How do I enter power Zones into a joule?
my power zones from my last FTP test are as follows:
| Bike Zones | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zone | HR | Power | |||
| Z1 / < 70%: | < 152 |
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| Z2 / 70-75%: | 152-164 |
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| Z3 / 80-85%: | 174-185 |
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| Z4 / 95-100%: | 207-218 |
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| Z5 / > 110%: | > 240 |
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in the joule i am asked for the following power zones:
1. Recovery
2.endurance
3.threshold
4.race pace
5. maximum
6.Supra Max
should they above power #s be entered as the upper ranges of each zone as follows?
1. 152
2. 164
3 185
4. 218
5. 240
0
Comments
Scott - we're triathletes, not bike racers. And on top of that, we're EN triathletes, who base our training off of an FTP number generated by testing, not by a calculation. So all we really care about is getting the right FTP into the Joule, and then using that to generate the Intensity Factor (IF), Normalized Power (NP), and TSS (Training Stress score) for our rides and intervals. Variability Index (VI) is also important, but PowerTap won't generate it; we have to get it from WKO+.
There really isn't a correlation between the EN zones and the PT defined zones; we have no real use for those PT zones, so I just ignore 'em
Here's all you need to do: in PowerAgent, the software that comes with PowerTap, create a user - Scott - by going to File>New>User, or edit the one you already created. You get a window which asks for general info, and then one for "Power Zones" ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS FILL IN YOUR FTP. Don't bother with the other stuff, it just generates those zones which you won't be using anyway. You can also go to heart rate zones if you want, and fill in your lactate threshold HR.
Then, you should also configure the Joule for your FTP, so it displays the NP, IF, and TSS correctly. Connect Joule to computer via USB cable. Tools>Configure Device ... It seems when you just click OK, the FTP is transferred.
Here's a direct quote from Coach Rich posting on Slowtwitch last year on this exact question:
This is what I do:
I set my FTP in Poweragent and then transfer this setting or whatever to my profile in my Joule.
I don't care about or set my zones in either PA or on the Joule. Instead, I have Pnorm, TSS, and IF on the main screen of the Joule, along with current watts, speed, distance, KJ, and ride time. If I'm doing a lot of climbing I may change one of the cells to give me altitude info, just out of curiousity.
I then do this math in my head to calc the zones I care about the zones we have our athletes focus on:
70-75%: roughly IM watts, or our Zone 2
80-85%: roughly HIM watts, or our Zone 3
95-100%: FTP, our Zone 4
110%+: our Zone 5
Then as I ride:
My default gear is that 85% above. If I'm not warming, cooling down, doing some admin miles (@~75%), I'm at no less than 85%, all the time.
Sit on, at, or near FTP as much as I can stand.
When I look down at the dial, I try to always make the current watts higher than Pnorm. This drives up my Pnorm, which forces me to hold higher current watts, which drives up Pnorm, which drives up IF...all creating an evil positive feedback loop.
Over time, through training on the same route, I have IF and TSS benchmarks for each of these rides that I try to meet or exceed each time.
All of this is to say that we don't have our athletes speak in WKO zones. We use our zones above because these have much more meaning for the power triathlete training and racing on our world. Also, I've been training for 4+ years, on an Ergomo, using real time TSS, Pnorm, and IF above and it's a much more powerful way to train than to simply focus on training zones, track time spent in zones, etc.
Sorry for the long post, raining in LA = can't ride and I'm bored....
In WKO+ I do enter my EN power zones and create grey zones to compensate for the empty spots between my EN zones. I do this so that I can take a quick look at my Power Distribution Chart and easily determine if I am hitting my required time in each zone per the EN workout.
how is this different than entering it right into the Joule under setup user/power zones?
which i did before my rides this weekend and it is clear from my use of the joule & the downloads that the joule was not calculating the correct IF, etc. the downloaded data in WKO+ did show the correct information (and different from what i saw on the joule)
i just installed the power agent software and did the setup as you recommended above, is there anywhere to look on the joule to confirm that the threshold # transferred correctly?
Like you I'm "learning by doing" with the Joule/PT combo. I think the issue is that there is no place in the Joule menu to enter an actual FTP. You'd have to do some reverse engineering to figure out the power zones associated with the your FTP and then enter those in the Joule. Much better to go the PowerAgent route. I called Saris early this year to get some help on this, and they told me to set the FTP in my user profile in PowerAgent, so I did and it's worked is all I know.
in WKO+ i have my new FTP of 220, and i downloaded today's ride, comes up with
3052kJ
TSS 345.1
IF.751
Norm Power 165
VI 1.2
the Joule is reading the following for the same workout
3052kJ
TSS 265.7
IF.656
Norm Power 165
i utilized power agent as described above and clearly the correct FTP did not "take" to the joule. or is something amiss in WKO+ i am not a experienced enough user to know if the IF number is whacked or appropriate. it was a 103 mile very hilly ride. Maybe the Joule is right and WKO+ is wrong?
This is after the fact info for Scott, but for others pondering this, the default FTP for the Joule and PowerAgent is 250. So a quick multiplication of 250 x 0.656 gives 164, which is the NP Scott generated, showing the Joule was using the default FTP for its calculations. Linking the Joule to PA to download the file onto the computer also alerted to Joule to update its FTP to the correct 220, is my guess.