can be found on nearly all riders at the start lines of races To make
10. peaking 162 164 and periodization 154 racelike and recovery workouts 164 recovery workouts 152 154 secondary workouts 151 152 training points 141 and TSB ATL balance 163 and TSS 162 warning to novices 154 155 Torque 24 Training and aerobic capacity VOzmax 29 and anaerobic threshold AT aka lactate threshold 29 30 defined 3 4 duration 119 120 and economy 30 32 frequency 118 119 frequency duration and intensity as key components 118 FTP changes 106 gauging changes 105 116 intensity 120 monitoring peak power changes 110 112 111f 112f monitoring power distribution changes 106 108 107f monitoring power profile changes 112 116 114f 115f monitoring watts per kilograms changes 108 110 to race 140 stages 91 92 stress and rest 28 29 training stress score TSS 121 125 warnings to novices 154 155 175 workload 120 121 See also Base period training Build period training Century rides Triathlons Training Stress Balance TSB 133 163 See also Form Training stress score TSS 121 122 and build period 101 147 148 as combination of duration and intensity 122 123 display TSS 39 example 123 125 fatigue 128 130 130f 131f Index 231 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved and fitness 125 128 127f formula 123 and time trials 162 TrainingPeaks software 38 48
11. rights reserved a bit That s common with both systems and reflects handoffs between newly arriving overhead satellites GPS or changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure barometer Which is more accurate for determin ing altitude GPS or a barometer There s a fair amount of disagreement on this matter among experts For our purposes in riding a bike it s not important What we want is reliability For example your bathroom scale is probably not absolutely accurate to the ounce but you hope it is reli able you are confident that if it shows a change of 1 pound what changed was you and not the scale That s the same sort of confidence we want in your power meter You may even find that when you download the data after a ride alti tude changes such as feet or meters gained and starting and ending alti tudes displayed on your head unit don t agree with what the software says That s also common and has to do with the algorithms being used by each to compute altitude Some software such as TrainingPeaks and WKO correct your elevation profile based upon known coordinates in the U S Geological Survey USGS database when GPS is used Of course the most important piece of altitude data is feet gained rather than actual altitude at any point in the ride Regardless I d recommend relying on the one shown by your software and always using it for workout analysis Speed I ve never met a cyclist who isn t inte
12. the best use of your heart rate monitor you ve set up zones In the next chapter Pll show you how to set power zones to use in much the same way as you ve done with your heart rate zones But before doing that I want to make sure you understand the relationship between these two sets of zones as it is confusing for many ath letes especially when they start comparing heart rate zones and power zones during rides In your first year or so of serious training your heart rate zones stabilize as you become more aerobically fit Once your zones have stabilized there will be only slight changes found in testing over the course of a season These changes are more likely the result of how tired or rested you are when test ing they could also be due to factors such as diet air temperature and even motivation rather than how fit you are Heart rate zones are quite constant They change very little In contrast power zones may vary a lot during a season And that s a good thing As your endurance fitness improves you are capable of achiev ing greater power outputs at any given heart rate In Chapter 7 I ll show you how to use this change to measure aerobic fitness improvement This means your power zones will change significantly as your fitness changes yet your heart rate zones will remain unchanged The two sets of zones may be about the same early in the season when fitness is at a low point In other words in the early base period when
13. 39 Heart rate 9 10 disconnection from performance output 11 16 17 display HR 36 effect of hill climb on 14 16 15f as measure of input 16 17 outside forces affecting 11 and power 46 47 Input 93 heart rate and RPE as measures of 16 17 Intensity 72 120 155 and warm up 155 Intensity Factor IF 71 72 73 74 and build period 101 and century rides 192 193 common ones 73t display 39 and FTP 72 73 and recovery workouts 153 154 and triathlons 167 169 and triathlon specific workout 103 105 Ironman and economy 31 KiloJoules 40 41 per hour display KJ HR 39 Lactate Threshold zone 4 52 63t See also Anaerobic threshold Lactate threshold heart rate LTHR 52 53 Left right pedal balance display L R 39 Mashers 32 Matches 71 defined 85 86 88 and steady state races 88 89 88t 146 and training for road racing 160 using Fast Find in WKO 86 87f and variably paced races 84 86 Multisystem training 14 16 Muscles as focus of training 10 type 1 slow twitch 27 type 2 fast twitch 27 type 2a 27 28 type 2x 28 Muscular endurance workouts 66 67 150 151 179 Muscular force workouts 65 66 158 179 Normalized power 42 44 94 96 display NORM PWR 39 Output 93 power as measure of 16 17 speed as measure of 16 17 Pacing 71 Pacing and acidosis 78 79 and 50 40 30 20 10 Rule 83 84 83t 145 146 168 195 196 and glycogen 77 79 in road rac
14. Can It Help Me 1 WHY USE A POWER METER o oo ccc ccc ccccsecssecssccesessecsseessvcsteesneres 3 Why POWGR 2 2 6cs56 570i casadenSsceudibssoudaatedeh caasandnticbedoeitad gadoaddned apain aa dagh asi tadmtacens 5 Why Not Heart Rate Speed or Feel Output and Input MOT AT ms WANTING icon avestesseiacitan sansa A EENE del E tingauganes satan auna lms ii 17 2 WHAT IS POWER f The Basics of Power aa PLEET RPA How a Power Meter WOrKS 00 cccccccsccccessecesseteesccssrssseccsstseesectsseesenssisesennegs Getting Fitter and Faster with Power 0 cccccccesceecesceeteestestesteeteneneteenes 3 GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR POWER METER l a 33 What s on Your Handlebars siiiscssssctssaviviadon dlessbeosvdausipeiiatanniveavinrecuagicidaavatadeie 34 KiloJoules Average Power and Normalized Power Power s Relationships with Time and Heart Rate ee sid Making Sense OF IVAN ccrann nE PART II How Can Train More Effectively Using My Power Meter 4 YOUR POWER ZONES ooo cccccccsectscesectsrittratsctsrtstenaneaees 51 Power Zones a a Re FTP Your Most Important Number 52 Your Personal Power ZONES cccccccccceseccscsssseeccteseeescssseeeeecesseesesteseeesersaaess 61 5 RIDING WITH INTENSITY How Hard Do You Ride How Well DO YOUR ACG siscosncsoridvicesen npsatewucan saa vendetaacdetvendanas wusidadonncenieeybanetives 77 Bunning Mathes sucres en
15. POWER METER HANDBOOK A User s Guide for Cyclists and Triathletes Copyright 2012 by Joe Friel All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or photocopy or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations within critical articles and reviews Ironman is a registered trademark of World Triathlon Corporation Acute Training Load Chronic Training Load Intensity Factor Normalized Power Performance Management Chart Training Stress Score and Variability Index are trademarks of Peaksware LLC velopress 3002 Sterling Circle Suite 100 Boulder Colorado 80301 2338 USA 303 440 0601 Fax 303 444 6788 E mail velopress competitorgroup com Distributed in the United States and Canada by Ingram Publisher Services A Cataloging in Publication record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 978 1 934030 95 0 For information on purchasing VeloPress books please call 800 811 4210 ext 2138 or visit www velopress com Cover and interior design by Heidi Carcella Cover photograph by Brad Kaminski screen image courtesy of CycleOps Power chart illustrations adapted by Charles Chamberlin Text set in Minion Pro 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PART What Is a Power Meter and How
16. Pll show you how to quickly view your workout data so that you can see how you re doing It s not hard or confusing or com plicated Anyone can do it who knows what to look for and how to use a computer Viewing your data also doesn t have to take a lot of time A five minute look at a few key reports after each ride or even every few days will reveal all you need to know The greater question has to do with what software you should use Appen dix C lists all the power software available as of this writing Your power meter probably came with analysis software you may have already loaded it and taken a look at some of your workouts I m sure the data looks confusing But don t give up It will all begin to make sense over time This book will help Getting Started with Your Power Meter 47 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Understand that not all software shows everything Ill explain in later chapters And some charts on your software wont be covered here All of the metrics described in this book are found in the TrainingPeaks and WKO software both available at TrainingPeaks com If you want to use software that shows exactly what is covered here then these are good options Train ingPeaks is an online software service so all of your data is stored on its serv ers You must have Internet access to use the service but it s available from any computer WKO is a
17. Triathlons 165 166 189 aerobic threshold workouts 177 178 base period 176 179 177t 178t 180t bikes specifically for and FTP changes 170 171 and combined workouts 171 172 and decoupling of power and heart rate 178 and 50 40 30 20 10 rule 168 half Ironman build period 184 186 185t 186t and intensity 176 Iron build period 186 189 187t 188t key workouts 171 173 and limiters areas of weakness 172 muscular endurance workouts 179 muscular force workouts 179 Olympic build period 182 184 183t 184t and pacing and Intensity Factor 167 169 preparing for 174 189 and racing with power meter 169 170 recovery rides 173 speed skills training 179 sprint build period 180 182 181t 182t and strengths 172 232 Index time percentages for each sport within 166 167 and training partners 174 training time 166 167 warm up 176 warning to novices 175 zone 2 durations 178 178t Variability Index VI 79 81 80f 81f and century rides 193 196 Velocity as distance divided by time 24 as revolutions per minute RPM or cadence 25 Vertical ascent display VAM 39 VO pmax 29 VO max zone 5 52 63t Watt James 22 Watts per kilogram of body weight W KG display 39 monitoring changes in 108 110 Weak form 163 WKO software 38 48 Work as force times distance 23 and power 22 23 Workload 120 121 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress
18. a a sean hssaiuaaneon ahereten aaa 84 6 FITTER AND FASTER 0 0 0 0 ccccccccccccccccceccccecsssesetecsscetsssssasersssasereessesaes 91 Base Period Developing Fitness 0 0 0 0 aaea 92 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Build Period Preparing to Race Fast oo cei ctitieniere 101 Are You Fitterand Faster sisiraan T a 105 7 USING YOUR POWER METER FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE Power Training Components Power and Periodization A ees vid OETI Performance Management ccce EEE PART IIl How Can I Use My Power Meter to Improve My Competitive Performance 8 POWER FOR ROAD RACES AND TIME TRIALS 0 n 139 Woats Important ssai ana A E OA 140 Preparing for Yo r RACE sienien iaa A a 154 9 POWER FOR TRIATHLONS n 165 Whats Important secret aoieanna a a a adesdes 166 Preparing fon Your mMatMOM syeikh AN 174 10 POWER FOR CENTURY RIDES n 191 What s Important ekesseksiskreskiis tiesni ttet t iS A E NE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEE 191 Preparing for Your Century Ride ccce 201 APPENDIX A Power Based Workouts 0 cccccceeeceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeseaeeseeeeessaeeseneeeeeee 211 APPENDIX B Setting Heart Rate Zones for Cycling APPENDIX Analysis Software Glossa yonr ana 221 Ackiowledgme miSa aaa aiaa ar a ad 225 INO OX CAE E EE AE E A E E E 227 About the AUNO inaina R N A A 233 Sample pages from The Power Meter Hand
19. blog at joefrielsblog com Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved SPORTS CYCLING 16 95 IT S TRUE A power meter is the best training tool you can put on your bike Even if you have been racing for years a power meter can take you from the middle of the pack to the podium in one season But having a power meter is one thing Knowing how to use it is another The Power Meter Handbook will demystify the numbers clarify the setup and show you how to train with power in simple terms Joe Friel s power meter system will immediately improve your fitness speed and training e Precisely match your training to your race season e Push your limits step by step e Pinpoint your fitness changes reliably and accurately e Peak predictably for key events e Vastly improve your training efficiency The Power Meter Handbook includes weekly training schedules for road racing time trials triathlons and century rides And 12 power based workouts will build your aerobic endurance muscular force sprint speed and climbing Train smarter and race faster with The Power Meter Handbook It s your one stop guide to a higher level of fitness JOE FRIEL is the best selling author of The Cyclist s Training Bible and The Triathlete s Training Bible and cofounder of TrainingPeaks com As one of America s most trusted coaches he has trained national athletes and represented the Unit
20. book by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Getting Started with Your Power Meter THE PURPOSE OF THIS CHAPTER is to help you become acquainted with your power meter so that you can start using it effectively Of course your power meter isn t magic You don t just mount it on your bike and all of a sudden youre training differently and become an overnight podium contender The power meter doesn t work that way As with any tool you ll have to under take some adjustment and learning to make the best use it And there s a lot of adjusting and learning to do Power meters are rather complex devices You ve probably started to get that sense from having read the first two chap ters And so far we ve only scratched the surface While power meters are new as mobile devices for our bikes they have been used as big cumbersome clunkers in exercise physiology labs for decades Sport scientists have used them to study performance and almost everything imaginable related to aerobic capacity anaerobic threshold and Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved economy Essentially what you have on your bike is a powerful scientific tool There s no doubt that it can help you become a much better rider but you ve first got to figure out how to use it WHAT S ON YOUR HANDLEBARS Before you get serious about doing power based workouts I suggest you take 7 t
21. e power than B B is actually more powerful pound for pound That relationship becomes very important under some circumstances such as climbing a hill which we ll get to later But for now that s what is meant by normalizing NP compares the range of variability of power during a ride with the average power of the ride So when you see the word normalized you are being tipped off that we have altered the parameters to be examined Let s see if we can get a better grip on this concept If you ve had a chance to download and look at one of your power charts from a ride you certainly will have noticed that there are lots of spikes in the chart If you compare the power chart with the heart rate chart for the same ride you ll see that heart rate doesn t spike nearly as 42 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved much That s because power generation is quite variable and the power meter is very sensitive to change whereas heart rate doesn t change much at all If you were a machine we could design you to create steady even power But you aren t a machine youre human and humans expend energy with lots of high and low spikes Every time there is a rising spike in power you are expending more energy than if you rode with perfect steadiness and no spike at all Average power doesn t account for these minute changes in power and therefore
22. ed States at world championships wvelopress www velopress com
23. ed with any power meter that is ANT compat ible which allows you to choose a handlebar display and user interface with out changing system types You ll need to check the user s manual for your power meter to see what type of communication method it uses One of the main differences among head units is the amount of infor mation they can show you at one time Some have simple displays with only three data fields shown while others show up to eight data fields all at the same time Many head units allow you to customize the display This is a great feature you should consider when purchasing a new head unit Some head units are touch screens while others rely on buttons for the interface Getting Started with Your Power Meter 35 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Minidisplay technology has even led to a wristwatch version from Garmin which is ANT compatible and displays power meter data along with run data It s also waterproof for swimming which makes it a good choice if you are a triathlete as all bike and run data are captured in one place Regardless of all these options here are the most common items dis played by power meter head units Not all head units use the same display abbreviations I ll use here so you may need to consult the user guide that came with yours Power This is the most basic information you need from your head unit If you can cust
24. es 142 144 144f 145f steadily paced races 81 84 in time trials 145 146 and triathlons 167 169 and Variability Index VI 79 81 80f 81f Peak power 74 monitoring changes in 110 112 111f 112f profiling 71 74 75 77 75f 76f and road races 141 142 Peaking 131 Performance defined 3 increasing 4 Performance Management Chart 126 127f and form 131 135 134f in managing fitness and fatigue 128 130 130f 131f Power average 41 in cycling 24 25 display WATTS or PWR 36 and duration 74 effect of hill climb on 14 16 15f Index 229 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved as force times distance divided by time 23 24 as force times velocity key formula 24 and heart rate 46 47 as increase in either force or cadence 25 and intensity 71 as measure of output 16 17 monitoring distribution changes 106 108 107f monitoring profile changes 112 116 114f 115f as more precise measure of intensity than speed 12 normalized 42 44 and periodization 125 135 profiles 75 76 75f 76f and seeing training more completely 14 software 47 48 and time 5 Percent Rule 44 45 and watts 21 22 as work divided by time 22 23 Power meter and ANT technology 35 benefits of 5 8 calculation of cadence 25 calculation of force 26 and changing your training 9 and danger of addiction to numbers 18 19 head
25. ly 25 percent efficient and that s probably a bit high but okay for our purpose This means that only about one fourth of the biological energy you generate kiloCalories during a ride is con verted into the mechanical energy that drives the bike kiloJoules The rest is mostly lost to the heat your body gives off no matter whether it s a hot or a cold day So if you are 25 percent efficient in terms of mechani cal energy generated and 1 kiloCalorie is about 4 kiloJoules then only about 1 kiloJoule is actually realized as mechanical energy for every 1 kiloCalorie of biological energy burned What all of this means is that when your head unit shows 500 kiloJoules at the end of a ride you have used about 500 kiloCalories That may be around 10 percent higher than the actual number but individual riders vary so much that this number is close enough for training purposes And it s very useful as we ll see later on Average Power If you ve been using a speedometer or heart rate monitor when riding you re used to dealing with average speed and average heart rate Average power is a similar metric It is the total of all the watts generated during a ride divided by the number of time units for example minutes during which the data was collected This calculation is always going on within the head unit and can be displayed during the ride or afterward in your software download Average power is quite simple so simple that it is not
26. nique 32 and physiological changes 64 Efficiency factor EF 92 93 95t and aerobic endurance workouts 93 95 GPS display 37 38 39 95t and decoupling 98 Head unit 35 36 as normalized power divided by average altitude display ALT FT ALT MT heart rate 94 GRADE FT GAIN MTR Gain 37 38 and sweet spot workouts 96 97 97t barometric pressure display 37 38 cadence display RPM or CAD 37 Fatigue 128 130 130f 131f duration display TIME MILES KM KJ as Acute Training Load ATL 129 163 36 37 Feel 12 14 GPS display 37 38 39 50 40 30 20 10 Rule 83 84 83t 145 146 heart rate display HR 36 168 195 196 intensity factor display IF 39 Fitness kiloJoules per hour display KJ HR 39 as Chronic Training Load CTL 129 left right pedal balance display L R 39 163 164 minidisplay wristwatch technology 36 defined 125 normalized power display NORM PWR goal for race day 135 39 and TSS 125 128 127f power display WATTS or PWR 36 5 Percent Rule 44 45 power zone display ZONE 39 Force speed display MPH or KPH 38 calculation of by power meter 26 temperature display TEMP 39 and muscle types 27 28 training stress score display TSS 39 Form 131 135 134f vertical ascent in meters per hour display derivation of term 132 VAM 39 228 Index Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved watts per kilogram of body weight display W KG
27. o 10 days to just ride with your new power meter During that time train as you normally would If you ve been using heart rate or perceived exertion to regulate the intensity of your workouts continue to do so That will give you time to figure out how to navigate through the power meter menu and to see in real world fashion the relationships among power heart rate RPE and speed You ll undoubtedly learn a lot about what you are doing in work outs during this time just by observing the power display Again a word of caution Don t become so focused on the numbers that you disregard traffic and road conditions After every workout download the data to your computer and take a look at the graphs and charts There s no need to start doing in depth analy sis now We ll get into how to do that later For now just become familiar with the layout and take a look at what happens to power when you ride hard and fast cruise along at a slow speed climb a hill sprint race or ride with a group After a week or so you should be ready to make adjustments to your training based on what you see At first that will simply involve using the power readout on your handlebar computer to regulate workout intensity in much the same way as you may have been doing with heart rate As you read the chapters that follow and become acquainted with the more subtle nuances of training with power you ll be able to make other changes to how you train and race
28. omize the display to put the fields on your head unit wherever you want be sure to place the current or instantaneous power display often called WATTS or PWR in a prominent place such as upper left so that you can see it at a glance while riding You ll be referring to this field more than any other Heart Rate Just because you have a power meter doesn t mean you are going to forget about your heart rate It s still quite valuable information In Chapter 6 Pll teach you how to compare power and heart rate to accurately gauge changes in aerobic fitness Again if you can customize your screen display on the head unit Id suggest putting the HR readout next to power so that they can be easily seen and compared Duration In addition to intensity WATTS and HR the other critical component of each workout is duration or how long the ride was This should also be 36 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved displayed prominently on your head unit You may be able to select either TIME or MILES or perhaps KM for kilometers for this field There may even be other options such as kiloJoules KJ that Pll explain later in this chapter I prefer to use the TIME setting as I believe that is more valu able information when compared with power than is distance For example as you ll see later intervals are
29. rested in speed so most riders set up their power meter head units to display speed in MPH or KPH In fact however there is a good reason to monitor speed besides the simple thrill of seeing how fast you went In Chapter 5 Pll show you how you can use speed in conjunction with power to reliably pace steady state races such as time trials and triathlons 38 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved Temperature Some head units give you the option of displaying temperature TEMP in a field while others measure it but dont display it in real time instead opting to reveal temperature after the fact in the download to your software Temperature measurement not only has to do with how warm and comfort able you may be on the ride but also is used to adjust the altimeter on the head unit if it relies on a barometer for altitude display Older power meters used to be affected by big changes in temperature but recent self calibrating models have reduced this inaccuracy Other There are a multitude of other data fields your head unit may be capable of displaying based on how it s set up and the power meter you are using For example it may provide such options as watts per kilogram of body weight W KG the current power zone you are in ZONE Normal ized Power NORM PWR Training Stress Score TSS and In
30. tensity Factor IF Pll explain each of these in the following chapters They are critical bits of data that reflect your performance You can wait until you know more about them before deciding whether you want to display one or more of them on your head unit There are even more options again depending on the power system you have Other data fields could be dedicated to vertical ascent in meters per hour VAM kiloJoules per hour KJ HR and left right pedal balance L R GPS based head units often provide maps and directions much like those you may use when driving your car With all of these possibilities setting up your handlebar display can be a daunting task For now you may want to keep the settings on the unit s default just as it came out of the box Later on as you get the hang Getting Started with Your Power Meter 39 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved of what all this means you can customize the display to better fit your needs and interests KILOJOULES AVERAGE POWER AND NORMALIZED POWER There are several less obvious fields on your head unit that are fundamen tally important for some of the workouts and analysis you ll be doing I ll describe in later chapters how these are applied to training and racing on a bike If you are a bit confused by any of these or other terms when you encounter them in this book on your
31. ucing power 28 Century rides 191 192 209 base period 201 203 202t 203t and bonking 194 build period 204 205 204t century simulation rides duration and IF 197 200 199t 207 and fat 193 and 50 40 30 20 10 rule 195 196 and glycogen 193 194 gradual stress increase 201 and Intensity factor 192 193 and interplay among CTL ATL and TSB 205 207 key workouts 196 197 and matches 195 195t peaking 205 209 206f 208t 209t Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved preparing for 201 209 formula 133 recovery workouts 200 201 goal for race day 135 secondary workouts 196 197 strong 163 and Variability Index 193 196 as Training Stress Balance TSB 133 Chronic Training Load CTL 127 128 weak 163 163 164 Frequency 118 119 Clincher tires 169 FTP Functional Threshold Power 53 Coaches 48 calculating with LTHR 57 58 Coggan Andrew 53 96 179 calculating with one hour race 54 55 calculating with 30 minute test 55 57 Decoupling 97 101 98f 99f 100f 157 calculating with workouts 57 and road races 157 continuing calculation 60 61 and time trials 157 determining 5460 and triathlons 178 estimating 58 60 Duration 119 120 increasing by focusing on training Duration display TIME MILES KM KJ aerobically active muscle 64 36 37 and lactate threshold heart rate LTHR 52 53 Economy 30 32 monitoring changes in 106 and pedaling tech
32. ular force workouts 158 pacing and energy conservation 142 144 144f 145f and peak power 141 142 peaking 162 164 and periodization 154 racelike and recovery workouts 164 Power zone display ZONE 39 Power zones 51 52 63t recovery workouts 152 154 secondary workouts 151 152 230 Index Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved training points 140 141 and TSB ATL balance 163 warning to novices 154 155 RPE See Rating of perceived exertion Scientist athletes 13 14 Software 47 48 Speed 9 11 12 display MPH or KPH 38 effect of hill climb on 14 16 15f and hills 12 as measure of output 16 17 as velocity distance divided by time 24 and wind 12 Speed skills workouts 66 Spinners 32 Sprint Power zone 7 51 52 63t Sprint power workouts 68 Strain gauge 26 Strong form 163 Surges 73 78 79 80 84 85 Tapering 131 132 133 Temperature display TEMP 39 Tempo zone 3 52 63t Testing workouts 69 Time trials and aerobic endurance workouts 156 157 162 and anaerobic endurance workouts 150 161 base period 147 156 158 156t 159t build period 147 149 161 162 160t 163t and CTL 163 164 and decoupling of power and heart rate 157 and intensity 155 and Intensity Factor 148 149 key workouts 146 149 muscular endurance workouts 150 151 161 muscular force workouts 158 pacing and energy conservation 145 146
33. unit 35 36 initial familiarization with 34 and intensity demands 5 6 and knowing and increasing your limits 7 and loss of art in training 17 18 and matching the demands of the race 5 6 and measuring fitness changes 8 and pacing for steady state races 6 and periodization planning your race season 7 and proper intensity 13 regulating workout intensity with 34 35 and significance of numbers 4 5 as training tool 4 wireless 35 compared with heart rate zones 52 emphasis on zone 3 62 64 and FTP 61 62 63t setting your personal zones 61 62 Races and racing fitness goal 135 matching the demands of 5 6 preparing for 139 154 164 steadily paced 81 84 steady state 88 89 88t 146 training for 140 variably paced 84 86 See also Century rides Road races Time trials Triathlons Rating of perceived exertion RPE 13 disconnection from performance output 16 17 effect of hill climb on 14 16 15f as measure of input 16 17 Recovery workouts 68 69 152 154 173 and Intensity Factor 153 154 Road races and aerobic endurance workouts 156 157 161 and anaerobic endurance workouts 150 base period 147 156 158 156t 159t build period 147 149 159 161 160f 161f and CTL 163 164 and decoupling of power and heart rate 157 and intensity 155 and Intensity Factor 148 149 key workouts 146 149 and matches 160 muscular endurance workouts 150 151 160 musc
34. usually designed based on time not distance And the length of time you can hold a specified power output is closely related to a given time not a given distance But if you want to set this field for distance and like to think in such terms about your ride duration I won t argue with you Cadence When I coach athletes who frequently use a gear I consider too high for the situation such as climbing a hill or sprinting and I think they could perform better in a lower gear with a higher cadence then I recommend they set up the head unit with cadence RPM or CAD prominently dis played If this doesn t seem to be an issue for you then you might want to use the next available field for other data Altitude Climbing a hill is one of the major challenges of riding a bike for all athletes Most ANT head units allow you to monitor climbing by setting a field to display altitude changes in feet or meters ALT FT or ALT MT You may even have the option to set up the grade of the climb GRADE or how much climbing you ve done in a workout FT GAIN or MTR GAIN Some head units use the Global Positioning System GPS for this func tion while others use barometric pressure You may notice when stand ing at a stoplight that the altitude reading seems to bounce around quite Getting Started with Your Power Meter 37 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All
35. y the average Getting Started with Your Power Meter 43 Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved powers to compare I would assume the effort and the metabolic cost were the same for both rides They obviously weren t and NP revealed this So what NP is actually telling us is what the workout felt like which is a much more revealing training component than a simple measurement of average power level for the ride In my example the hill repeats felt much harder than the steady moderate effort ride and NP reflected a difference that average power would not Normalized Power also gives us a much bet ter idea of the energy cost of a ride Doing surges on the hill burned a lot more calories than riding steadily That s why we will use NP for much of our riding and analysis If you are still unsure about what Normalized Power means please take a few minutes to reread this section POWER S RELATIONSHIPS WITH TIME AND HEART RATE Earlier I suggested that in setting up your head unit you should place dura tion and heart rate in prominent fields near current or instantaneous power since they are the next most important data fields After riding with your new power meter for a week or so you may notice some interesting things happen ing in the relationships between power and time and power and heart rate These are critical relationships for training and racing which we ll
36. you are riding in heart rate zone 2 you may also be in power zone 2 although they still won t match exactly But in the build period shortly before your first targeted race you may be in heart rate zone 2 but power zone 3 Don t be freaked out by this It s a good 46 The Power Meter Handbook Sample pages from The Power Meter Handbook by Joe Friel Copyright 2012 VeloPress All rights reserved thing and will help you understand why to gauge intensity we will use power zones rather than heart rate in most of your training MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL One of the great benefits of training with power comes from examining the graphs after the workout is over In doing this you can see if you are achiev ing the markers of race readiness you ve set for yourself You will be able to answer the questions Am I becoming more fit and What should I do next in my training This is analysis It can be a very simple process involving a brief glance at certain graphs or it can be highly complex activity with nearly as much time spent analyzing the data as it took to create it on a ride If you do no analysis at all then there is little reason to have a power meter In that case it s just an expensive accessory on your handlebars Do You Need Power Software The answer to that question is yes You definitely need software to make your power meter a complete tool for better athletic performance In the remainder of this book
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