Page 2 - More power or less weight? Which is better?

28-09.-2007, 04:46 AM

#16

lanierb

Registered User

Join Date: Aug 2004

Posts: 140

Re: More power or less weight? Which is better?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonyzackery

Hey everyone.

This question has been causing quite a quandry in my mind. I've vacillated with this query for some time now (about a year) and have come to the conclusion that I MUST lose weight (about 5kgs down to 80kgs) in order to be competitive on the road here in British Columbia. Because I'm relatively new to the cycling scene (6/06 got my first road bike) I'm still in the mindset that I want to be pretty good at all the disciplines - road races, crits, time trials, track racing. I've had some decent results in all the disciplines this past season, but I want to really turn it up a notch or two for 2008 and get an upgrade to Cat. 3 on the road and be able to dictate the outcome of race rather than endure it.

I'm coming from a background of American football so I have fast twitch muscles in great abundance, couple that with the fact that I naturally have a low body fat percentage (~4% at 85kgs), I have really struggled in trying to lose weight since I've got to this point. I'm basically embarking on trying to lose muscle that took 20+ years to build (I'm 40 now and when I got on my road bike I was 96kgs). What's been working for me the past month is keeping track of EVERYTHING I eat and making a balance sheet of input versus expenditure. I'm seeing good, albeit slow, results.

So, for I what I want to achieve (good all-arounder in all disciplines) how do you guys feel - everything else being equal, is it more important for one to lose weight (but keep same or a little less power), or would it be more advantageous for a cyclist to try and improve his power (but at the same weight or a little more)? Both serve the purpose to improve the almighty power to weight ratio, but is one more effective than the other????

FYI, my FTP at present is in the low 340s and this is with very limited focused Level 4 work.

I know a bit about this question myself. I am a former football player, used to weigh about 210lbs, all muscle. I am now down to 173lbs (I'm 6'0"). I am convinced that I've actually gone too far this year. Last year at this time I was 180, my FTP was higher, w/kg was about the same. My flat speed and sprints were better. This is with similar training time. This year I intentionally kept my weight lower to see how it would work out. I'm not quite ready to call it a failure, but I'm close. It's nice to be light. It sucks to be weaker. So I guess my answer is that you should probably try to lose some weight, but be wary of going too far.

Bottom line: right now you are 4 watts/kg. If you find losing 1 kg causes you to lose more than 4 watts, don't do it. Without knowing your height, I'm guessing that you could probably still take off at least 7-8 lbs and still improve w/kg. After that it depends on some things. BTW w/kg is only the most important thing for long hills. Otherwise, kg matters a bit less, so your optimal weight will also depend on how hilly it is in your area.

28-09.-2007, 07:18 AM

#17

NM87710

Registered User

Join Date: May 2006

Posts: 55

Re: More power or less weight? Which is better?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonyzackery

I appreciate the replies thus far although there doesn't appear to be a consensus. Because I'm relatively early in the development of FTP, it could be possible I could have both (having my cake and eating it...). Time will tell...

At present, with the weight loss that has already occurred I subjectively feel I indeed have lost some power, but I have not tested this.

I will also add that the road racing is going to be my primary focus next year (I take my sprinting ability in crits for granted as my muscle composition is predominantly type 2 muscle fibers and my neuromuscular power is very good - power profile slopes downward). Ergo, going well in the hilly road races is going to be of utmost importance. I believe the weight loss should be my primary focus...

FWIW(n=1), As a road/stage racer I played with weight reduction this past season and here's my stats:

45yo, 5'10" primarily racing P12 events going from 66kg in '06 to 60kg in '07. Obviously the change is not solely due to weight loss but the training programs were similar each year.
w/kg '06 - '07
5sec 15.4 - 16.5
1min 8.3 - 8.7
5min 5.2 - 5.7
20min 4.7 - 5.0
FTP 4.3 - 4.5

My number are nothing special but it was worthwhile to give up absolute watts in favour of higher w/kg. The 5min increase gave me the ability to bridge, attack or hang-on when it really, really counted and I used this to my advantage. Plus, I've been doing this cycling thing for many years(decades) and know not to expect much FTP change - it's just not in the genes.

Good luck!

28-09.-2007, 03:42 PM	#18
Bailsibub Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 104	Re: More power or less weight? Which is better? I think the direction you take depends on your goals. You gave a pretty wide range of disciplines in which you want to excel, especially considering you want to be competitive at road races in hilly British Columbia and also in crits. I’m not saying it isn’t impossible. There have been several pros who were all-arounders, but they are exceptions. There is generally a degree of give and take to all of this. You might remember Marty Nothstein. He was a world champion sprinter. At his peak, he was around 100kg if I remember correctly. Sponsorship for track racing fell so he took to road racing. I think he got down to like 80kg. Of course, his sprints were nowhere nearly as strong. The changes he made to his body just to keep up in road races took something out of his sprints. Granted, he did manage to win some big races, usually crit style, but he certainly didn’t dominate the sprints like you would think. Most of us have our best events. I would find the one and tailor my training and diet to excel even more at it. I know you want to be an all arounder. That’s hard.

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