Jan 11, 2013 at 08:42 PM
Jules - I can teach you how to trackstand. After that, all your other season goals will fall neatly into place.
Goals for the upcoming season
Jan 11, 2013 at 09:46 PM
Jules - speaking of trackstands - are you coming out to the track this year ? This was one of your "maybe possibly" goals a few months ago, wasn't it?
Jan 12, 2013 at 04:20 AM
@adam.... and then there's Floyd.
Garmin + TrainingPeaks + Floyd = all you need to know about effing FTP.
My personal best this year at Floyd
20min - 331W AVG (368W NP)
60min - 320W AVG (348W NP)
The 0.95% formula works pretty well on the NP. The twice my weight extrapolation comes pretty close to the avg.
Going to try to up that 20 jam to ~400W AVG (~444W NP). I want to thresh at 6 W/kg. Tall order.
I love Floyd.
Garmin + TrainingPeaks + Floyd = all you need to know about effing FTP.
My personal best this year at Floyd
20min - 331W AVG (368W NP)
60min - 320W AVG (348W NP)
The 0.95% formula works pretty well on the NP. The twice my weight extrapolation comes pretty close to the avg.
Going to try to up that 20 jam to ~400W AVG (~444W NP). I want to thresh at 6 W/kg. Tall order.
I love Floyd.
Jan 12, 2013 at 11:19 AM
Rock on Sir Vlad. Rock on.Going to try to up that 20 jam to ~400W AVG (~444W NP). I want to thresh at 6 W/kg. Tall order.
I love Floyd.
Jan 12, 2013 at 12:07 PM
I feel like something Keith Snyder said the other night at Ride Brooklyn bears repeating: "Bike races don't happen in the little black box on your stem."
Jan 12, 2013 at 12:58 PM
True...I kind of have a love-hate relationship with my own power meter. In accordance with my earlier stated goals, I'd love to see guys get away from the number-hunting goals and replace them with more racing/skills related goals.Ryan J said:I feel like something Keith Snyder said the other night at Ride Brooklyn bears repeating: "Bike races don't happen in the little black box on your stem."
So many of you already have power numbers that are exceptional. This is the year we want to turn those numbers into podium places.
Jan 12, 2013 at 05:40 PM
My preference is a balance between skills, power numbers, race results and personal goals (weight, don't blow up my family, etc)
For me when I set a new PR for a power number it is as satisfying to me as winning a race, and when I spent a year trying to learn how to descend better it was worth it as all my riding (and racing) is *so* much more enjoyable now.
Jan 12, 2013 at 08:43 PM
According to the Coggan chart, 6 w/kg threshold puts one solidly in international pro range.vlad said:Going to try to up that 20 jam to ~400W AVG (~444W NP). I want to thresh at 6 W/kg. Tall order.
Jan 12, 2013 at 08:49 PM
NP is not a good indicator of anything for sub 1 hour efforts. Because its not meant to be anything but.
Nor is average power unless a steady effort. The variability of races skews average power up.
That's why you test with steady efforts. So, I think you could get super high averages in a race for 20 minutes, just its anaerobic work getting you there.
Jan 12, 2013 at 09:40 PM
Vlad is an international pro
Jan 12, 2013 at 10:18 PM
And according to the article/blog posted earlier by Jules, that's what Contador and Schleck crank out.Ryan J said:According to the Coggan chart, 6 w/kg threshold puts one solidly in international pro range.vlad said:Going to try to up that 20 jam to ~400W AVG (~444W NP). I want to thresh at 6 W/kg. Tall order.
And that would represent roughly a 20% improvement over last year's numbers. My brother-in-law a DIV I Cross Country/Track coach at Cornell University is happy if he can get 1 or 2% improvement from year to year from his athletes.
But I'm a believer in dreaming big (as long as you have some other more attainable goals to keep you happy, healthy and motivated during the season).
Really? Wow. As satisfying as a race win? Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about that! Seriously though, I thought of you today on my ride as I was all track-standing at a stop light, enjoying the warmth of tailpipe emissions on my legs. If that is actually one of your goals for 2012, next time we ride together, I'll teach you how to track stand lickety-split. It's really not hard.Jules said:For me when I set a new PR for a power number it is as satisfying to me as winning a race, and when I spent a year trying to learn how to descend better it was worth it as all my riding (and racing) is *so* much more enjoyable now.
Jan 13, 2013 at 01:35 AM
I wouldn't lie to you Mark. When I did 400 watts for 5 minutes last season I was as happy as a clam. Maybe it's been such a long time since I won a race that I can't remember, but that's also part of the plan; not all of us can be winning races regularly, but if I can pepper my season with enough tough but attainable goals I have a feast of accomplishment ahead of me. Yum Yum.Marc Bertucco said:Really? Wow. As satisfying as a race win? Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about that! Seriously though, I thought of you today on my ride as I was all track-standing at a stop light, enjoying the warmth of tailpipe emissions on my legs. If that is actually one of your goals for 2012, next time we ride together, I'll teach you how to track stand lickety-split. It's really not hard.For me when I set a new PR for a power number it is as satisfying to me as winning a race, and when I spent a year trying to learn how to descend better it was worth it as all my riding (and racing) is *so* much more enjoyable now.
Jan 13, 2013 at 01:41 AM
I won't lie. Power number get me a bit excited. But they also get me really depressed when I don't have good legs and I'm struggling to finish a workout. I also get this sense that every workout should be my best every, which is downright nonsense, but it has a way of making me feel defeated when I'm actually doing so-so in a workout
What good workouts and power records do for me is give me lots of confidence. I try to take that confidence into racing. It's no surprise that I got two of my best results last season shortly after completing some great workouts.
Jan 13, 2013 at 02:09 AM
I agree with you Mike. Being able to nail my workouts keeps me happy, when I can't I'm a little morose. But I also use that inability as a signal to sleep or rest more, or ask myself if there were objective reasons I can point to.
Sleep being the scarse commodity it is in a house with 2 small kids that is usually the culprit I point to, but sometimes it is nutrition or I've done an evening workout the day prior to a morning workout and I'm just not rested enough.
Jan 13, 2013 at 04:22 AM
my best race results have not come with the best power numbers. in fact, the best race results come from confidence from prior races. that confidence comes from some good numbers that come out of training. so, I suppose, one thing leads to another... I do like to crush the power meter though.
I didn't try a five minute effort in anger last year. I will do a few weeks of them in April to get ready for May...
Jan 13, 2013 at 11:06 PM
I agree with Eric about confidence. Remeber Sagan at last year's TdF? And I wonder if temp dependent readings of power meters need to be taken into account. Would low temp be expected to produce higher or lower numbers?
Jan 13, 2013 at 11:22 PM
Power number change isn't constant related to temperature. There is drift if there is temperature change. Re-zero - ing along the way is key.
@dstokes - thus there is no answer.
dstokes said:I agree with Eric about confidence. Remeber Sagan at last year's TdF? And I wonder if temp dependent readings of power meters need to be taken into account. Would low temp be expected to produce higher or lower numbers?
Jan 13, 2013 at 11:59 PM
My best race results have come on days where I am neither confident nor under confident. Days where I feel like it doesn't matter at all because we're all amateurs and no one cares; so I hate the people on $12k bikes who take themselves so seriously. I dont care if I win or lose, I'm just in the mood for a dogfight, so fuck everyone. Except my teammates, of course.
Jan 14, 2013 at 12:12 AM
My goals for this season are:
- Move to Portland, OR and become the premier Kissena cat 4 satellite Sub-team of One in the Northwest;
- Lead weekly Kissena group rides of One in Portland, OR (+1 Kissenas are welcome to join in);
- Do not bore my teammates with complaints about the muscle also known as Biceps Femoris;
- Eat, sleep, train and cross-train in a manner that appeases the gods of the Biceps Femoris;
- Repeat the above for the gods of the Acetabulofemora;
- Do not attempt to convert teammates to the Church of the Acetabulofemora, nor to the brotherhood of the Biceps Femoris;
- If the all powerful Orthopedic Gods permit it, let this Kissena race like a beast and drop all them other sinners like hot cakes off a Waffle House spatula.
And, until January 31st,
- Do not seek Cannondale treasures just because their sexy feather lightness is offered at team discount.
Jan 14, 2013 at 01:13 AM
That one is gonna be tough...- Do not seek Cannondale treasures just because their sexy feather lightness is offered at team discount.
Sep 21, 2017 at 11:49 PM
BUMP!