What can you achieve with a power meter? V.2
17 August 2017
How to ride a bike on a rainy day?
17 August 2017
Power measurement not only facilitates precise control of training but also gives you many opportunities to use your advantages in races. Below I present a few of those benefits that I was able to observe and use in my coaching practice with my athletes.
Key takeaways
- A power meter can be used during racing not only to monitor effort but also to manage energy, pacing, nutrition, tactics, and cadence.
- One of the main race-day benefits of power data is helping the rider conserve enough energy for decisive attacks or the final sprint.
- During a road race, power can help identify positions in the peloton where the rider needs to produce less power to stay with the group.
- For solo attacks or breakaways expected to last more than 10 minutes, the article suggests controlling intensity around 95–105% of FTP rather than riding purely by feel.
- The goal of controlled pacing is to avoid spending too much energy early and preserve performance for critical moments later in the race.
- A proper warm-up is also presented as an important part of energy management before a hard race start.
- The example warm-up includes approximately 20 minutes of aerobic riding with several short accelerations and gradually increasing intensity.
- Power data can help estimate energy expenditure during a race and use that information to build a nutrition and hydration plan.
- The article recommends replacing approximately one-third to one-half of the calories expended during the event through drinks and solid foods.
- In its 3-hour race example, an expenditure of 2,200 kcal leads to a suggested intake of approximately 770–1,100 kcal during the race.
- The example fueling plan provides about 990 kcal and 186 g of carbohydrates, equivalent to approximately 62 g of carbohydrates per hour.
- Knowing your power profile can help determine which race tactics best match your strengths and weaknesses.
- Riders with stronger 5- and 20-minute power but a weaker sprint may benefit from attacking on short climbs, joining longer breakaways, or attacking several kilometers before the finish.
- Riders with particularly strong 5-second power may benefit from conserving as much energy as possible and relying on their sprint in the final meters.
- Race tactics should also account for the course profile, current fitness, importance of the event, and characteristics of competing riders.
- Cadence is presented as another important parameter because it can influence power production, energy use, and the ability to respond quickly to attacks.
- Tools such as TrainingPeaks and WKO4 can be used to analyze which cadence allows an individual rider to produce power most effectively.
- The article notes that an effective cadence can vary substantially between riders; for example, one cyclist may perform well at 80–85 rpm while another may be more effective at 95–100 rpm during the same type of effort.
- The author favors developing the ability to ride at relatively higher cadences within the rider’s individual capabilities because this may make rapid changes in pace and attacks easier.
- During longer efforts such as climbs lasting more than 10 minutes, maintaining a stable cadence is presented as a way to distribute effort more consistently and avoid unintentionally grinding at very low rpm.
- The central message is that power data becomes most useful in racing when it is combined with tactical decisions: saving energy, pacing attacks, planning fueling, exploiting individual strengths, and choosing an appropriate cadence.
Energy saving
The winner is the one who first crosses the finish line. To do this, most often you should attack at the right moment, going all out. To go all out, you must be prepared for it and have the energy for the final battle. It is worth knowing how to save that energy.
There are several ways to preserve energy during a road race, including:
- Using the wind tunnel – we try to find a place in the peloton in which we must generate a minimum of power to stay in the group. It is not always possible, but if such situations occur, it is worth using them.
- Regulating the intensity during specific element of the race – if we are escaping or attacking alone and it might take more than 10 minutes, then it is worth calculating your energy expenditure. I suggest to perform it on a 95-105% FTP, which allows to minimize the release of lactic acid to the muscles and thus save energy for critical elements or final attack
- Warm-up – we often forget about it, while a well-performed warm-up (e.g., 20min of aerobic spinning with a few kicks and increasing intensity) can work wonders. Usually, from the beginning of the race, we try to push hard- if we are not warmed up, the body uses the anaerobic energy sources to a greater extent, which is very exhaustive for the accumulated glycogen. If we warm up the muscles, lungs, and heart correctly, the pain is smaller at the beginning, and the preserved energy helps in subsequent fragments.
Establishing nutrition and hydration plan
It is recommended to eat about 1/2 to 1/3 of the calories spent during the race, both in the form of hypo/iso/hypertonic beverages as well as solid foods (gels, bars, bananas, etc.). Example:
We ride a 3-hour race, and we burn 2,200 kcal. It is recommended to cover that deficit by 770-1100 kcal during the race. What does this mean in practice?
- Four bottles of 500ml sports drink (480kcal, 120g carbs)
- Two 50g chocolate bars (400kcal, 38g carbs)
- One caffeine gel (110kcal, 28g carbs)The total sum – 990kcal, 186g of carbohydrates. That is 62g of carbs per hour.The energy value of meals and drinks is adjusted depending on the amount of power consumed. For measuring needs, we can assume that 1 kJ = 1 kcal.
Knowing your limits
Determining the power profile helps evaluate which elements of the race at a given moment are going better and which are worse. Based on this, we can choose the tactics for a given race.
If we are weak sprinters, and our 5- and 20-minute powers have better values, then we are looking for our chance to escape the peloton on short hills (depending on the inclination, of 1.5-2km) or during a long escape that ends with an attack several kilometers before the finish.
If we feel better in the sprint and our 5-second power soars up, then we try to save maximum energy during the race, so that we can use this power in the final fight in the last meters from a large group.
I could multiply the examples – it all depends on the characteristics of a given race, our level of preparation, the motivation of the start and the profile of our competitors.
Using the knowledge about the cadence
The rhythm of pedaling is often an underestimated parameter, but it has a massive impact on the level of power generated, glycogen savings during the race and as a result the outcome of the competition.
Using the tools for analyzing files from the power meters (Training Peaks, WKO4), we caton evaluate at which pedaling rhythm we can generate optimal power. For some, the optimum cadence in the flat terrain when performing an escape on a 100% FTP can be 80-85, for others 95-100. In my opinion, one should strive to achieve higher cadences within the individual body motility – it allows to save glycogen to a greater extent than to push on the hard gear, and besides, it enables rapid change of rhythm and attack. Imagine how quickly you can react to someone’s attack if you’re riding 65-70rpm and 95-100rpm? In the latter case, the reduction of the gear and the overclocking of the speed comes much faster than if you wanted to spin the 53/11 gear in the blink of an eye. It is not without reason that sprinters achieve the highest speeds with cadences> 130rpm, not for example 80rpm.
During long efforts, e.g., a climb of more than 10min, maintaining a steady rhythm is significant. Stable cadence allows you to optimally distribute forces, increase pedaling efficiency and save as much energy as possible. The use of analytical tools is invaluable here since in the heat of a battle we often forget about numbers and then we may find that we were climbing with a cadence of 60-65rpm, not even thinking about it.
