POWER TRAINING MASTERCLASS

IF YOU’RE SERIOUS ABOUT MAKING EVERY BIKE SESSION COUNT, A POWER METER’S A MUST-HAVE. HERE’S HOW TO EXTRACT THE MOST FROM YOUR WATTAGE ANALYSER…

WORDS: JAMES WITTS IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

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Riding by power’s arguably the greatest training evolution of recent times. Why? Well, it’s down to a power meter eliminating variables and calculating exact work done, and so delivering data that’s standardised whether you’re facing a headwind, riding downhill or simply cruising on the flat. This differs to training by heart rate, which essentially tells you how hard you’re working but not how much work is done.

As our sister website BikeRadar reveals, “It’s also faster to respond than heart rate. That’s down to the delay associated with heart-rate response. This is particularly pronounced with repeated, short, highintensity efforts that often elicit only a small change in heart rate despite the workload being comparatively high.”

As you’ll discover, power meters come into their own when prescribing training sessions and zones for physiological and performance adaptation. Which is all well and good, you might ask, but they’re not cheap. You’re right – they are another expense. But as the market’s broadened, they have become more affordable, with power meters starting from under £300. That said, the gold standard remains the original from SRM, which comes in at nearly two grand. Strain gauges within the spider of the crankset measure wattage. As the market’s matured, you also now have a multitude of further ways to calculate power, including pedal-based and hub systems. Across the board, accuracy’s key and, as usual, the more you pay, the more precise the data.

For power afficionados, you can of course run by power, too. This is an increasingly ubiquitous feature on top-end multisport watches, although accuracy’s not yet up there with their bike brethren.

Right, now it’s time to get onto helping you weave your magic with wattage…

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10 TIPS TO MAKE EVERY BIKE SESSION COUNT

The following tips and sessions (p73) are designed to give you the tools and knowledge you need to optimise your two-wheel tri performance…

01 ANALYSE YOUR POWER
A power meter’s near redundant without a proven piece of software like Training Peaks. For little more than a tenner each month, you’re given access to a range of online analysis tools that’ll help you to manage fatigue and peak at the right time. The software’s Training Stress Score (TSS) is a particularly useful metric to gauge how hard or not you should train after your ride.

02 FIND YOUR FTP
Key to training by power is u nderstanding your functional threshold power (FTP). This is the max power output you can hold for an hour. How do you calculate your FTP? You can ride all out for an hour and gauge your average watts. Or you can do what the pro triathletes do and ride at your maximum for 20mins before reducing this figure by 5%. Once you’ve found your FTP, you can establish your training zones (see p72) as you would when training by heart rate.

03 TEST INSIDE AND OUT
Many of us have become a ccustomed to using a power meter on the road and inside on our smart trainers. “But beware as there’s often a discrepancy between the triathlete’s turbo trainer and their actual bike power meter,” warns Craig Lane of Performance Coaching. “Record both to figure out the difference, and adjust your indoor and outdoor training zones to suit. In fact, it’s a good idea to undertake an FTP test indoors and out, in your race position, and then compare the data.”

04 CALCULATEYOURCADENCE
Bristol-based Andy Wadsworth is a former Xterra world champion. “I recommend using your power meter to work out what cadence suits you best,” says Wadsworth. “Ride 10min blocks at the same power but using different cadence to see what works for you and how it affects your run off the bike. Keep the run off the bike identical, time it and note how you feel. Replicate the same conditions for the bike and run each time you do it.”

05 RACE WITH IT
Some triathletes train by power b ut prefer to race by feel. This,according to two-time third-place finisher at Kona, David McNamee, is a mistake. “Racing with a power meter is a great way to make sure you execute a great race,” explains the Scotsman. “At the start of the bike with all the adrenaline, it’s easy to push too hard and pay for it badly later on. It’s okay to push a bit harder than your target pace at the start, but you want to quickly settle into your target race power to ensure you can keep pushing hard.”

06 NORMALISE ACCURACY
You’ll hear a lot about Normalised Power. This is an adjusted power figure that more accurately reflects the metabolic cost of a ride by discounting periods of cruising. It’s particularly beneficial during highly variable sessions like hilly rides.

07 PEAK ON THE PEAKS
A regular FTP test on Zwift is a so lid way to measure progress. But you can’t beat riding outdoors for more realistic results. “Measure your power on a hill near home that lasts 4-6mins long,” says Wadsworth. “Start with a good 10min progressive warm-up with some 10-20sec efforts and then attack the hill. Note the average power you can hold on the climb and use this same climb to test yourself again in the future to gauge your (hopeful) improvement. Undertake a 10min cool-down to finish.”

08 DOUBLE UP
“A power meter combined w ith a heart rate monitorhelps to identify whether you’re overtraining or starting to get ill,” says McNamee. “A higher or lower heart rate than normal for the same wattage is a good indication that something may be wrong. Triathletes are usually very driven people so we can easily not listen enough to our body’s subjective feelings. Having an objective measure using heart rate and power can help us make smarter choices.”

09 DON’T NEGLECT INTENSITY
“Remember, a power meter is a tool, so ensure you look after, recharge and recalibrate it when needed,” recommends the Triathlon Coaching Company’s Chris Wallace. “And learn to use a metric called Intensity Factor [if using Training Peaks]. This is the fraction of an athlete’s threshold they maintain for a session or part of a session. We generally see an IF ranging from 0.60-0.80. These figures are individual but, in general, the fitter you are, the higher you can go. A simple way to check this is to ride at a chosen IF for your long rides and see how you run off these sessions to see if it’s manageable and adjust from there.”

10 GAUGE YOUR PACE
Your power meter’s two modus op erandi are delivering you wattage and energy, the latter of which gives you the ability to calculate the number of calories you’re burning. How is this useful? Your workload for the bike leg of an Olympic-distance triathlon might be 1,500 kilojoules (kj) in 1:30hrs. At some point, you must then do 1,500kj rides in training. You could complete an easier endurance ride and take 2:30hrs or go hard and aim to match the 1:30hr race ride. It’ll give you a gauge of pacing, which is so important in triathlon.

3 POWER SESSIONS

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WANT MORE? Head to 220tri. com for a huge range of training plans and sessions to suit all abilities

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