If I get on my bike 5-6 hours a week outside of commuting right now, that’s “good”. Typically it’s more like maybe 4 hours, because getting dark out/busy with new job/only time I see girlfriend is more or less on the weekends.
Still have good power 
[quote=Halbritt]
For a better estimate of FTP, you could do a full hour-long time trial, but that’s a bitch.[/quote]
So is racing, but that’s why we do this right? To torture ourselves and indulge our own sadist tendencies inwards.
Dunno bout u but i race for the ladiez.
i can haz moar powar!
[quote=CheshireCat][quote=Halbritt]
For a better estimate of FTP, you could do a full hour-long time trial, but that’s a bitch.[/quote]
So is racing, but that’s why we do this right? To torture ourselves and indulge our own sadist tendencies inwards.[/quote]
Yeah, but motivating yourself to do an hour at FTP by yourself on a flat road is seriously worlds apart from being around your adversaries in a cross race killing it, or taking the fast break up the road in an RR. I can’t even think of any coaches that have their amateurs do full on hour TT’s. I would take 4 kilo efforts over that any day.
Doing an hour solo TT is stupid for your FTP.
Just do 20 minutes and call it a day.
[quote=y]i don’t think measuring power is very important.
most people just don’t ride enough to benefit from it.[/quote]
There is some truth to this. Next to ceramic bearings power meters have to be the biggest scam pulled on the average club racer. It’s been my experience when you look at the fast end of the local talent you get plenty of guys who don’t ever train with a power meter.
That being said it’s certainly a great tool if you are the type of person who can benefit from it.
Here in Richmond there are four guys that between them won every single week of the local crit series. Of the four only one of them uses a powermeter and almost never races with it.
I know quite a few guys that are slave to it and while they can rock a 40k tt they are never in the winning move when its time to really throw down.
Best quote from one of the elite locals was “In a race it does not matter how many watts you can hold. Either you can bridge or you can’t”
Fyi I got my power meter laced to a mavic open pro. It’s the old wired model for $125 shipped with a dura ace 7800 cassette and a conti tire.
I sold the cassette with my reynolds carbon tubs to sweeten the deal. I was trying to take my bike out of “race mode” and put it into get insanely strong mode since I dunno what my time is going to be like to race after I grad in december.
It’s a nice setup. Only issue is the PC dock is serial. So I gotta get a serial to USB adapter or something?
Anyways… got my cannondale from 15lbs to like 17.6. Damn.
I haven’t done anything with it yet. I’ve ridden, but haven’t looked into the numbers. It is mildly exciting seeing max wattage #'s close to 2hp tho. Not that they mean anything, but it’s fascinating.
Alright, doing the powertap thing.
Here is the question:
do I get the SL hub laced to an open pro for like 100 bucks more
or get the hub and lace it to something I already have: (I have some reynolds DV46 tubulars)
or do I sell the reynolds tubulars AND my ksyrium SLP’s and get something cool like edge clinchers or some ebay crabon clinchers to lace up?
I weight 148 soaking wet right now (fully clothed) so I could get away with 16hx24h rims instead of the 32h the powertap comes stock laced to the open pro.
Basically, do I make the powertap a race wheel, or do I keep my crabon tubulars as my race wheels and not race with power data?
I’m using my Garmin edge 305 as my head unit.
[quote=bradencbc][quote=y]i don’t think measuring power is very important.
most people just don’t ride enough to benefit from it.[/quote]blah blah blah anecdotal bullshit[/quote]
A power meter is an instrument, that if used appropriately will give a better value in terms of speed vs. dollars spent than any other part you’d like to consider. With that said, there’s a lot of people in the world that haven’t a clue how to use one. If one of these “slaves to the power meter” can’t bridge, then he’s doing something wrong, because that’s precisely the kind of shortcoming a power meter excels as exposing.
If you’re 3/4/5 and have some natural talent, you can do well without a power meter. I don’t see many people winning in pro/1/2 fields without one. I suspect most don’t get used appropriately. I’ve read lots of stories and blogs about people using a power meter without ever having done any testing to establish FTP. I’ve read other stories about people that use it just to stomp on the pedals and drive up the “max power” number to something that looks pro-ish.
Using one correctly is a rigid and complicated process that a lot of people are averse to. It’s difficult to understand and takes the joy out of training for a lot of people.
[quote=CheshireCat]Basically, do I make the powertap a race wheel, or do I keep my crabon tubulars as my race wheels and not race with power data?
I’m using my Garmin edge 305 as my head unit.[/quote]
Use whatever rims you’re most likely to train on. If that means clinchers, than so be it. When you race, use good tires and latex tubes if you’re worried about rolling resistance. You’ll get the most benefit from the PM from using it as much as possible.
I’ll train on tubies if I have to. I really dont care, the problem is that I like to ride trails as well. Considering a cheap wired powertap for the MTB since weight is less concern, or just using the HRM. I hate racing both road and XC since none of the gear is shared.
At least on clinchers I can swap out for some cross clinchers and do lighter trail duty on the CX bike.
Man, reading this thread, most of which I don’t understand, it sounds like halbritt would make a good cycling coach.
edit: I would like to ride with a powertap or similar power-metering setup, just so I could see how weak a rider I am. Also numbers & data are cool.
i still dont understand why people dont think a powertap is a great training tool. its like a car without gauges, or a weight loss plan without a scale or any measuring instruments
[quote=CheshireCat]I’ll train on tubies if I have to. I really dont care, the problem is that I like to ride trails as well. Considering a cheap wired powertap for the MTB since weight is less concern, or just using the HRM. I hate racing both road and XC since none of the gear is shared.
At least on clinchers I can swap out for some cross clinchers and do lighter trail duty on the CX bike.[/quote]
Do clinchers on your “first” PT because you’ll wanna use it on the trainer.
Retro-grouchery, (pseudo)-elitism, delusion, ignorance. Pick one.
[quote=bradencbc][quote=y]i don’t think measuring power is very important.
most people just don’t ride enough to benefit from it.[/quote]
There is some truth to this. Next to ceramic bearings power meters have to be the biggest scam pulled on the average club racer. It’s been my experience when you look at the fast end of the local talent you get plenty of guys who don’t ever train with a power meter. [/quote]
Let’s be honest Braden. I think we both know the type of slow amateur club racer that buys a PM and won’t benefit from it at all is going to be nearly impossible to talk out of buying one anyway, therefore no one’s really getting ‘scammed’. Same idea as the fat roadie who slaves away to get his bike down to 15lb, but won’t lose any actual body weight of his own - they’re bent on doing it and beyond being reasoned with.
Dumb question:
If I buy something like http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-CycleOps-Power-Powertap-Comp-32H-Shimano-/380269895762?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5889da2052 could I lace this to a 24 hole rim or do you have to match it to a 32H rim? Was thinking about getting this and lacing to some ebay crabon rims.
This guy did place 5th in the TT at nationals in the 35-39 so let’s clarify this guy is not suffering from any physical shortcomings on the bike. But the guy lets the numbers on his SRM take him out of the race sometimes. In my opinion (yeah this is totally anecdotal) a powermeter is just as likely to bring out mental weakness as it is to improve physical prowess.
Of the locals who rip it up the most there is the one that does train with a power meter and who also just happens to be my partner at the bike shop so I often grill about insights into training. He’s be racing for about 20 years and has been a cat 1 pretty much the whole time. For certain parts of the year he is 100% dedicated to training with power but never advocates racing with it. When he starts to get into peak fitness the computer usually comes off the bike. For him personally the power meter is great for doing those terrible 5, 10, and 20 minute intervals but the truly soul crushing workouts he does that simulates the intensity of crit racing (1 on 1 off stuff mostly) is 100% based on perceived effort.
All my bullshit aside, I do think there is a middle ground on this where most people fall.
What was my point again? Oh yeah… I’m not saying training with power is not A way to train. It’s just not THE ONLY way to train. However, since this is the wattage thread I’ll respectfully shut the hell up now.
if you’re not training with wattage, you’d better be training with heart rate. there needs to be some form of metrics to expose weaknesses in technique. Sure, a lot of people can do well without it, however when you live in a very competitive area (Boulder, CO, all of California, Boston, etc) being able to use metrics to judge where to place the lump of training stress is very effective.
Still a lot of riders will choose to use heart rate instead and that can work well since you can devise training plans around heart rate alone.
Still, more information is better, and a powermeter, when coupled with an HRM, will tell you if your body is getting stronger, or if you are overtraining it more effectively.
Most of us have limited time on the bike and would like to make those few hours that we have count as much as possible towards race day performance.
[quote=Halbritt]
[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.[/quote]
Talked to amigo with PM, who suggested instead riding on a CompuTrainer w/ power and HRM and whatever fancy software is on there, and making calculations based on that.