Power Training Outdoors
I'm new to power this year (Garmin Vector, with a Garmin 910 display), and I'm not a strong tekkie. On the trainer I have done pretty well with hitting the desired power numbers for a workout, but the outdoor variables make it challenging for me to maintain wattage consistency. Most roads in my area are rollers of varying degree, and wind is frequently a factor. I've had trouble "flattening" the course by keeping the wattage low enough on climbs and high enough on descents. (My power display is real time - not a 30 sec average.) Unfortunately this leads to a wider gap between my NP and average power. Are there any practical tips anyone can share?
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-very typical to have difficulty maintaining consistent watts when beginning to ride outside with a PM, for the exact reasons you described (rollers, wind etc...). It's definitely a "skill" that you will develop more fully over time, just be persistent.
- Practical tips?
1. change the display from real time to some sort of avg. power over a time...a lot of members, myself included use 3 second avg. power, and I think most units will go as high as 30 seconds. This will help decrease some of the jumping around.
2. Just shoot for having your 3 sec. power display (or whatever avg. you use) be within a range. For me, I know I'm riding "steady" when I can hold it within a range of about 20 watts.
3. Have a NP lap data field. This will tell you what your NP was over a shorter span (5 miles for ex.), and will allow you to make adjustments to your effort accordingly
My experience has been that as I've used these metrics, WHILE paying attention to RPE, I've become a much more effective rider (ie....not just somewhat faster, but smarter and better prepared for the run). Hope this helps
A large part of learning how to ride with power is just developing the right expectations about what to see on the dial. Power isn't like HR or cadence. It naturally moves around a lot. Setting to display 3sec power helps, but the other bit is what Steve said: understand that "I want to hold 220w" is really "when I look down at the PM, should see numbers that are generally bouncing around 220w."
^This^ perspective and developing the skill of riding Steady will generally smooth out your power...but in the end it's usually more about setting the right expectations and then not trying to micro-manage every pedal stroke.
Yep....as below. Very common with first experiences with PM outside. I do exactly as Steve with 3s NP as my main focus, but also tracking the 5mi lap NP field. You can also put IF on your head unit....which will tell you what your IF is for your whole ride. As Steve said, if you can keep your goal watts in the middle of the numbers you're seeing (+/- 10W or so), then your 5mi lap NP will be right on your goal. If you do that over and over every 5 miles, your end of ride IF will also be spot on!
I have had reason to do more training indoors this year than most...and if what you really want is just to hit numbers precisely and without interruption, there's no doubt that this is much easier to accomplish on the trainer (or rollers or whatever). That said, I think learning how to ride outside "by power" as Rich described is an essential skill that you really want to spend time doing. If you don't, then on race day, you're still going to be in that naive position and have trouble executing well. However, once you've got it down, I think you can be more flexible about choosing whether to ride in or out for a particular power workout purpose.