What power level do you train at?

JTE83

For those of you who use power meters of any brand - what power level do you train at? Like how many miles at what power level? Or what kind of interval workout at what sustained on & off power levels? What is your max endurance power level? Also state what your height & weight is. I'm 5' 3.5" and 144 lbs.

On a July 5th workout I did a 7 mile windless lap in the drops with no drafting at 217 W avg - 19.8 mph avg - 87.03% MHR. My legs got a little sore from this lap. I think I can go forever at 180 W avg.

RapDaddyo

I've been riding again since March 20th this year following a long layoff, so my fitness is still on a pretty steep growth curve. I haven't done a full-out 40K TT because I think the number would only be useful as a training guide for a week or two. But, based on a ride last Friday (19.7 mi at 216w and 78% MHR - 19.2mph, slightly rolling course w/ light breeze) I estimate my 40K max power at ~270w. I ride 7 days a week, total last week of 18.4 hours. Two days of intervals, with 10 min each at 300+w, 280w-300w, 260w-280w and 240w-260w. I do them in descending intensity with equal rest. I was doing climbing intervals at 375w, but decided I'm not quite ready for that. Two group rides at ~190w average and 5-10 min pushes at 250+w. Three recovery rides at ~190w average, nothing greater than 200w. Height 6' 3/4", weight 175 lbs. Short term goal is to get my recovery pace up to ~250w. Love my PM - PT SL. Paul

velomanct

This past spring when I was training for road racing, I did some 2-3hr tempo rides at around 320watts average. But I am a larger rider at 6'1" 175lbs (at the time). That was also when I upgraded to cat 2, to give some perspective. VO2max intervals would be around 400watts (5 min)

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toa

Height: 6 feet. Weight: 150 lbs

Interval-duration@Max avrg. power(watts)
20 min@330
5 min@400
1 min@600
5 sec@1000 (pathetic, I know )

ihatebozy

225-275watts while cruising
375 watts-in a 40km tt
based on my srm information.

Woofer

I hope you and toa are both cat 2 or above. This is way higher than what I can do at 155 pounds.

ihatebozy

of course i am.

robkit

you've just got to LOVE power meters, if this thread had been about average speeds or heart rates, nobody would know where they were, instead we're seeing some real comparables...

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toa

Update
Height: 6 feet. Weight: 149 lbs

Interval-duration@Max avrg. power(watts)
20 min@330
5 min@400
1 min@630
5 sec@1000 (..still pathetic, I know )

frenchyge

How does your 1 min power increase by 5% with no changes to your 5 min power, or even 20 min power? Surely your 5 min power would be a little higher if you re-tested it, right?

toa

You'r right on the 5 min! My 1&5 intervals seem to follow pretty closely over the year in relative terms. My 20 minutes been kind of stable since mid March, and recently we've been targeting doing shorter intervals for making superhard effords during selections in races and such. I'm racing today after a peaking period, let you know what the 5&20's says, my bet is that your right, they're all up a notch (knock on woods)

RapDaddyo

The problem is that the darn things give you every statistic for every ride. So, even a recovery ride will have a max power for 1 sec, 5 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, etc. Most of the time these numbers are irrelevant or misleading because you weren't trying to ride at max power for that duration. For example, I have yet to do a full-out 40K TT, for the simple reason that at this point I don't care what the actual number is and I'm happy to base my training zones on an estimate derived from other benchmarks (e.g., 10 or 20 min interval). I'd say that at any point in time I have only one or two benchmarks that are fully reliable because they represent true max efforts. I mean, how many times in an interval session are you actually going full effort for that duration? For me, it's rare.