If you are the sort of person who loves knowing what's going on inside your body, what's going on with your aerodynamics and what's really happening in a race then you will absolutely love having a power meter. However if you are the sort of person who prefers to just ride along steadily remaining oblivious to many variables then power meters probably aren’t for you.
When you first get a power meter you will want to fit it to your bike and go out cycling straight away. This is a good idea but ensure it is fitted professionally – SRM power meters need to be fitted correctly to the bottom bracket and Powertap power meters need to be built into a new back wheel. Both of these power meters will need the digital display unit fitted to the handlebars and connected, either wirelessly or through wires to the power measuring component of the power meter.
The first thing to do when you get your power meter is to just ride as you would normally for a couple of weeks or so. Don’t adapt your training, just check your display and stats on your home PC to start mentally making the correlation between what your regular efforts feel like and what wattage figures you are putting out. This will help you integrate power meter training into your general training routine. You’ll get used to seeing how quickly the power meter responds to your change of efforts and how high your wattage goes when you make short sharp efforts.
When you are familiar with your power meter it’s time to start using it to record some important data… its time for the all out power test.
Get your bike on a turbo trainer, on the velodrome or on a long hill and ride flat out for 5 minutes. Use your power meter software on your PC to tell you what your average power output was and record this along with your current body weight so you can get an accurate watts/kg figure. You will want this data when you are planning your next training programme.
To collect more useful data you can do a power test over 20 minutes and also over an hour. Obviously you will need to give yourself enough days to recover between these tests and treat them as you would a competition to ensure you are going into them in the best condition possible.
When you have your first road race with a power meter keep it recording all the stats throughout the race so you can see how many watts was required from you when the bunch was chasing breaks, when it was windy, when you were sheltered and when you were in a break. The results can be quite surprising and with the data from your power meter you can train for these race specific requirements more accurately.
If you are a time trailers or triathlete you can benefit from additional aspects of power meters if you have got access to an indoor velodrome. It is possible to use a power meter to refine your on the bike positioning – you are looking for a position that is as aero as possible without overly compromising power output. The way to measure is to compare power output to a given heart rate compared to the time to do a set number of laps. With some fine tuning you should be able to get yourself as low and aero as possible to go faster without requiring any extra effort.
Additionally time triallers and triathletes can set a target wattage that has been pre-calculated from their training schedules to stick to during a race to ensure they work at an optimum efficiency. Too low and they are wasting potential, too high and they will suffer with fatigue during the event. Ride at the optimum efficiency for their body however and they will be setting personal bests as a matter of course.
Filed under Knowledge by on May 7th, 2009. 
The equipment required for a V02 Max test is pretty complicated and expensive so its not something you can really do at home or even with a local coach. There are various private sports labs offering V02max tests along with lactate tests, some more expensive than others.
By far the easiest and most affordable option is to get it tested at a university. Some universities do V02max tests as a commercial service but won’t charge as much as private enterprises, look for universities with a strong sports science background. It is possible to get V02max tested for free though – universities carry out various research projects and this includes research into fitness measuring, training effectiveness and other related areas. Get in contact with the head of sports science or exercise physiology at your local universities and see what projects they have got coming up that they require test subjects for. Not only should you get a test for free but quite often they will provide you with a training plan or other advice related to your findings.
The v02max tests are carried out in professional surroundings, often by MSc students or higher and the results are reliable. You can expect to be on a correctly set up stationary bicycle or a regular bicycle on a turbo trainer most likely with SRM power cranks or a powertap installed to measure your wattage as well.
When you have got your V02max results then you can start to work out effective training plans. Read on to discover more on this.
Filed under Knowledge by on Apr 22nd, 2009. Comment.
If you are serious about improving your cycling speed or endurance one term you are going to keep coming up against is V02 Max. You're probably wondering what V02Max is all about. Read on...
One way of measuring fitness amongst different types of athletes is by recording the amount of oxygen they can consume while they exercise at their maximum capacity. V02Max is this measurement of oxygen in millilitres per kilogram of bodyweight that an athlete can use in one minute. (V02Max = Volume of O2 (symbol for oxygen) at MAXimum). V02max is NOT strictly a measurement of power.
Fit endurance athletes tend to have a higher V02max value than a sedentary person and they can subsequently exercise more intensely.
Many studies have shown that athletes can increase their V02max by working intensities that raise their heart rate to between 65% and 85% of its maximum for a period of at least 20 minutes between 3 and 5 times a week.
An average V02max value for a sedentary male is around 35 ml per kg per minute and for sedentary females the figure is around 2700 ml per kg per minute. Elite endurance athletes would expect to average around 70ml/kg/min.
Sedentary V02max is primarily based on genetics but it can be improved by quality training. Some sedentary people will naturally have high V02max figures while others have lower figures. This genetic variation explains why not everyone can train themselves to become elite athletes.
V02max isn't the be all and end all of performance though. There are many athletes who had lower V02max figures but who still won consistently at an elite level. Other factors that contribute to performance are mental fortitude and the ability to endure pain, riding efficiency and lactate threshold. A rider with a high lactate threshold, economic riding style and an ability to tolerate pain can certainly beat riders with higher V02Max figures.
So what's the easiest way to increase your V02Max? The simple, and perhaps slightly flippant answer, is to lose weight. Remember kilograms are part of the V02 max equation so if we reduce that side of the equation then the other side of it goes up. There is less of you but your cardiovascular system is working the same as before, therefore you will be more efficient.
We will be looking at other ways to increase V02max in future articles so stay tuned.
Filed under Knowledge by on Apr 21st, 2009. Comment.
First and foremost its not a requirement that to be a good cyclist you have to train using a heart rate monitor. There's plenty of professional racers who never use a heart rate monitor (hrm). They do however have the benefit of many years experience of listening to their bodies as well as physicians on hand for regular check ups and assessments. For the amateur rider looking to improve their fitness or race performance then a hrm is a good first tool to understand and use.
A basic hrm will display your current heart rate at any given moment. An average hrm will allow you to set programmable upper and lower limits and will beep if your heartrate exceeds either of these limits. An exceedingly good hrm will record your heartrate and allow you to download it to your pc for later analysis. As is often the case the amount of features on your hrm will be governed by cost but with basic hrms starting at around 50USD they are within reach of most riders.
So what are the benefits from training and racing using hrms?
It will teach you to read your body and understand why a ride on a certain day feels harder than before.
It will help you spot when you are at risk of illness or fatigue
It brings objectivity to training.
It can be used to guage effort in races and assist in saving strength for later in a time trial or hill climb.
It is the gateway for riders to begin working out what their optimum training zones are.
Look out for further features which will teach you how to discover what your theoretical maximum heart rate is as well as working out what your training zones are.
Filed under Knowledge by on Apr 18th, 2009. Comment.
