1st Day with a Power Meter...Data Useful or Useless?

SBHNO

Good Morning- I finally broke down and bought a power meter in an effort to train smarter for IMLP next year (especially considering all my training will be on the flatlands of New Orleans).  I got a Quarq Red and everything seemed to be recording well during my ride yesterday.  The manual says it takes a few rides to get dialed in and to do manual zero calibrations regularly during this period and to include short, hard efforts during the first ride to speed up the process.  I rode for about 45 minutes with a lot of those efforts in both rings and stopped several times to do a manual zero calibration.  I decided to go ahead and do the 5 minute test (zeroed out again after that), recovery and then 20 minute test.  I know I should probably have waited to do this until the quarq was "broken in" but I've got a race coming up this weekend and was hoping to use it as a practice for using power as a guide while racing.  Is this data at all useful or should I just count it as a good testing practice day? Here is the info from the 20-minute test:

Time:	20:05
Moving Time:	20:05
Elapsed Time:	23:34

 

Avg Speed:	23.7 mph
Avg Moving Speed:	23.7 mph
Max Speed:	25.7 mph

 

Avg Power:	263 W
Max Power:	443 W
Max Avg Power (20 min):	221 W
Left/Right Balance:	51/49 %
Normalized Power (NP):	265 W
Intensity Factor (IF):	1.047
Training Stress Score (TSS):	35.7
Work:	316 kJ

 

Thanks for any feedback, still reading about power and have a lot to learn.

Ben

 

 

Racing Yoda

If it were me, I'd use the data. I have a quarq and have used it straight out of the box. I also have a red. When you manually zero it, are you talking about spinning the cranks backward 4-5 times or doing a recalibration in the computer head? Either way, I think it is accurate data for you. Yes, PM's vary from brand to brand. But, I doubt you'll see any variation in your PM other than fitness gained/lost.

I would try to find a 20 minute test where no stops occurred. This based on the elapsed time versus the moving time. Other than that, I'd use 250 as an FTP and see how the training progresses.

new2703

Very useful. You now have a working FTP, 95% of your Norm power for the 20 minute effort. Now plug it in, figure out your zones and get to work

Al Truscott

What are you using for a head unit? The read out gives you an intensity fact (IF) of about 1.05. IF = NP/FTP, so that means it must be using a default FTP of 250. Luckily, your FTP calculates to 252, so you dont need to change that. But as your FTP improves ( and it WILL improve), you'll need to know how to change the FTP in the computer so it gives you the correct anaylitics.

SBHNO

Thanks everyone. Al- the data came from my Garmin 910. I will fiddle around with it and see how to do that. I'm also not sure how the unit recorded the elapsed time as 23:34 as I did not stop during the test. I'm assuming that error doesn't make a difference in the numbers? Thanks again.

Racing Yoda

Ben, it will not change the numbers. For the 910 to change the numbers, under the bike settings. Push your mode button but don't hold it. So you see the screen with History training gps and settings. Scroll to settings, bike settings, scroll all the way down to bike 1. Click on that and then power zones. At that screen you can set the number. As Al said, your next test will be a good one and I'd bet it'd go up. Good luck.

Steve

William Jenks

Ben, the first few weeks of using the PM, you should only "half" use it...and by that I mean that you can kidn of half-way train using the FTP number that you think you have generated, but you should continue to do a lot of things by RPE or heart rate for a little while. This will give you a chance to see what various power outputs "feel like" without necessarily gluing yourself to a number that might change rapidly or might not be quite right to begin with. By all means look at the power prescriptions for your rides, but DO NOT BE AFRAID TO PLAY AROUND!

And if you can go for a week without trying to see how high maximum power you can generate for even as short as 1 second, you are a much better man than me. Can you top a kW? (I never have....my FTP is in the same neighborhood as yours.)

John Withrow

^^^What Jenks said... (Except, I have topped a kW...)

SBHNO

Thanks for all of the feedback. I don't know what is wrong with me, I was so focused on doing the tests I didn't think to find out (or maybe didn't want to know) where I topped out. I have a tri race this weekend with a 20-mile bike and I might have to try a quick effort to see what's doing, maybe being in the heat of battle will get me a few extra watts. I doubt I'll get to a kW but I appreciate having another number to focus on. I think I will make a deal with myself to only try for it every 2 weeks to give me a little extra motivation during the week. Thanks again.

John Withrow

Ben, Coach Rich will give you a swift kick in the nutz if you get anywhere close to a kW during any triathlon...

SBHNO

Don't worry, John, kW (and thus the nutz) are in no danger Saturday. I've got plenty of work to do before I can even think about hitting those numbers but I'm looking forward to it. I really appreciate the knowledge being shared, it would have taken me hours trolling the web and sifting through a lot of static to get so much good feedback. Thanks again!

cgres123

Playing around is a good idea , WJ wrote, one more thing to input on your learning curve don't test yourself once a week looking for the NEW thing you have just learned play with the data you have for your test and training rides. You will be able to fudge your numbers accordingly to your RPE and HR.

Welcome to the world of power it is a lot of fun another tool for your tool box that you bring to the races.

William Jenks

Yup. And here's another dirty little secret... if you do the workouts like you planned anyway, and ride hard for your various timed intervals (including a couple shorter ones), and you feed those rides into Golden Cheetah, it will spit out a number that will be very close to any FTP test you want to do. (Golden Cheetah is the open source equivalent of WKO+, available for free at goldencheetah.org. It doesn't have much of an instruction manual [bad] and is only for cycling [bad], but has lots of [good] things to recommend it, including being free.)

 

For the record, my best was 928 W according to GC.  Maybe I'll tie the bike down to the trainer and see if I can get there again some time this week, but I doubt I could suddenly throw down another 100 W, even if only for a second or two.  Of course, I'm the guy who could only bench press his weight by cutting off his legs....