Year Two and first OS advice
Hi coach,
Now that I'm into year two I was looking for some gear advise. I'm looking to make a new bike purchase this year as well. for the OS I was wondering about putting on a full size crank for training then switching to a compact closer to my A race. What do you think?
Beyond that I would like some advise regarding a new bike and any other gear that you think would be useful for year two.
Thanks!
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Comments
Is avg watts the same as NP for the EN calculator? On the instructions for day1 it says take the avg watts minus 5% and thats your FTP, but the calculator calls for NP. I'm confused? I thought I was supposed to be using the calculator to figure these things out and saving them to my profile.
It then says "Finally, record your average heart rate for the 20' test. This is your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) use to calculate Heart Rate training zones" I thought if you used power we didn't calculate HR zones. In the next box it has totally different instructions for HR athletes. In the video for this week it says use one or the other.
Where do you record these values for the purposes of tracking and the starbucks contest? Usually the plans have links to various areas that are relevant to the day or weeks' training.
You are recommending trainer road too which looks great, but all over the wiki it suggests using WKO+. It looks to me that trainer road is a good tool to keep me in the target power zones. WKO+ I still don't understand the benefit over Garmin Connect. I find the interface on WKO really complicated. Garmin seems to have the same amount of info in a better interface but I haven't paid for the full version of WKO because I can't see the benefit. I'm very coachable so if you say it's good I do what you say. You said get power so I got power. I just don't understand yet what I'm supposed to do with WKO
I think you guys are doing an amazing job with the content but I have to admit that since I've been using EN I do find it a little difficult to follow the bouncing ball sometimes!
However, in all of our rides, we're supposed to make them as close as possible. VI, variability index, is a comparison of the two. If you Pavg = Pnorm, that's a "1" value - that's great smooth riding (no spikes, no coasting, etc). That's what we strive for!
If you read the workout, you're supposed to do a power OR heart rate test, not both.
WKO+, garmin connect, etc. are just places to record your workouts and track overall metrics, fatigue, etc.
Your LTHR is simply recorded to have the data to be able to compare to future tests and you won't be using it for your OS bike training since you have power.
Go here to input your test results: http://members.endurancenation.us/TrainingPlan/ENCalculators.aspx
Trainerroad is nice (and addicting) for a cool interface while actually doing your workout. Think of it as a big giant bike computer that you can see on your computer screen or TV that will have all of your workout segments pre-programmed so you don't have to think, just pedal... It's great for visually interpreting your workout and your effort. But it is not really a tool for tracking workouts. WKO+ is good for doing analysis on bike (or run) files and can be used to keep a log of all of your workouts. This is nice later during your serious IM training to keep track of your fitness/freshness, etc. But to be honest, don't get bogged down with all that if you want to keep it simple. My opinion is that the Garmin site is fine for the basic stuff until you really feel like you want to dive into the data geeketry.
You might also want to go read this thread as you seem new to power. Keep it simple and don't get stressed out by all the lingo. That may or may not be of interest to you once you get the basics mastered... http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/10477/Default.aspx
New bikes are great! I always think you should have at least one more bike than you currently have (provided that doesn't lead to bankruptcy or divorce...). But a new bike is NOT essential by any means. Especially if you have a well fitted functional bike for the OS. Now if you WANT a new bike and have some $$ to spend, then that's a different discussion. What is your current bike? Do you have a road bike or tri bike? I assume you have a road bike and were thinking of getting a tri bike? What races are you planning for next yr. The first thing everybody here is going to tell you is to make sure you get one that fits you properly. I'd say start with asking your self how much you want to spend and work backwards from there.
There are all kinds of other fun toys to buy depending on how much of your hard earned money you want me to help you spend. Nothing is necessary though, just because you are now in yr two. But just for fun, here's an incomplete list of things you "might" find yourself inclined to buy "eventually"... Foam roller, R8 Recovery roller, GPS watch? Bike computer? New run shoes? e-motion Rollers (instead of a stationary trainer)? race wheels? disc cover? Aero helmet? Normatec Recovery boots? Treadmill? Endless Pool....?
You didn't mention what you use to collect your power data. The reason this matters is that most of the older Garmins don't calculate NP, TSS, etc. As a result, if you just use Garmin Connect, those data aren't available to you. On the other hand, the WKO (or paid TP account) do calculate those for you. If you have a newer Garmin or a Joule or similar, the NP is calculated "on board" the bike computer.
In short, NP > AP because it "costs" more than 20% more work to go 20% harder, and NP tries to calculate that, whereas AP is just that...AP.
Thanks to everyone for the advise. A lot to take in!
To answer a few questions I use a Garmin 910 and power tap wheels. I think your answers got me going in the right direction.
Thanks Again!