100kg rider maintaining 350-400 watts?



davidkthao

New Member
Oct 11, 2015
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Hi everyone,

So I'm a 101kg male and I have recently just begun riding my bike again two weeks ago, and since I just got a power meter installed to measure my performance, I have noticed that I am maintaining an average of 350 - 400 watts over a period of an hour at a time, but after that I do get burn't out and have a slump. I was quite skeptical of this reading so I went to get a bike mechanic to get a proper installation installed and when I went out for a ride today, it still says I am average between that threshold of wattage. And I have noticed this on sprints too, that I am able to top out at around 1400 - 1500 watts on a 5 second sprint.

I guess what I am trying to ask, is this typical of a over-weight rider since there would technically be more downward force exerted on the pedals due to weight?
 
I am a bit skeptical, 3.5 to 4.0 W/kg is impressive for an untrained rider. I also am 100kgs and have trained hard for years and have never put up numbers like that.

Being over-weight does not help your power output. Your weight above the saddle is supported by the saddle and the weight in your legs is balanced about the axis of crank rotation.
 
Unless your last name is Indurain, and you're also applying his most effective "training" methods, I would say your power meter is not giving you an accurate read.
 
Get a half decent decent TT bike, skinsuit, aero helmet and you are off to a 52-53 minute 40km TT.

Lose 20 kilos and with a little training and with some skills, you will be a Cat 1 quickly.

FTP close to 400 watts is not common for a newbie or even well trained.

I just checked an online database. the 90th percentile FTP for Elite athletes is 358 watts with a median of 290 watts.

For much longer exercise times (let's call it infinite), in my age (close to 60), the median is 200 watts and 90th percentile is 264 watts and I'm at 230 watts. The FTP median is 260 watts and I'm at 270 watts.

So, we are all jealous. There is no (legal) substitute for good genes.

What brand of power meter is that?
 
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hate to bring it to you mate, but your power meter is broken

EDIT: in an earlier post of you, you said you do an average of 20-22 mph. That is an average of around 225 watts. But you can't maintain an amount of wattage, it jumps up and down the whole time (you should have noticed this if you ever looked at a Est Power chart).
 
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Hey everyone, sorry for the disappearance, I have been on vacation. But yes, indeed I found out that my power meter was not properly configured. It is a PowerTap 52/36 crankset. I had sent my crankset back into PowerTap to get it fixed and I tested it out today. Found out I was only able to maintain 270 - 285 watts. However, this is only over a period of 45 minutes to an hour, I drop back down to around 250 - 260 after the first hour or so.
 
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Well with those new numbers we can work.
So watts are a good way to measure for yourself, but gives almost no information to others (cause we need your weight).
Wattage is used to calculate watts per kilo. Pros can for example do 6 to 7 watts per kilo. This does not mean that every pro has the same amount of wattage.

So for you: avgwatts 260 / 100kg = 2.60
This is a decent power to weight ratio for an amateur rider.
So for me : 155 watts / 56kg = 2.78

As you can see we have almost the same. Even though you weigh almost double.

TL,DR: your power to weight ratio is decent
BTW. I am not the power meter master. If I'm wrong with something I said, feel free to acknowledge.
 
You've got two weeks worth of riding under your belt and you're able to hold 270-285 Watts for an hour? Color me impressed. You can't be too overweight or out of condition.

Keep up the good work!
 
Thanks Campybob,

Well, I am 18 years old going on 19, so you can say I have age as an advantage haha. But yeah, over the past few weeks I have been combining high intensity cycling training and also edging myself a little more each few days.