Displaying Normalized or Actual during a race
Hey all,
I wanted to see if i should be displaying normalized or actual power on my garmin during the race. Thoughts?
Jonathan
0
Hey all,
I wanted to see if i should be displaying normalized or actual power on my garmin during the race. Thoughts?
Jonathan
Comments
Or did you mean average power?
1) Elapsed Time
2) Actual Power (every 3 seconds)
3) Heart Rate
4) Cadence
Should i switch out Actual Power to Normalized Power? If so, why? if not Why? This stuff confuses me.
Avg Power is the physical cost to get from point A to point B. Variables include wight, wind, elevation changes, friction and drag, etc..
Normalized Power is the physiological cost of the Avg Power used to get from point A to point B. Key variable is how steady you ride, we express that as VI (Variability Index). NP can be viewed as overall or current lap. Using Lap NP is the only way to go. I use 3 mile laps, others 5 miles or more. The longer the lap interval, the more ridged the NP becomes.
VI is calculated as NP/AP. A high VI indicates lots of coasting &/or spiking watts. It is this that we try to control because coasting is lost opportunity to maintain momentum except on fast descents. While spiking watts is burning matches you will need finishing the bike or later during the run.
So Normalized Power is the metric you want to control by paying attention to your Current 3 sec. Power. Time, Cadence, HR are all useful for other reasons but the critical metrics are Current Power and Normalized Power.
I have 7 fields on my display when I train or race.
3 second power
Heart rate
Cadence
NP lap
Avg. power lap
Overall time
Distance
With those 3 power metrics I can tell what I'm doing at a given time and how my VI is doing for the lap. I do have TSS on another screen if I want to scroll over to that and see how I'm doing.
I have the garmin set for auto lap at 7 miles so that's between 20-25 minutes usually. I have a time alert at 15 minutes to remind me to eat and drink but I also found that I sometimes lost track of that if I didn't have the time on there as well or if I couldn't eat when the alert went off I would be reminded when I looked down at the garmin the next time.
One of my favorite racing epigrams: "Pay attention to your nutrition and your pace; your time and place will take care of themselves" Meaning: racing is all about managing the process details, not worrying about the outcome.
Drop elapsed time - it's an outcome metric; you should be focusing on process metrics while racing. Some might even argue that HR is an outcome metric as well, but it does have its uses at times on the bike leg in a race.
Lap NP (or IF) in my opinion is the number one metric to monitor; current power comes second, especially when going up or down a hill.
I trick I recently learned for garmin devices was to put Power and Lap NP in the two top fields on all screens. Then fill the remaining fields with things you think you'd like to know; HR, grade, distance, time, etc; then enable auto-scrolling. You always see your power and NP while the others blink by. I like not having to switch screens while riding and but still getting the info I want.
As Al said its good to focus on process variables and not outcome variables, but I do like to know total distance and time, current speed (especially downhill). I find grade and HR are valuable for judging appropriate power output climbing hills. I've stopped watching cadence, it seems irrelevant if I'm watching HR and power appropriately.
Since I can't see as well anymore, I display NP and IF only on one of my screens. I have two other screens with other stuff which I see as the watch scrolls each screen every 3 seconds but, as Al said below, IF and NP are really the key metrics you are driven by......
SS
I don't have the time on there because I'm watching the elapsed time but more to remind me to eat and drink. I noticed when I didn't display the time I sometimes missed the time alert and then missed a feeding. So now if I look down and it's passed the quarter hour and I haven't eaten or had a drink then I do so.
I don't really watch cadence except sometimes late in the race. I do better if I keep my cadence high and it just reminds me to keep it up there and use my gears more. I don't watch my HR normally but it came in handy during the Vineman because my power meter started reading 0 quite a bit. Since I had been seeing my HR in the mid-120's all day I just kept it there and didn't worry when my power meter was reading 0. Back ups and redundancies for me I guess.
I put up 3 sec power, NP-Lap, HR, Distance, Speed, Cadence lap time.
I manually hit lap every 20 minutes. It gives me something to focus on and reminds me to focus on my numbers. I got the advice from Al T as he gave above a few years ago, the outcome is a function of your achieved fitness (not changing on race day) and a focused execution to deliver the goods. It will be what it is. in IMMT, I was stoked when i finished half the bike on pace to do a bike split of X. I also realized I might be over-cooking it a bit and pressed a bit less on the hills on lap 2 and encountered more wind. The outcome was a 9 minute slower 2nd lap, but I was set up for my best IM run.
Just like running a pace you know you can for 26 miles in the run, riding at your numbers is a target for best possible outcome based on your tested fitness