To include zeros or not?
Power noob question....For data averaging on my garmin, do I include zeros or not? I have been including zeros but my variability index has been in the neighborhood of 1.18. Just trying to understand if i have my settings correct and it's a function of me learning how to ride more steady.
0
Comments
Thought so...Damn!
@Joe - This has been the case for my last 3 ride of 58(1.17), 54(1.19), and 70(1.21) miles. Not race rehearsals, but never the less, i have work to do to learn how to ride steady.
Questions:
-Do you create intervals on whatever device it is you use to measure your Work?
-Also, since I see you are in Parker, are these rides "flat"?
-Have you bought and watched the Power Webinar?
-Lastly, have you read the "Introduction to Power" post by John Withrow (don't have it bookmarked, but it has been referenced a number of times within the past two months on this forum)?
Don't worry! You will develop the skill to ride steady. We will help you figure out how to use the data and tools at your disposal to do so. We will help you figure out what average (2sec, 3sec, 10sec) to display, how often to create an interval if doing an ABP ride (2mi, 5mi, 10min, etc), and just as importantly, what GEARING to use for the races you have scheduled.
@ Joe - Thanks for your input!
A couple additional points......I have my garmin set on 3sec recording. For sure i'm going to change my intervals to something more manageable in the 10-15 minute range. I think at least part of my problem has to do with me not being clear about the purpose of my ride before i begin. I find myself going back and forth between steady and ABP. Riding steady is most definitely a skill i'm going to need to work at to improve.
Wait....I thought I heard somewhere (can't remember where) that if you do not include zeros, then your power numbers on the head unit while riding will be closer to Pnorm than Pavg? I have Garmin 800, and I can't find an option to see VI real time, so I just try my best to keep the watts in my goal range.
Are you guys saying that I should change something in post-ride analysis (to include zeros....and how would I do that in wko+)? Or include zeros all the time on my head unit?
Totally confused now!! Dangit....I thought I understood.
While I haven't seen that quote or reference you are.. referring to, my thought on it is this -
Always include zero's. For training rides, your VI is going to be crap anyway, because you are warming up, doing VO2 sets, FTP sets, ABP sets, whatever. Just the nature of the beast when training because when you are done, you don't have to run afterwards. So kill yourself when training, burn matches, don't worry about overall VI, and only care about it in cases where you might want to (such as within an FTP interval, for example).
Racing - completely different animal. The goal during a race is to finish as fast as possible and save something for the run. Thats where VI is crucial because it's a measure of how steady you were, and steady = better endurance and energy management.
@Jeff L. (I believe) Norm Power is basically a 30 second average of power without zeros. If you dont have a display that can show that directly, you might be able to approximate it. So on my Powertap LYC (wired) theres no reading for Normalized power, so I can approximate that by setting the display of power to be the average over 30 seconds without zeros. That way I can ride and "see" my NP. Nevertheless the LYC still collects the raw data @ 1 second intervals (adjustable too) and setting the display doesn't affect what I can analyze in software.
Now whether seeing NP in real time is necessary for riding or racing is another discussion.
Actually you are correct, but it is something from the days when Garmins could only display average power and not Normalized power. Because ultimately what most people wanted to see during training is Normalized power, it turned out by coincidence that setting your average power to be calculated without zeros would give you a number that was closer to Normalized power.
Nowadays this has become irrelevant since most devices display NP. So, best is to set it to NP including zeros so you get a true evaluation of your interval / ride.