The short answer is yes. I am also not a good natural sprinter and my best 5s power is similar to yours (~1250W). I know there are guys with 1500W+ power, so I try to avoid getting into a traditional sprint finish if possible. But, out of curiosity I did focus on seeing how much I could improve my 5s power a few years ago. Here's what I learned and some of the things I tried.Originally Posted by stowy .
Hey people,
I've finally gotten my hands on a PT recently and been using for the last few weeks, and these are the numbers i've gotten from training/racing so far:
[SIZE= medium]time[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]watts[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]w/kg[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]5s[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]1200[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium] 15.58 [/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]30s[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]831[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium] 10.79 [/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]1min[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]735[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium] 9.55 [/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]5min[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]426[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium] 5.53 [/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]15min[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]383[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium] 4.97 [/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]~60min[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium]369[/SIZE] [SIZE= medium] 4.79 [/SIZE]
So for me, it looks like i am a hopeless sprinter but still punchy over 1min type efforts. These numbers come partly from uphill efforts, does this make a difference?
Also the 1hour i haven't tested properly, it's the number golden cheetah give for CP, do you think this is a good estimation?
Do i have any hope at becoming a better sprinter? I haven't really done any sprint training to date. I would like to improve this because here in Oz, you need to be able to sprint to win races.
Love to hear some informed opinions
Sam
First, the bottom line. I improved my 5s power from ~850W (untrained) to ~1250W, about a 50% improvement. This was consistent with my other MPs. I increased them ~50% from an untrained state also.
Second, the things I did that seemed to be effective. I included 5s efforts in my workouts on a daily basis. I never did a full workout of 5s efforts, but at the end of just about every ride I would throw in 2-3x 5s efforts with ~5min recovery between efforts. I tend to ride the last 15 min of my workouts easy anyway, to cool down. As improbable as it sounds, throwing in a few 5s max efforts doesn't really change it from a cool down effort. Once a week I did 10x 5s efforts on my trainer, with 5min between efforts. Normally, I did these after about an hour at L4. This was very interesting because my trainer doesn't allow me to rock the bike. I thought this would impair my 5s performance but I found that I could hit the same #s on the trainer as on the road. On the road, I found that I got my best #s on an upgrade. My conclusion was that on an upgrade I could stay in a tighter cadence range because the bike was not accelerating away from me. On the flat, it was pretty common for my cadence to increase at least 50%.
The most important thing I learned was how I make my max power (torque vs cadence). I did this by trial-and-error experimentation. I learned that I make my best power more with cadence than torque. At low cadence (e.g., <75), my max power is really pathetic. I don't really hit my best #s until at least 90RPM and my sweet spot is in the 100-120RPM range. I can take it up to 150RPM, but my power starts to drop off after 140RPM. So, if and when I do have to sprint, I make sure to start in a small enough gear that I am doing at least 90RPM when I start the true sprint.
Hope this helps.