Beginning my power journey---watch out ;)

trigirl1203

 Woo hoo----just got my first Powertap yesterday!  Now I have a wheel in a box with some computer thingy and am totally unsure where to go from here...

So I went through the power webinar yesterday and seem to understand the technical terms and how-tos of starting to ride with power, but need some assistance with actually setting it up.  I bought my powertap through the EN deal with the wheel, hub, joule, etc. all included.  Some of these are truly noob questions so I apologize if this all sounds dumb.  

Since it is wireless, once I mount the computer and put the wheel on the bike am I good to go?  Or is there some sort of calibration necessary with the computer?  

I also got the WKO+, but once I logged in for the first time, I am completely lost.  That is quite a complex website.  Any advice on getting going with that?

Also, anything I am not thinking about now that would be a good thing to have in mind while setting this up and getting ready for the OS?  I am starting next week, so I have about a week to set this thing up.

Thanks everyone!

cgres123

Welcome to a whole new learning curve.

Tom Glynn

just put the wheel on and give it a spin. That will wake up the power meter. If you haven't mounted the computer to the handle bars, you need to do that. The Joule has a cradle that gets attached to the handle bars with plastic cables (that should be included). Push button to turn it on. It'll search for a couple of seconds and then it will connect with the PT device. It will start displaying watts and you know you are good to go.



After that, read the manual...it's pretty good



http://www.saris.com/pdfManuals/394.pdf



Happy to help with more set up issues if you need. Just ask away

cam2win

Lauren,

Welcome to the Power Club, here are some webinars about WKO+.  I have only watched the 1st one but found it to be very helpful. 

http://www.peaksware.com/trainingpe...inars.aspx

http://www.peaksware.com/personal-e...c-101.aspx

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/videos.aspx

 

As far as getting started with you Joule & Powertap I think these are the steps you need to take.

1. Put the cassette on the wheel along with tube & tire and get it on the bike.

2. Mount your Joule on the bike.

I would then put on your HR Monitor (if it came with one) and either put the bike on the trainer or go for a ride to see if everything automatically sync's.  I am guessing it probably will not.  If it doesn't, don't worry about it, check out this link.

http://www.cycleops.com/en/getting-...joule.html

Hopefully this should be enough to get you going.

Good Luck!

JT

Jenn Edwards

Lauren: You're gonna be even MORE of an animal now! All I can suggest is setting up your Pain Cave comfortably.  Oh and perhaps testing you legs a bit with some shorter intervals so you don't go into your first FTP test without any idea of where you're at.  And HAVE FUN!!!   

gilliatt

Welcome to the club Lauren. Learn how to use power good things will happen.

Keith Wick

Congrats on the PM. If you've previously trained with HR, then I would follow your HR for a few workouts and get used to the numbers that you see on the PM. While keeping your HR in the zone, try to focus on maintaining a steady power number. You'll see some fluctuation in the numbers, but by steady I mean relatively a 10 watt gap (ex. if I'm aiming for 230, then I should see numbers on the dial between 225 and 235). If your riding outside, your numbers will jump all over the place vs. on the trainer you should be able to be more consistent. I'd also experiment with standing and sitting so you get a true understanding of what happens to your numbers. Even the slightest hill will amaze you at what numbers you'll see on the PM.

After you get a sense of where you typically fall----ex. in zone 3 I typically see XXX watts---- then start to try and hold those for a given length of time. So, pick a 10' spot to try and hold what you think your FTP watts will be.

Good luck and enjoy.

andidunlop

Welcome!  I am new to power to - just did my 3rd ride w/ the Powertap and already LOVE it... so much more than HR anyway.  No cheating with power.  Because I'm new I don't dare answer your questions, but am reading the responses.  The power webinar is great!

Happy riding,

Andi

ccotstanza12

Not sure where to post this, but as it seems to be a locale for power-training newbies...

I've been using a powertap for about a month now, and I'm finding that I can hit the main set intervals and keep my watts pretty consistent. However, when I get to the Z3 work after the main set, I find it much harder to keep my watts stable. Is this a fatigue issue or just not having much experience training with power?

Thanks!

tuckerm

@Claire, I think many find that it is just as much mental as as it is physical. Sure you are tired, but mentally you may have already checked out since you have done your real "work". You are most likely not used to this level of intensity, but will get there. What some have done in the past is to do a 80-85% interval before the FTP intervals. It's a way to ensure you get a good quality set in. Good luck.

Tom Glynn

@Claire, it means you are doing the main set correctly! Riding at 85% takes a lot of concentration and effort. It's not easy.

One of the first things I noticed when a got my power meter (a long time ago!) is that group rides have a lot of time below 70% IF so riding with a faster group or by your self and clipping along at 80% or higher is a really strong ride.

Anyway, just practice!

tom

ezellrh

Claire, noob to the Haus and to power myself, but I find it helps if I make sure to include the rest interval after the final FTP set (instead of finishing the FTP interval and immediately dialing in 85%). For me, I can crank it back up a bit after soft pedaling for 2 minutes.

Good luck and keep at it!

Scott Alexander

I agree with Roy, make sure to get in the RI before kiciking back up to 80%+. It's also easier, at least for me, to do a good warm-up, hit the main set (with rest intervals), then do the 80%+ afterwards.

After doing 95%-FTP+ efforts, 80% should seem easy (well, easIER any way).

[Deleted User]

Ever since I started training with power, I've noticed the importance of really getting a good warm-up. When I start spinning on my trainer, I notice that I'm riding in Z1/Z2, even if it feels "harder". After doing a few spinups to Z3, I find that hitting those Z3 intervals get progressively easier. Then, hitting Z4 becomes less of a leap in terms of perceived effort, but hanging on in there is still hard!

Kevin Walter

If I can make one suggestion, its be sure to read the part about how to zero the hub torque and to do this religiously at the start of every ride (yes, every single ride). It will help your data tremendously. I was pretty lax about this to start with which led to my data being all over the place.

ccotstanza12

Thanks for all the great feedback! I'll try these suggestions on my rides this week and see how it goes!

ccotstanza12

I have been doing some solid warm ups, like Anson mentioned, getting into Z3, not just riding Z1-2 and including the rest interval at the end before starting Z3 work. Both of these have been helpful. I was pleasantly surprised to hit all my z4 and z3 intervals in yesterday's bike. I am not as consistent with my watts, but hopefully that will come with time!

 

Another quick question... I have noticed my cadence and watts drop off to zero at seemingly random times during my workout. I turned the auto pause off on my garmin because it was driving me nuts, re-calibrated my PT and found it is still dropping out at times. Any thoughts? I'll try to leaf through the wiki too in case there's some info there.

Tom Glynn

@Claire, dropping data is not all that uncommon, but it is usually for very brief periods of time. If you pull up the raw data in WKO you can often see blanks, zeros or randomly high numbers that seem to appear out of nowhere. My guesses are, low batteries, either hub or computer, interference with other equipment, like other rider's tools, TVs, etc., possible weather - too hot, cold, wet etc.

If it happens once in a while for short intervals, don't worry about it. If it happens more often, do the easy stuff like change batteries, then pay attention to when it does happen and do some trouble shooting. If all else fails, call customer support for the PT and computer armed with all the data you have collected.

Kevin Walter

@Claire. Are you using a Garmin 310XT? On your wrist or mounted on the stem? I got a lot of dropout on my 310 when I tried to wear it on my wrist. When I switched it to the quick release stem mount those issues went away.

Tom Glynn

@Claire,

just saw this post on google wattage. It implies that the gps function on the garmin 500 is causing interference, resulting in data drops. Turning off the gps seemed to correct the problem.

The long winded response:

have now used a Garmin Edge 500 in combination with a Garmin GSC 10,
Garmin HR Strap and a PowerTap or Quarq for almost 2 years. Over this
time, I have noticed odd behavior with regards to ride time. Mainly,
the problem being that the PowerAgent software is under reporting on
time spent moving, usually between 20 seconds to 1 minute for every
hour of riding. This issue seems to be un-affected by firmware
revisions on the Garmin Edge 500. My Edge 500 is currently using the
latest version (v2.8). I use the Edge 500 with the screen configured
with 6 data fields visible in this order: power, time, speed, cadence,
distance, HR.
One thing I should note, is that if I had never downloaded the files,
I would not not had any symptoms of missing data, because there are
were no signs of anything happening on the head unit, the elapsed time
and ride time (auto-paused), and the distance all seemed correct.
I had always assumed that the problem was with the Power Meter not
transmitting. However, after examining a race file in which I didn't
even use a Power Meter, I found that I still had 2 minutes of missing
data points.
Looking at the problem in the files I can see that my problems are
represented mainly by 2 second gaps between data points, these 2
second gaps are sometimes more at the start of the ride, and sometimes
just randomly spaced throughout the ride.
Because I had been using the Edge 500 with Auto-Pause, it was more
difficult to determine what exactly was happening because any stops
could result in similar gaps. Over 95% of my past rides were recorded
with GPS on.
One weekend I decided I would turn Auto-Pause off and not pause the
timer for the entire duration of the ride. I would do one 4 hour ride
with GPS on, and one 4 hour ride with GPS off. Both rides on similar
routes/terrain. I would be using Garmin Edge 500 in combination with a
Garmin GSC 10, a Garmin Chest Strap and Quarq.
Now, I would think that what should happen, is that the Garmin Edge
500 should record one data point for every second, regardless of what
any sensor was doing. If a sensor did not send data - I would not see
a numerical value for that data point, but I would still see the time.
For both rides I would import the files in to PowerAgent v7.5.3.27,
then export the files to Cyclops Extended Power Data (CSV) for
analysis in Microsoft Excel. I would also use TrainingPeaks WKO+ v3.0
(Build 48) to verify that any data issues were not caused by the way
the software was handling the fit files. I also used the
FitCSVTool.jar in the FitSDK to verify the fit were decoded properly.
In Excel I would insert 2 columns after Column A, then insert the
formula:
B7:
=A7/(60*24)
[to convert time in minutes to days which is how excel handles time]
C7:
=B7-B6
[to calculate the change in time between data point]
I then filled these values down in the columns. I then set the cell
format to TIME (HH:MM:SS)
I then selected all of the Columns with data, and applied DATA >
FILTER > AUTO-FILTER
With the above steps done it becomes very easy to locate data point
gaps or drops by applying a filter for a value to a column.
I would look for time gaps and power drops, which should be shown as
-1 (for non-transmission) or might show as 0 (0w power).
On the first 4 hour ride with GPS off, I found:
5 - 2 second time gaps
1 - 3 second time gap
0 - power values of 0 or -1 where the speed was not equal to 0 or
declining (meaning I likely stopped pedaling)
0 - repeated time stamps
On the second 4 hour ride with GPS on, I found:
302 - 2 second time gaps
3 - 3 second time gap
0 - power values of 0 or -1 where the speed was not equal to 0 or
declining
1 - repeated time stamps
However, for both rides it appears that no distance was dropped.
In the case of the ride without GPS, the first data point after the
drop would have had the change in distance incremented by the distance
travelled in 2 seconds at the speed for that data point. So, this
would indicate that the speed sensor is still recording data and/or
there is some sort of Smart Recording going on for this data point.
For the ride with GPS, the travelled distance associated with the
missing data point would be within the first two rows before or after
the missing data point. The distance corresponded precisely to the
distance between GPS co-ordinates associated to the data points and
this total distance did equate the amount of distance that should have
been travelled for the speed associated with data point. So, even
though the Edge 500 is set to use a sensor for speed, it is still
using the GPS to calculate the distance.
I subsequently have been using the Edge 500 with GPS off and Auto-
Pause Disabled and usually am seeing only 1 to 2 data drops per hour.
I also looked at files from the past, some of which were recorded on a
different Edge 500 (I have 2 of these) and while they were all
recorded with Auto-Pause enabled, all of these files have data drops
in the range of 8 to 75 per hour.
While in the grand scheme of things missing 100 to 300 data points out
of 16500 is not a huge deal, but in this case it is irritating because
the problem appears to be caused by using the GPS function on Garmin
Edge 500.
I had always thought that it was the Quarq or PowerTap that was
responsible for missing data, but now I see that it is the Garmin Edge
500.
I would suggest for anyone that has been blaming data drops on their
Power Meter to have a good look at the data the head unit is producing
because the problems might be that the head unit is dropping or simply
not recording data.
I am curious as to whether other people have noticed issues with any
other head units dropping data points.
Had I known the GPS function was causing this to happen, I would have
ensured it was disabled for all my Time Trials, because now I know why
there has been inconsistency with the number of missing data points.
From now on I will be using the Edge 500 with GPS disabled. However,
it is very irritating that the device turns the GPS on every time you
power it on, and then to turn it off you have to press the buttons 11
times.
I should note that the only reason I even noticed this problem is
because the PowerAgent software is calculating Ride Time (Time Moving)
by subtracting the number of zero speed values from the total number
of data points then multiplying by the recording interval to come up
with a value for the ride time. While this certainly seems like a
logical calculation, it ignores the possibility that there could be
missing data points.
Aaron

ccotstanza12

@Tom- Thanks for the info. I have a Garmin 310XT, but I will try turning off the GPS. Couldn't hurt, right?