# New with Power, Couples of questions, testing, workout...



## mtbiker4ever (Mar 17, 2009)

Hey guys I'm a Expert MTB racer, that ofcourse trains in the road most of the times, I have been training with a plan for two year until I got last week a Powertap pro. As the Mountain Biker's Training Bible from Joe friel says, there is a power test to find out your power zones, which are different interval..

Well I did it at the end of my rest week, I was a little sored but I did it anyways... (probably there are not even close to most of the roadies out there ) It says to add and subtract 5 percent to establish zones, It come out with this results

12 second: 819W (average is 778-860)
1 min: 510W (average is 485-535)
6 min: 323W (average is 307-339)
12 min: 293W (average is 279-307)
30 min: 282W (average is 268-296)

Now to find out your power zones for a 60, 90 and 180 minutes . It says to estimated 60 minutes power zones, subtract 5 percent from my 30 minutes average power. For 90 minutes, subtract 2.5 from the 60 minutes power, and for 180minutes power, subtract 5 percent from the 90 minutes, by doing that I get

60 min: 267W
90 min: 260W
180 min: 247W

OK, I dont know if this is the right way to find out your power zones. but Its the only one I know. Now, Im in my base period in which as far as endurance workout is to ride in your zone CP180 which is 247W... I did a workout today, but compared to when I used to do that with my heart rate in zone two, this workout was a lot harder that with the heart rate.. 

Now. by looking at the current Watts, i only see number going up and down, I dont see a steady power like a heart which is easier to keep a steady heart rate such as 145-148HR. How do you keep a power at 247W, do you look at your average power? Its suppost to be harder to train than with HR? because sometimes my heart rate was higher while trying to keep a average close to 247W. is that normal?


thank you for any advice..


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## California L33 (Jan 20, 2006)

mtbiker4ever said:


> Hey guys I'm a Expert MTB racer, that ofcourse trains in the road most of the times, I have been training with a plan for two year until I got last week a Powertap pro. As the Mountain Biker's Training Bible from Joe friel says, there is a power test to find out your power zones, which are different interval..
> 
> Well I did it at the end of my rest week, I was a little sored but I did it anyways... (probably there are not even close to most of the roadies out there ) It says to add and subtract 5 percent to establish zones, It come out with this results
> 
> ...


I'm not really the guy to be replying- there are others with far more experience in this, but I do know 1 watt is a small thing. Trying to maintain an output exactly 247 watts is going to be just about impossible. I think you'll need to settle on a range close to that magic number without constantly 'chasing your tail' to get the magic number.


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## PhysioJoe (May 6, 2008)

I would say for long endurance rides, you will be averaging roughly 70% of your 30 min power...which would put you in the 195 watt range. This means that during the ride you can hold your power between 175-215 and you should be good. I know Friel advocates AeT training, which is essentially tempo, so you might ride 205-235 or so for those types of rides or intervals.

PhysioJoe


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## iliveonnitro (Feb 19, 2006)

mtbiker4ever said:


> Now. by looking at the current Watts, i only see number going up and down, I dont see a steady power like a heart which is easier to keep a steady heart rate such as 145-148HR. How do you keep a power at 247W, do you look at your average power? Its suppost to be harder to train than with HR? because sometimes my heart rate was higher while trying to keep a average close to 247W. is that normal?


You can set your powertap to display a 30s rolling average power if you wanted, and get much "closer" to that number. Typically, I set it for about 3s or 5s and, for the most part, ignore the minor fluctuations.

I highly recommend reading all of this:
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/power411.aspx


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## Circlip (Jul 26, 2005)

I could be reading this all wrong (I don't have that version of the Friel book) but isn't that test and subsequent calculations giving you your maximum power for a given duration? e.g. if you were to do a 3 hour steady state ride as fast as possible, then your average wattage would be estimated at 247w? Obviously you don't want to be training on your redline (relative to that duration) every workout, so I'd guess there's some missing link telling you that you should then be riding at a specific % of the tested or calculated watts, depending on what the goal of the session is.



mtbiker4ever said:


> Hey guys I'm a Expert MTB racer, that ofcourse trains in the road most of the times, I have been training with a plan for two year until I got last week a Powertap pro. As the Mountain Biker's Training Bible from Joe friel says, there is a power test to find out your power zones, which are different interval..
> 
> Well I did it at the end of my rest week, I was a little sored but I did it anyways... (probably there are not even close to most of the roadies out there ) It says to add and subtract 5 percent to establish zones, It come out with this results
> 
> ...


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## Alex_Simmons/RST (Jan 12, 2008)

See here for another couple of ways to determine power training levels, as well as information on the physiological adaptations linked to training at those intensities:

http://www.cyclecoach.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=112

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/cycling/power-training-levels.aspx

As for estimating FTP (1-hr power) then there are several ways to do that (apart from riding as hard as you can for an hour):
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2008/05/seven-deadly-sins.html


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## davidka (Dec 12, 2001)

If you were a little sore then you should perform the test again another time. A "little sore" is VERY far from rested and recovered. Motivation is a big part of it too, try to perform the tests in an environment that you know well and are confident will allow you to perform.


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## millennium (Apr 3, 2002)

Definitely read the power411 link--I consider the info there to be the Bible of power racing and training.

Also, I would not really worry about your 90min and 180min power--they don't really tell you much that the 60min power doesn't already tell you. (Exception might be for 24hr racer, but even then, these sorts of estimates of 90min and 180min power are not consistently accurate, in my experience.)

Also, your one minute power seems low compared to the other categories, particularly for an expert MTBer (for help on this point, see Power Profiling at the 411 link).

I suspect that your one minute test did not really elicit your best one minute power--I prefer to test one minute power on a steady hill, and you need to give it everything you've got so you are pretty much dead at the 1 minute mark. The second time you do it usually will give you a higher avg. power than the first time, assuming you've recovered fully in between.

But if that really is your best one minute power, one of your weaknesses would appear to be anaerobic capacity, and I'd be working on improving your anaerobic capacity (1min or 2min intervals).


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