Pursuit power relative to training zones

[Woofer]

I did a three kilometer pursuit and my average power was more than twenty percent higher than the top end of anaerobic zone (L6) according to the Coggan training levels. Is this unusual or typical?

 

[frenchyge]

That sounds unusual, since I'm not aware that there is a top end for L6...

 

[Woofer]

That sounds unusual, since I'm not aware that there is a top end for L6...

OK, if you use CyclingPeaks, it lets you select power training zones from two options, Coggan and someone else off the top of my head, as well as allowing one to change those values.

Then it uses those zones to permit one to display where one spends your training time, if one desires.

 

[acoggan]

OK, if you use CyclingPeaks, it lets you select power training zones from two options, Coggan and someone else off the top of my head, as well as allowing one to change those values.

Then it uses those zones to permit one to display where one spends your training time, if one desires.

One of the design philosophies behind WKO+ (nee CyclingPeaks) has always been to try to keep the software as neutral as possible. By that I mean that the goal has been to not force people to adopt any one particular approach to training, but rather to allow the end user to follow the program of their choice. To that end, the program can calculate/utilize the power-based training levels used by Cycle-Smart (which in fact are the ones that I've proposed, albeit with their nomenclature), as well as a bunch of different heart rate based training zones.

Anyway, to get back to the question at hand: frenchyge is right, i.e., there is no official upper limit to level 6 (or what Cycle-Smart calls "high"). Rather than get caught up in this, though, it might be easier if you just state your pursuit power as a percentage of your functional threshold power, and we'll go from there. (FWIW, a 3 km pursuit is typically contested at a power that is 125-160% of functional threshold power, with the exact percentage being heavily dependent on your anaerobic capacity.)

 

[frenchyge]

(FWIW, a 3 km pursuit is typically contested at a power that is 125-160% of functional threshold power...

Ugghh... that doesn't sound like fun. I'm assuming the duration is ~3-4 min?

 

[acoggan]

Ugghh... that doesn't sound like fun.

Since when is racing supposed to be fun?

I'm assuming the duration is ~3-4 min?

Yes, although obviously track conditions have a huge impact.

 

[Woofer]

Anyway, to get back to the question at hand: frenchyge is right, i.e., there is no official upper limit to level 6 (or what Cycle-Smart calls "high"). Rather than get caught up in this, though, it might be easier if you just state your pursuit power as a percentage of your functional threshold power, and we'll go from there. (FWIW, a 3 km pursuit is typically contested at a power that is 125-160% of functional threshold power, with the exact percentage being heavily dependent on your anaerobic capacity.)

Thanks for the clarification.

I get my pursuit power at 153 % of my estimated functional threshold power for four minutes.

My strength on the power profiling chart is the five minute power by (at work right now so can't view it) seven or eight rows on both the one minute and FTP columns and ten on the five second, never really considered anaerobic capacity as a relative strength for myself - at what point should one?

 

[acoggan]

Thanks for the clarification.

I get my pursuit power at 153 % of my estimated functional threshold power for four minutes.

There we go!

My strength on the power profiling chart is the five minute power by (at work right now so can't view it) seven or eight rows on both the one minute and FTP columns and ten on the five second, never really considered anaerobic capacity as a relative strength for myself - at what point should one?

At the point at which it helps you beat your competition?

Seriously, it sounds to me like your true strength as a pursuiter would be that you have a relatively high VO2max (at least relative to your other abilities), whereas your true weakness as a road racer is that you have a relatively low functional threshold power (at least relative to your VO2max). So, if you want to get even faster at 3 km it sounds like you probably need to work on raising your anaerobic capacity to be more comparable to your power at VO2max (based on the power profiling chart), whereas if you want to be a better road racer, it sounds like you might benefit from trying to raise your functional threshold power instead.

 

[Alex Simmons]

I get my pursuit power at 153 % of my estimated functional threshold power for four minutes.

My strength on the power profiling chart is the five minute power by (at work right now so can't view it) seven or eight rows on both the one minute and FTP columns and ten on the five second, never really considered anaerobic capacity as a relative strength for myself - at what point should one?

This post analysis of pursuit power is such a useful application of power data. I can say that with Andy's help it highlighted some specific deficiencies that I can work on to vastly improve my own individual pursuit performance at our next championships. Yet - lay coaching advice back then suggested emphasising training the things that had diminishing returns!

What I find interesting is that even with a completely different power profile to you (My Pavg for pursuit was at the lower end of the % of FTP range Andy quoted), one of my biggest opportunities for improvement is also AWC (provided of course I haven't neglected FTP/VO2Max).