Trouble hitting watts
I just did my first race rehearsal with power for an upcoming HIM. The rehearsal was mostly a success, nutrition was fine, and I was able to easily run. The only problem is that I was way too conservative on the bike. I was shooting to average 183 watts and I instead came in at 167. (Shooting for 0.85 IF and came in at 0.77) I think my problem is that the only power number I was looking at was the 3s average. I use a garmin 910xt and this is what I was showing:
Speed, Distance, Cadence, 3s Power
What do you recommend I show? I was thinking of having autolap turned on for every 3-5 minutes and showing Distance, Cadence, Lap Average Power, 3s Power. I think I would rather have cadence than speed.
Also, any tips for becoming a power ninja? I really struggle with "flattening the course" and having consistent power.
Thanks!
Comments
I have it auto based on the workout or race. Currently it is set to autolap at 18.67 or ~ 1/6 of IM distance. This works well for me on the 6 hour or 112 hr race rehearsals as each lap is 1/6 and I can compare my lap times. Many have talked about lapping more frequently say every 3-5 miles to reduce their variability by always dialing in the shorter lap.
That is what I do. Hope that helps.
What I show in my 6 fields of data on my Joule is: Current (3s) watts, Current HR, Current Cadence, IF of current lap, Current Elevation, Lap time. I have two more fields I can view as a sub set of one of those six, eg, if I select elevation, I see total gain and current % grade. I NEVER show speed; too depressing, and it's meaningless as far as race execution.
Your Garmin will show IF, which for me is a better number than NP as I don;t have to change my goal if my FTP happens to change over the course of a season. I don't autolap. Instead, I hit the lap button as needed after about 15-25 minutes depending on terrain features.
The whole idea is to not "chase" an IF or NP over a long time, as after 20 minutes or so, it gets harder and harder to move that lap number up or down, and you may end up working too hard for a period.
As to the IF to aim for, it depends on the length (time) of your bike leg. 0.77 is a good number for a 3 hour split; 0.85 for a 2:30. Extrapolate as needed to get your goal IF.
3 -windows on my Garmin 500
3s power - I allow this to go above or below target watts based on climbing or descending
Lap NP - Auto lap set at 5 miles... simply nail my NP target.... resets every 5 miles so if I missed its gone... dont worry .... focus on next window of 5 miles
Time- I have 15min alert set for drink and food but sometimes get lost ... the time keeps me on schedule specially during an IM.
I do Not care about cadence, speed , HR , distance , etc.... Nothing matters but POWER.
I differ from Al in that I like looking at NP not IF and I think in terms of known NP for known distances where I have earned the right to race at that number (which is what your doing with the RR) my current FTP estimate at that time is immaterial to me , all I need to know is how much power can I put out for a known distance.... Instead of a percentage of an estimate!
Auto vs. Manual Lap.... I use Auto while racing (but can see Al's point and would use Manual for say Tahoe) but I really like the auto feature its just one less thing to do....
As far as what to target for your next RR... Al's right on the money with the correlation to bike length time.... Consider this..... you rode .77 for 2:50... would riding .85 bring you close to 2:30? If yes . You can probably handle .85. If not . Probably something in the middle. You have a great run and you must protect that !
I show 5 fields on my Edge 500. At the top: 10s power (prefer to 3s as I like the smoothing effect better).
Speed: I use this to determine when I'm over 34mph (coast time) or under 13mph (sit up in the bullhorns, drink, eat)
Norm power, Avg power: I like seeing both. I know what my NP and VF targets are, and these help me figure out when to dial it up.
Distance: A good thing to know.
YMMV
I like the minimal approach I think. I will try dropping speed.
Of course I have other pages that show me all the other fancy numbers but I've never looked at them during racing last year and it worked out pretty well
Looking at your Strava log I saw a lot of power-drops to 0 ... did you have to slow down for traffic-lights or what happened there? Basically you should aim on turning the crank at all times. Only stop it when you have absolute high-speed and run out of gears -> coasting time
Look at my race log here http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/URIHUI72YFVKHGTP6FS533JOTQ
You can see there are some power-drops especially at the beginning when I had to fight through the field but no ZEROs.
In general I can say that an IF of 0.85 is really hardcore and you should be prepared to suffer A LOT on the run afterwards! Going for 0.82 would be much safer IMHO.
But in case you are shooting for a PR or Top-10 place go for it!!
But the main thing I use to ensure I'm on target is lap average power. HOWEVER, you need to set the autolap for reasonably short intervals (I use 4 miles in an olympic distance and 5 miles for an HIM), because if you're off target and your lap is 20 miles, you'll need to change the effort by an order of magnitude to shift the average.
great idea for settings - just adjusted my Garmin 910XT to the same. Do you use the 910XT quick release mount by chance?
What I do is:
1) As soon as I get out of the water I take take off the watch
2) I then get my top half out of the wetsuit while still holding the watch (I pull the wetsuit over my hand that that is holding the watch). I have found that this works better for me rather than pulling the wetsuit over the watch while it is still on my wrist.
3) I ignore the wetsuit strippers and run straight to my bike and put the watch on the bike
4) I finish getting out of my wetsuit
5) I put on shoes, helmet, glasses and I am out of there
If your gonna use the 910xt QR why not just put it on the bike at the start? Wear the wrist band for the swim,bike and just grab the 910xt off the bike @ T2..... You certainly dont need it for the swim....
My 910xt sits in T2 and I use the garmin 500 on the bike... Keeping it simple makes for fast transitions.
Just throwing my two cents in here to echo what others have said. I don't wear my 910 during the swim because I don't feel like I'm going to gain anything by slowing down to look at it and, frankly, I'm not going to want a big hunk of electronics sitting on my wrist while swimming. I do, however, put the watch strap on prior to race start. The unit itself is already sitting on my bike in T1 with the power meter already calibrated in the watch and ready to go. After the bike and in T2, I take the unit off the bike mount and snap it into the wrist strap and head out. I haven't ever had any issues with the unit falling out/off during the bike or run.