5watts per kg

grom said:

Hello my first post so bear with me please

5w per kg seems to be a good number and really how long should i be able to hold this power, obviously a longer amount of time is better but i dont think i can hold 10 minutes, so what workouts would i do to increase this, should i do 6w per kg for 3 minutes or 4w per kg for 20 minutes ??

It depends on what you are trying to work on. If you are trying to improve sustainable power, the latter. Have you done any testing to determine your threshold power, max aerobic power, anaerobic capacity?

You may want to check this link out to get you started.

cyclingpeakssoftware.compower411.htmlOpen ↗

Steve

Thanks Steve

i downloaded the software i will test my threshold tommorow thats the 20 minute effort right?, can i test max aerobic power the same day? the anaerobic capacity how do i do that and should i wait until later in the season so as not to break base work?

Sorry for all the questions

Grom

Steve McGregor said:

It depends on what you are trying to work on. If you are trying to improve sustainable power, the latter. Have you done any testing to determine your threshold power, max aerobic power, anaerobic capacity?

You may want to check this link out to get you started.

cyclingpeakssoftware.compower411.htmlOpen ↗

Steve

grom said:

Hello my first post so bear with me please

5w per kg seems to be a good number and really how long should i be able to hold this power, obviously a longer amount of time is better but i dont think i can hold 10 minutes, so what workouts would i do to increase this, should i do 6w per kg for 3 minutes or 4w per kg for 20 minutes ??

5 W/kg sounds like a great number, but then again so does 6 or 8! Rather than just aiming for what might be a random number, you should schedule your training goals to something that is correct for you and realistic. Goals like this are SMART. Specific, measurable, adjustable, realistic and time based. In this context the realistic is the most important -- there's little point in setting a goal of X W/kg if all you can currently do is 0.5X W/kg.

As Steve points out, it's very much dependent on what goals you're trying to achieve. Are you a 1-km track TT rider, a roadie, a track pursuiter, etc?

Performing longer intervals (e.g., 20-mins) at a more moderate intensity (compared with going all-out for 3-mins) will help with your TTpower/sustained power, but these should be based on what you can currently do over a similar duration (rather than an arbitrary number).

Additionally, if you perform a MAP test (see http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=powerstern) and a couple days later perform a longer TT test you can ascertain where your relative strengths and weaknesses are -- for e.g., if you race endurance events (e.g., RR/TT/MTB) and find that ratio of TTpower to MAP is low, then you need to work on increasing that ratio (use longer intervals), on the other hand if the ratio is high then you're being limited by your MAP/VO2max and will need to improve that with shorter intervals (e.g., 4-mins).

If you would like a file that shows you what power to aim for, for a MAP test please give me a shout and i'll email it to you.

cheers
ric

Thanks Ric

please can you email the file to [email hidden]
Road racing is where my goals are set at for now with an 40k tt at end of season i will test today and the day after and see what my numbers/ratio are.
i would have gone about this the wrong way
Thanks for the help you guys are great

ric_stern/RST said:

5 W/kg sounds like a great number, but then again so does 6 or 8! Rather than just aiming for what might be a random number, you should schedule your training goals to something that is correct for you and realistic. Goals like this are SMART. Specific, measurable, adjustable, realistic and time based. In this context the realistic is the most important -- there's little point in setting a goal of X W/kg if all you can currently do is 0.5X W/kg.

As Steve points out, it's very much dependent on what goals you're trying to achieve. Are you a 1-km track TT rider, a roadie, a track pursuiter, etc?

Performing longer intervals (e.g., 20-mins) at a more moderate intensity (compared with going all-out for 3-mins) will help with your TTpower/sustained power, but these should be based on what you can currently do over a similar duration (rather than an arbitrary number).

Additionally, if you perform a MAP test (see cyclingnews.comfitnessOpen ↗) and a couple days later perform a longer TT test you can ascertain where your relative strengths and weaknesses are -- for e.g., if you race endurance events (e.g., RR/TT/MTB) and find that ratio of TTpower to MAP is low, then you need to work on increasing that ratio (use longer intervals), on the other hand if the ratio is high then you're being limited by your MAP/VO2max and will need to improve that with shorter intervals (e.g., 4-mins).

If you would like a file that shows you what power to aim for, for a MAP test please give me a shout and i'll email it to you.

cheers
ric

grom said:

Thanks Steve

i downloaded the software i will test my threshold tommorow thats the 20 minute effort right?, can i test max aerobic power the same day? the anaerobic capacity how do i do that and should i wait until later in the season so as not to break base work?

Sorry for all the questions

Grom

Grom,

I see that Ric chimed in with his approach, which is one way to skin a cat. I typically use the power profiling approach outlined on the Peaks site. You should not do anaerobic power testing and threshold testing on the same day. The threshold test, which is the 20 min effort should be done on its own day. I don't use a 20 min test, but rather a 30 min test, and use the ave power over the last 20 min. You could do a 5 s, 1 min and 5 min test on one day, then a couple days later perform the threshold test. Ideally, you would like to do all of the tests on separate days, but that's not practical. With sufficient rest between the 5 s, 1 min and 5 min tests, you should get a pretty good baseline.

Steve

Thanks Steve

i did the 20 minute test today avg was 245 as expected 4w per kg weight=135 lbs, now what do i do with this to get it up to 300 if even possible

Gromster

Steve McGregor said:

Grom,

I see that Ric chimed in with his approach, which is one way to skin a cat. I typically use the power profiling approach outlined on the Peaks site. You should not do anaerobic power testing and threshold testing on the same day. The threshold test, which is the 20 min effort should be done on its own day. I don't use a 20 min test, but rather a 30 min test, and use the ave power over the last 20 min. You could do a 5 s, 1 min and 5 min test on one day, then a couple days later perform the threshold test. Ideally, you would like to do all of the tests on separate days, but that's not practical. With sufficient rest between the 5 s, 1 min and 5 min tests, you should get a pretty good baseline.

Steve

grom said:

Thanks Steve

i did the 20 minute test today avg was 245 as expected 4w per kg weight=135 lbs, now what do i do with this to get it up to 300 if even possible

Gromster

Although presented in a simple manner, that's a rather complicated question. First off, depending on your starting fitness (e.g. how long you've been training, and how fit you are right now for you) it is conceivable you could get to 300, but not likely in the near term. That would be more than a 20% improvement, which is tough to get if you've been training for a while. Now if all you've been doing is base for the past 4 mo, or havent' done much in a while, it's more realistic. How to do it though, is more a coaching philosophy question that I can't really answer here. There are a number of factors to take into consideration. If you wanted to contact me or the Peaks group directly, I'm sure we could help you out.

Steve

Well Steve i started riding every second day in summer of 2002.In the summer of 2003 started riding every day including rollers all last winter. i have not been doing much other than base building since october trying to keep about 15-20 minutes of intensity weekly . i just checked out your site and coaching may be in the plan again as i did get some coaching for 4 months in 2003 but life interupts at times.

Steve McGregor said:

Although presented in a simple manner, that's a rather complicated question. First off, depending on your starting fitness (e.g. how long you've been training, and how fit you are right now for you) it is conceivable you could get to 300, but not likely in the near term. That would be more than a 20% improvement, which is tough to get if you've been training for a while. Now if all you've been doing is base for the past 4 mo, or havent' done much in a while, it's more realistic. How to do it though, is more a coaching philosophy question that I can't really answer here. There are a number of factors to take into consideration. If you wanted to contact me or the Peaks group directly, I'm sure we could help you out.

Steve