Introduction
This is the first in a series of articles which will look at the the power data of a rider who is starting to use a power meter. The rider has had moderate success on the road and has won at all levels. He has represented his region in the past but has committed himself to cycling over the past 1.5yrs because of work and family pressures.
The rider knows the intricacies of training with a HRM but wants to see what difference a PM makes to his performance. As he has the meter on loan the improvements will dictate whether he purchases the meter to use as his own. I suppose this is a test of the coaching and methods that he will use more than the tool itself. Having a PM wont make him any quicker however, by training with power it will be interesting to see the improvements and to be able to measure them.
First Session
The first session the Rider did was 2 x10 mins at a level he thought equated to his Threshold. The 2 intervals turned out to be 244w and 234w respectively. The riders mass is 69kg this gives a power to weight ratio of 3.5w/kg which is okay but a long way off race winning power. One of the reasons the power is slightly low could be because the trainer wasnt setup correctly. His speed during the Intervals was 50kph! So he is either super efficient or the resistance is too low and therefore we should see an improvement in the power output if the resistance is increased.
If all training is carried out using the PM we should be able to look closely at the energy expenditure which should help us in implementing a periodisation type of approach to the training.
Here is the facts and figures from the first workout with the PM
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| Interval 1 |
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| Interval 2 |
