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Watts Watching

joehilljoehill
in General Training Discussions

I am new to EN and power.  I currently have a PT (getting ready to order a Quarq for flexibility) and the routes that I ride are very hilly.  Nothing too steep but enough to flucuate the wattage output pretty significantly in very short periods of time.   Needless to say, I get stressed out looking at my actual watts and trying to keep them at the proper levels.  Should I be looking at the actual watts, avg watts, etc??  I like working with the numbers but sometimes it can hurt my ride because I am so worried about keeping the watts in the right range second by second!!

Any advice?

Joe

 

Comments

  • ejbeach01ejbeach01

    I typically watch actual watts and average watts on the same screen...but I also dig my watt average over 5 miles.

    I think being new to power automatically means you want to stare at the computer...that is how you will learn to equate certain #'s with how you feel.  That is natural. Over time you'll want to get away from gawking at your power meter while riding.  It is there as a guide, not a crutch.

    I find that I glance at it every few minutes...for me it is easy to zone out a bit.  When that happens I go on auto pilot and slow down.  So I try to sneak a peak every few minutes and verify that I am still holding the power I want.  The numbers bouce a bit, but I've learned to accept that and find I can put myself into an acceptable range pretty fast.

    On hills it is really useful as it helps you stay under certain ranges.  That is critical on long races as you don't want to burn your entire pack of matches busting up one climb. But again...over time you'll get used to it and not look at it quite so much in real time. 

     

  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Joe,

    • Always look at current watts. Average watts aren't very useful.
    • Nothing wrong with working harder (or much harder) than the prescribed intensity on hills...or on flats for that matter.

    In short, don't over think it. Do the work and often, especially in the OS, doing more work than called for is nearly always a good bet.

  • Christian RabbatChristian Rabbat
    Permission to do more than the prescribed work. As a newbie, and keen to do what I am told, that statement is what I have been looking for. Sometimes I feel I can safely dial it up out of zone 3. Thx Coach P.
  • GMAN 19030GMAN 19030
    I set mine to 3s average. Current watts just jumps around too much. 3s gives me almost "real time" numbers that are smoothed out much better.
  • Coach RichCoach Rich
    Posted By Christian Rabbat on 16 Oct 2010 08:26 PM

    Permission to do more than the prescribed work. As a newbie, and keen to do what I am told, that statement is what I have been looking for. Sometimes I feel I can safely dial it up out of zone 3. Thx Coach P.

     

    ...with the caveat that you do the smart guy, sanity check thing and ask yourself "is what I'm going now (working very hard) going to affect what I'm supposed to do tomorrow?" Fine to drill yourself today IF you feel you can still accomplish the goals of your downstream sessions.

  • Coach PatrickCoach Patrick
    Rich has said elsewhere that hills are an opportunity to get way stronger. If you look at a 2 x 15' at FTP and 30' at .85 workout, you can basically map out your TSS for that session over an hour. Then just go out and do that on a hilly ride. The better you get at the game of power, the more "freedom" you have from following the exact workout...
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