January 23, 2019
The first couple of winter seasons I rode on my trainer indoors I was BORED TO TEARS. I love to go outside on my bike and pedaling in my living room was getting me nowhere. Not only was I bored, but other than time in the saddle, I wasn’t accomplishing much.
Then I started to train with power…and it became something completely different.
Coming into the sport of triathlon as a runner, I used the relationship of heart rate and pace as a gauge for structuring workouts.
But cycling is a different story. So many environmental factors come into play that affects your speed (hills, wind, body position) or heart rate (fatigue or caffeine intake) to name a few. Which is why on the bike we gauge effort with Watts.
What is a Watt? It is a physical unit that indicates the energy used for a given period of time.
WHAT?
Watts give you an exact count of the effort you put into your bike to move it forward. And at the end of the day, 200 Watts is 200 Watts, and it doesn’t matter what the other factors are.
So where to start….you will need a power meter or smart trainer…which is a different topic altogether! Talk to your coach! A power meter helps eliminate the guesswork when it comes to gauging your intensity.
Once you have your power meter/smart trainer set up, you are going to want to figure out your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). This is the amount of power you can sustain on the bike for 60 minutes and can be done by riding for 20 minutes at maximum effort. Your FTP will be the basis for creating your power zones, from easy recovery spinning to all-out anaerobic efforts.
So what will training with power do? It will give you real-time information on your effort allowing you, over time, to increase your power output. When you consistently see your heart rate start to drop while producing the same amount of power, you are becoming more efficient (FASTER).
Knowing your FTP and training your body to ride there evenly will help you pace more effectively….putting you ahead of the competition and feeling more prepared to get off your bike and run!
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