Critical Power testing
- Thread starter AndROOb
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Here's a good articleAndROOb said:
http://velo-fit.com/articles/critical-power.pdf
As per page 1, AC is quoted as saying test times should be at least 3-min to fully exploit AWC. 1-min is definitely too short for that. Some favs of the wattage list were 3/12-min tests and 5/20-min tests.
Pedaling or standing start doesn't matter - only that you produce your maximum AP for the test interval.
Actually whether you target 3-min and actually complete 3:20 because you've crested a hill ... doesn't matter ... just adjust the time in the CP-Monod spreadsheet to match. For instance, I'd do these on the CT in ergo mode setting what I thought I could do for 5-min but when doing the test I may fail at 4:45 or I may fail at 5:30 - that doesn't matter. The key thing is to have two tests which are well separated to give you a solid work capacity slope and intercept. Clearly doing a 10 and 12-min efforts won't suffice in that regard. 5/20 were my favorites ...
rmur
AndROOb said:
Man, I've been waiting for a chance to use this line: the answers are in our book.
Seriously, Rick's got it right: do two or more maximal efforts of either constant power and variable duration or variable power and constant duration, with the shortest being ~3 min and the longest 15-30 min. As long as you're adequately motivated, pacing doesn't really matter (although beware of blasting yourself to bits so bad when you first start that you wimp out towards the end), and you can start from either a dead stop or a very light load (e.g., just spinning the cranks). The only other caveat is to make sure that you recover adequately between efforts...many times people will try to squeeze in more than one per session, but all you have to do is look at pursuit times of elite riders round-by-round (which may be 12 h apart) to see how long it takes to truly recover from an absolutely maximal effort.
Having now completed several 2x20's, and a 3 minute test on a hill close by, my power duration curve is looking distictly like that of a sprinter(sloping down from the left). The gradient is slight for the first 20 seconds(815w-755w), then drops steeply up to the minute(395w), then continues as a gentle slope, finishing on 182w for 2 hours.
Even if I persevere at short distance TT's (10's, 25's and a couple of 50's), I'm still going to have a substantial drop between 20 sec and 1 minute.
Should I consider some short distance sprint disciplines, given this analysis?
Even if I persevere at short distance TT's (10's, 25's and a couple of 50's), I'm still going to have a substantial drop between 20 sec and 1 minute.
Should I consider some short distance sprint disciplines, given this analysis?
Indeed! But here's the real question: since we're all going to go out and buy copies of the book, will Andy make his autograph available in a downloadable image so we can print it on stickers and apply it to the books to make them "virtually autographed"? After all, we've known the author from even before his book came out.frenchyge said:LoL! There goes the free advice we've been enjoying all this time...
Berend
If you're talking about the Mean Maximal Power vs. Duration curve, they all have a big hump on the left side, followed by a big sag in the middle down to a fairly flat downslope on the right side. That doesn't mean you're destined to be a sprinter.AndROOb said:
Take some of those numbers and look at the chart here: http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/profile.html to get a feel for what type of rider you might be more inclined to be.
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