Your 2010/current power profile metrics... - Page 7

Quote:

Originally Posted by quenya 

I race mostly in NCNCA. While I can hold my own in cat 4 RRs and crits, the quality of guys out here make 3/4 races difficult, there is no shortage of guys with FTP >4 w/kg. And I have a lot to learn about race dynamics.

At the masters district crit championship, in the 30-34 (cat 1-4) race I felt strong but the guys who took 1-2 made an early break that I couldn't bridge to. A broken spoke with 3 to go ended my race, but I got an extra 3 minutes to recover for the start of the elite 3/4 race.

Against cat 1s who focus on crits and are bigger sprinters I can usually make the breaks or moves on the climbing part of our tues/thurs world champs rides, on the return to the sprint finish I'm a non-entity, at best a guy in the break or a chaser. That ride always finishes in a group sprint.


Old guy, what's an open race? I've never seen a race where a guy could get a cat 5 one day license and race with 1s or 2s, maybe that's common where you live. Here though its usually a pro/1/2 field or the masters 1/2/3. 5s are lucky if they can race with the 4s.

I never said a cyclist who doesn't race can't be as powerful as one who does. Though a group of club riders all being faster than a team of racers is a little suspect. I've passed a Ferrari in my mustang, yet I know which is the faster car. I've also passed riders who were much stronger than I am.

I can relate. I have pretty similar numbers when I'm race fit. The 1K watts won't win you many sprints, not even later in the upper masters categories. I can train up to ~1200W 5s power when I focus on it for a few weeks, and that gets me nothing if there are any real sprinters in the final bunch. About the only chance we have is to make the last few minutes hard and get rid of the true sprinters (e.g., >1500W). I have a lot better chance winning with 30s at 700W than I do with 5s at 1200W.

Open races are events where anyone who shows up can race. Everyone races together. No need for a license.

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I don't know how many strong non-racers there are, but considering the number of racers and the sales of bicycles suitable for racing there may be a lot of them. Many of them don't race because they have jobs that they cannot perform with broken bones or road rash. Many of them don't see the economic incentive in spending more on racing related expenses than the available prize money.

The fast guys I rode with were Cat2 when they gave up racing. They had professional positions. They had afternoons and weekends free for riding. They enjoyed riding fast and working hard with limited risk of crashing.

Where I'm from, an 'Open' is one of the major races on the state calender . These are open to anyone in the country with a Cycling Australia membership.

  The only biggerThe only bigger state events are the State Championships.

Quote:

Originally Posted by An old Guy 

Open races are events where anyone who shows up can race. Everyone races together. No need for a license.

 

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I don't know how many strong non-racers there are, but considering the number of racers and the sales of bicycles suitable for racing there may be a lot of them. Many of them don't race because they have jobs that they cannot perform with broken bones or road rash. Many of them don't see the economic incentive in spending more on racing related expenses than the available prize money.

 

The fast guys I rode with were Cat2 when they gave up racing. They had professional positions. They had afternoons and weekends free for riding. They enjoyed riding fast and working hard with limited risk of crashing.

Okay so with regards to the 'open races' you said "Had quenya not raced and just trained this year he could have shown up at open races and given the Cat1s a tough time" how does my having raced this season change that?  The fact is had I not raced I probably would have been in a little better shape than I am now.  I sacrificed a lot of long rides to do out of town crits early in the season and really never felt like my fitness reached the point it should have.

And, that was the right thing to do because I am so much more comfortable in the pack now, and have a much better understanding of how to race.  These things will pay off huge down the road.  I know now that a day with a crit is basically an easy day and really needs another ride to make it beneficial in any training sense.

As far as bike sales being at all related to the abilities of the rider, that's not what I see, on a fair weather saturday morning, around here its 8000$ bikes under fat upper middle class guys.  I know an RN who uses the 'I cant work after a crash' argument to explain why he doesn't race and an RN with almost the exact same job at a different hospital who is a Cat 2 and has been racing for 21 years.  It's a BS reason, the fact is a person is more likely to be off work because of a car accident than a bike crash, but they still drive, the real reason is racing isn't a priority or a passion.

5s: 1031
1Min: 485
5Min: 396
20Min: 314
60Min: 302

weight= 68,5 kg

height =174 cm

AGE: 48

Powermeter:Cyclops

Bike = scott

It would be interesting for someone to summarize data in an excel file

Daniele

Quote:

Originally Posted by quenya 

 

Okay so with regards to the 'open races' you said "Had quenya not raced and just trained this year he could have shown up at open races and given the Cat1s a tough time" how does my having raced this season change that?

 

As far as bike sales being at all related to the abilities of the rider, that's not what I see, on a fair weather saturday morning, around here its 8000$ bikes under fat upper middle class guys.  I know an RN who uses the 'I cant work after a crash' argument to explain why he doesn't race and an RN with almost the exact same job at a different hospital who is a Cat 2 and has been racing for 21 years.  It's a BS reason, the fact is a person is more likely to be off work because of a car accident than a bike crash, but they still drive, the real reason is racing isn't a priority or a passion.

My point was that there are a lot of people who don't race who have Cat1 strength. I used you as an example to make my point. I used bike sales to support my point. (i even used the guys I rode with as examples.)

At some point you are going to have a tough decision. Stay in the lower Cats and do well in races or graduate to the higher Cats and do less well. Some people have graduated to the higher Cats and decided that the cost of "racing" and the risk of physical harm was too great. They chose to go out and work hard on the roads - alone or in small groups.

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"8000$ bikes under fat upper middle class guys"

I am a not too fat old rich guy. I ride with a 50-34 in the front and a 16-30 on the back. I don't have anything to prove. I bet some of those "fat upper middle class guys" were stronger than you when they were young.

I was passed today on the 1 mile hill I ride. I was doing my 11th of 13 repeats. Never saw the guy coming. Passed me on the right on the false flat between the 2 ramps. I must have been in a 34/22 or 24/24. I yawned and ignored him. Now, it occurs to me that he might have Cat1 power and does not race. Next time I will pace him up the hill and inquire.

Very lackluster year, racing and training-wise.  As more experience is gained from racing, I'm learning the power numbers are almost inconsequential to racing 'smart' before the sprint.

Most best power numbers carry-over from last year.  Improvements:

30sec - 957w, during fast group ride

1min - 721w, on 5% hill trying to hit a 'number'

20mins - 344w, during indoor TT

Cat 3, 88kgs

Quote:

Originally Posted by quenya 

I stepped into the 20th century saturday when my wife gifted me with a powertap.  Most of these numbers were from a 2.5 hour race simulation sunday morning, the 20 min power was the same for both intervals tonight and the 60min is derived from those.  I'm really excited to start training with the PM and doing some formal testing. 

 

Power profile
5s - 1017:14.3 w/kg
1m - 423: 5.9 w/kg
5m - 326: 4.6 w/kg

20m- 312: 4.4 w/kg
60m - derived 297:4.2 w/kg

 

157 lbs, 71kg.  good TTer, better than average climber.  Cat 4 in my first season racing.

Nice quenya.  Your FTP is already pretty decent after only one season!  Also, if those numbers are from one ride you will surely increase many of them, particularly the 5s, 1m, and 5m, but probably the others too.    The 1m and 5m in particular look low relative to your FTP and 5s.  You should easily win some cat 4 races with those numbers (assuming your true 1m and 5m are higher).

Quote:

Originally Posted by An old Guy 

 

 

My point was that there are a lot of people who don't race who have Cat1 strength.

 

Makes for a nice sound-bite, but doubt highly the accuracy - maybe Cat3 strength.  If they actually had that (Cat1) strength, they'd be racing in one form or another (tri/du-athlon, time trials, etc.)  Cat.1 is at the pointy end of the curve, and to get there takes much more than riding solo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonyzackery 

Makes for a nice sound-bite, but doubt highly the accuracy - maybe Cat3 strength.  If they actually had that (Cat1) strength, they'd be racing in one form or another (tri/du-athlon, time trials, etc.)  Cat.1 is at the pointy end of the curve, and to get there takes much more than riding solo.

Riding solo? It would be nice to know when riding solo became the alternative to racing. In any case, t appears that quenya has posted Cat1 power numbers without a great deal of racing. I guess you are now discounting power numbers as a measure of strength.

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As far as the pointy end of the curve. I think that is somewhere around European pro level. Could you find a Cat1 who can produce a FTP of over 400w (full hour test) after 4 hours of racing? European pros can.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lanierb 

Quote:

Nice quenya.  Your FTP is already pretty decent after only one season!  Also, if those numbers are from one ride you will surely increase many of them, particularly the 5s, 1m, and 5m, but probably the others too.    The 1m and 5m in particular look low relative to your FTP and 5s.  You should easily win some cat 4 races with those numbers (assuming your true 1m and 5m are higher).

Thanks for the 'attaboy' I really think the 5s is probably close to accurate I threw in some really hard sprints just to see what came out of them.  The 1m and even 5m were just what came out of the ride and are still relatively 'untrained' in the sense that I haven't really been training VO2max or anaerobic capacity/power.

people may be interested in contributing their power profiles to the CyclingPowerModels.com database, among the analytics you can see is a comparison of average critical power curves per category.

http://www.cyclingpowermodels.com/PowerData.aspx?data=4

Hi guys,

my current numbers are:

5s: 14,7

1': 7,5

5': 5,3

FTP: 4,4

I usually participate in road races and TTs. 

As i understand, i have a relatively high 5' Pwr. Should i stop working on VO2 max and concentrate on FTP and AC, or should i work on that also, since it's something natural that doesn't change?

Ok I'll play,

Havn't seen a huge improvement in anything north of 4min but l don't test and havn't had any races that have pushed my avg power out that far,

normalised power on the other hand has seem some big eye openers.

20's out to ~2min has seen huge improvement thanks to Coach Fergie  

Male 73kg.

30's: 736w. Ran outa road in the final sprint of 60km RR after having already done two 5min climbs that almost broke me, more in the tank there.

1 min: 479w. Final minute of 136 km handicap RR absolutly trashed by the sprint so def more firepower there.

2 min: 432w. Actually did a test for this one wasn't all out just wanted to see how long l could stay above 400w, ended up being around 2:12 @430w before l pulled the pin, when fresh with a number on my back l could do way better no doubt.

Everything else has seen little improvement in peak numbers but only because l havn't tested them, I'd rather do more training below CP rather than chase PB's al the time, some short RR's and  TT's are also on the calender for later in the year so maybe some new pb's will arise there, but its race results l'm more interested in for now. 

This is my first post to this forum.  I just started training with power a couple months ago, and I'm relatively new to cycling - 1 year.  I've lost about 45 pounds so far and still have another 30 to lose.  I'm 38 and got tired of sitting behind a desk at work all day and just being generally unhealthy.  My main focus right now is time trialing - I just like pushing myself against the elements.

Here is my poor information as it stands today.  I hope my FTP goes up more before my TT in November.  These are the max values over the past couple months.

5s - 1011
1m - 589
5m - 272
60m - 225 (derived from a 20 minute FTP test)
Racing category: 5 (beginner)
Rider type or what you consider your strength: Seems like I can ride at Zone 2-3 forever sometimes.