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Today’s file is an example of a type of interval that is crucial for time trials, that is, pacing up rolling hills at 5-10% over your functional threshold power. Try doing these intervals without looking at the power tap too often, for those of you who don’t time trial with power, to get a good perceived level of exertion up the hills.
Posted by admin as Training, power, power file at 11:20 AM MST
The power file below is a workout that is good for developing fast twitch fibers. The workout entails 4 sets of 10 reps at 15 – 20 seconds on/ 40 seconds off with 10 minutes of recovery between sets. Criteriums, mountain bike races and cyclocross races are run very similar to the on/off periods. Lots of repeated efforts, or jumps out of corners, getting back up to speed. Each interval is started out of the saddle for 8-10 seconds and then the remainder of the time is done in the saddle.
Doing 15 second intense bursts over and over such as these gives your muscles time to recover while keeping your heart rate up. A benefit to both systems.
Posted by admin as Training, general, power, power file at 7:25 PM MST
Sydney Brown, one of the athletes I coach, is shooting for some good results this cross season. Her priority races are Jingle Cross and Master Cross Nationals. At Jingle Cross her goal is to podium while at Masters Cross Nationals, 35-39, she wants to better her 2nd place in 2007.
Working with Sydney, prior to starting her training for cross season, we developed a plan for her to peak for these events. I used Training Peaks WKO+ Performance Manager Chart to plan her form. Her workouts are set for every day through out cross season. She can look ahead for the coming weeks and if a conflict in her schedule interferes with a workout it can be easily adjusted to keep her on the right course. This is a definite advantage working with a power meter. All data is can be scheduled, downloaded, and compared to the plan.
The below chart is Syd’s planner chart for what should be happening to her fitness, form and fatigue. As you can see her form (TSB yellow line) should be just below zero. A positive number, and the number depends on the athlete, is an indicator of a good performance. This weekend she is racing a UCI event in Wisconsin called Planet Bike Cup. It’s an early season race and results are not all that important but it sure doesn’t hurt the confidence to do well. She needs to lay down the foundation of the program (drills, skills, training, technique) and where else to do that put at a quality bike event. You’ll also notice that her form will be very positive on the weekend of 10/4. This is a race in Omaha, Ne. Again, she is still building a foundation but expects some good results because she now has some quality in her legs.
The next chart is Syd’s actual data from her power meter since 9/14/08. As you can see she’s right on course. All pun’s intended. Again, one of the advantages of working with a power meter and some excellent software from Taining Peaks WKO+.
Power and prediction are just a few aspects of racing a bike. Racing isn’t just about the data, though. There are many factors to doing well. Look for Sydney to overcome these factors on her way to having a great cyclocross season. Also, stay tuned as I’ll be giving more updates on her progress as the season progresses.
Marc
Posted by admin as Training, performance, power, power file at 9:06 PM MST
Sydney Brown, one of the athletes that I coach, recently attended the Sunny King Criterium in Anniston, Alabama an NRC event and part of speedweek. Above is the power file of her race in the Pro 1/2 women’s field. These women were truly flying on this .7 mile 4 corner course. The race followed a counter-clockwise direction. The final straight is a slight uphill as can be see on every lap where attacks took place. This can be seen on lap 5 where Sydney reached her highest peak watts for the race of 922. Every lap on that hill ranged in the 600-800 watt output. Yes indeed, putting some real torque to her team Revolution Madone sponsored by Trek bicycles
Talking with Sydney gave me a real good clue as to why they wanted to attack this hill. The finish line was at the top with lots of preemes on the line. After this hill you can see a decrease in power as she recovered with a slight downhill into turn 1 and into turn 2 also. Then the gas was applied again as she powered out of turn 2. Between turns 2-3 was a downhill as can be seen by the decrease in power but an increase in speed. After turn 3 a power increase spike then turn 4 and power up the hill for that preeme. Look for those yellow spikes and you’ll see a distinct pattern of 4. One for each acceleration out of a corner.
Most of the time she raced top 1/3 and tried a few attacks and covered a few. From her description of how she raced and the graph I will be able to get her efforts between corners, for each lap and her attacks to apply these to her crit training. Since crits have a certain power file pattern such as this one, for the rest of the season we’ll be able to apply this data. What is really beneficial is when this race comes up next year. We’ve got a way to train for this in the spring.
I’ll be posting day 2 Nalley Historic Roswell Criterium power analysis soon!
Marc
Posted by admin as power file at 1:19 PM MST
