QA Spreadsheet

frenchyge said:

Moi? I believe that gratitude is a little misplaced, as I merely learned about it from Dr. Coggan. 🙂

I'm thinking in 2.5 dimensions here (the twighlight zone).... a QA on a track kilo but labelled to show the time (in secs) of each data point so you can see the progression.... then plot another kilo on top of that after peaking for the event - what would it show, if anything I wonder?

Alex Simmons said:

I'm thinking in 2.5 dimensions here (the twighlight zone).... a QA on a track kilo but labelled to show the time (in secs) of each data point so you can see the progression.... then plot another kilo on top of that after peaking for the event - what would it show, if anything I wonder?

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that's one of the standard graphs in the PowerCoach software suite. 😉

Sillyoldtwit said:

Has anyone got an acronym dictionary I could borrow? 😄

Here here on that!! I am so lost on this Power Forum.

rayhuang said:

Here here on that!! I am so lost on this Power Forum.

QA = Quadrant Analysis 🙂

Having read through all the posts on QA I can find, I think I finally understand what this is all about.

Basically it is really about providing a graphical representation of the nature of the event that you ride so that your training can become more specific in future.

So, all those guys that "race" to "train" have got it spot on at the end of the day? Runs against the Armstrong way of only really competing in one event.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious here!!

My problem looking at the QA of my race, it looks like a fairly even distribution, how do I specifically train for this?

Bruce Diesel said:

Basically it is really about providing a graphical representation of the nature of the event that you ride so that your training can become more specific in future.

I'd add that by breaking down the force and velocity components separately, it's possible to see distinct differences between two events or efforts that may have identical AP, NP, etc. You're right that the goal is to make one's training more specific to one's competition.

Bruce Diesel said:

So, all those guys that "race" to "train" have got it spot on at the end of the day?

I wouldn't make that conclusion at all. Certainly their training is specific to their events, but how does it address their relative weaknesses (unless their weakness is mostly tactical)? IOW, a guy that has trouble making the selection in races might benefit much more from focused training on his limiter than by just providing himself with repeated opportunities to get dropped. I'd say that most races do not provide enough emphasis in any one area to really affect the relative strength or weakness in that area.

Bruce Diesel said:

My problem looking at the QA of my race, it looks like a fairly even distribution, how do I specifically train for this?

I'm not a QA guru by any means, but I think trying to analyze an entire race in anything beyond a very general sense isn't likely to produce much insight. As you say, it's all pretty even.

I'd probably try to break a race down to look at portion(s) where you felt you had difficulty, or that you'd like to address in training. A couple ideas might be: 1) isolate a climbing portion of the race and look at the QA in isolation, 2) look at the portion where you were riding in the gutter fighting the wind, 3) look at the repeated attacks at the end, etc.

It's quite possible that staring at the QA plot will not reveal any insight at all (especially if you train by racing). In my case, I had difficulty producing FTP in crit situations for longer than about 20 min. Longer crits had me at 7-10% below my FTP. Certainly, the power was available, but it just wasn't there in those specific situations, which makes me think there's something else at work. That's one of the things I'm hoping to correct this year.