Get my into saving for a querg power meter. I can ep a powertap, but I would like to be able to use whatever wheels I want and when I want to use them.
This. You’ll have way more matches to burn if you’re cruising along in the pack at 70% FTP rather than >80% FTP.
Well… Quark and SRM are >$1500 for the most part. You can EP a Powertap Pro+ for about a third of that. How long is it going to take you to save that much money? You already ride a ton and have demonstrated that you have the time and the inclination to train consistently. I’d recommend going for the cheaper option so you can have a power meter to start the season off with. Then you’ll have the performance manager which will help you build volume and intensity as well as taper and peak for races.
Need two power meters. One for training wheelset and one for race set. I like the option of using whatever wheelset I want.
Do these things work?
powertaps are not weight weenie friendly. I was all happy about being at 17 lbs on the race bike. Esp. since I didn’t spend all that much on it (mostly just replacing stuff broken)
any reviews here on the iBike powermeter? I know setup is a bitch, but honestly it seems like a fair option.
ibike is universally regarded as bullshit. There’s three power meters: SRM, Powertap, and Quark. Everything else is either useless or vaporware.
Race wheels won’t make you faster. An extra season on a power meter will.
Older wired Powertaps are so cheap right now there’s honestly no real reason not to have one.
I wouldn’t even call it a powermeter. Power estimator is more accurate. My neighbor has one. I’ve never seen him use it effectively.
Race wheels won’t make you faster. An extra season on a power meter will.[/quote]
I need agility in the mountains.
getting into this thread… since im a track only guy, i’ll be hitting the gym in a month and starting to put in base miles through the end of the year. after that it’ll be more gym and spin work.
goals 2011 track season
1:13 kilo, 12.25 flying200
this thread inspired me to get a trainer. Picked up a basic mag trainer today after work, planning on doing 2/3 training sessions a week with a heart meter over the winter time, coming back and devouring souls come spring time. Hell fuck yes.
Go to google groups, find the wattage list, search for the 90/90/90 workout.
When we are at sea I try and hit the spin bikes we have in the hangar as often as possible. They are the good Keiser ones with watts/rpm/etc readings. The only problem is the watts only goes up to 999, and the RPM maxes out at 140 and tells you to ‘stop now’. Shitty!
I went for a session and thought of the part where Bjarne tells Sastre "that was good, try and keep it at 400w this time’ when they’re riding up that mountain.
Trying to maintain 400w for a long period of time is really, really difficult. For someone like me at least. So moral of the story, if I was bent on world domination by means of cycling, power training is where I’d start. For now I’m happy riding recreationally for training and finishing 2nd and 3rd. This may change in a month or two though.
Really wish I had a PM so I could do SST all accurately and shit…
I really, really like tempo rides. Favorite ‘training ride’ to do, really.
i don’t think measuring power is very important.
most people just don’t ride enough to benefit from it.
Cool opinion, I guess.
while i dont plan on training with power, i find the mechanics behind anything to do with fitness super intriguing. if i ever get the bike jock bug for serious i’d have to get some cool tools to go with. it’s like tinkering on hot rods. cept its your body. any you get a lot less tranny fluid in your eyes.
[quote=y]i don’t think measuring power is very important.
most people just don’t ride enough to benefit from it.[/quote]
I’d say the minimum weekly commitment to gain fitness is 6-8 hours and that’s being generous. 8-12 is more realistic. If one can manage that much of a commitment then having a power meter is going to be beneficial in terms of maximizing the gains one sees with limited training time.
But that’s not the point, really. Many people simply want to make the assertion that a power meter isn’t necessary because of some sort of personal bias. The bias that I’ve seen varies, some folks are traditionalists, some folks don’t like “all the numbers”, some folks think the expense is ridiculous (but will happily pay $3k for “race wheels”). In any case, the assertion is correct for most people. A power meter isn’t necessary to get faster. One can simply “ride lots” as Eddy put it. Hell, the principle of specificity is enough knowledge, really. You want to get faster at doing ‘X’, then go out and do ‘X’ a lot.
With all that said, there are many benefits to using a power meter; the comfort that comes with the certainty that intensity and volume of training are correct and that one is neither over-training nor under-training is a big deal. Measuring progress is also a tremendous motivator as well. There really is no more efficient means to get faster then by using a power meter.
[quote=AndreBear]Really wish I had a PM so I could do SST all accurately and shit…
I really, really like tempo rides. Favorite ‘training ride’ to do, really.[/quote]
Borrow a power meter, use it to calibrate PE, then do your SST rides. If you can’t hook something up locally, I’ll ship you mine for a week with the caveat that you’d have to follow the testing protocol that I suggest.
I have a friend who would probably loan me his PT for a ride or two…
What is your testing protocol?
This is from memory, I might come back and edit it.
[list]
[]15 min easy warmup
[]5 min near FTP (think SST or thereabouts)
[]5 min easy riding
[]3 min all out effort
[]5 min easy riding
[]20 min all out effort
[/list]
Send me the ride file and I should be able to do the Monod estimate of FTP. From there, I’d have you do a 2x20 and a long SST session to calibrate PE, so you could continue to do them without a power meter. Following that, I’d suggest a rest day and then some tests for 5s, 20s, 1min, 5 min to round out your power profile and give you a sense of where your weaknesses are at.
For a better estimate of FTP, you could do a full hour-long time trial, but that’s a bitch.