Cycling Wattage

I could see 300W for 5min. That would not be surprising. That was a little under my 5 min power when I was training for the Leadville 100 MTB race many years ago.

The thing is poorly calibrated. More likely you were producing 190-210 watts.

I do wrote:

The thing is poorly calibrated. More likely you were producing 190-210 watts.

Perhaps. I have been on this damn bike for almost 4 months but I know I don't think I am near competitive.

Does anybody know what pro cyclists can do?

Pros? For 20 minutes they can do well over 500 watts. For 5 minutes? Quite a bit more, no doubt.

I do wrote:

Pros? For 20 minutes they can do well over 500 watts. For 5 minutes? Quite a bit more, no doubt.

Well in that case is it that absurd that I am able to do this workout and the wattage be accurate. Keep in mind that I was drained after it and my off periods were at like 70-100 watts.

No it is not absurd but did you zero out the towertap? There is a lot that can skew your number. I am tired and don't feel like going into it all. Here is a planned workout i did as a cat 4 rider in jan a few years back. It would be real easy to start talking on the long rides and be up above 220 watts.

Wednesday- 1-2 hours at 100 watts, nice and easy keep cadence 95+

-------------------------------------------

Thursday-

-Inside-

WU: 10min, 5min 200, 5min 100

WO: 4 X 9min: 200, 1min: 275, 5min: 50

CD: 10min @ 100

-Outside-

WU: 20-30min 125-170 (Keep it in the zone)

WO: 60min (pedaling, don't count stops)@ 205-235watts, keep it within the

zone as much as possible (i.e. 90% of the time)

CD: 20-30min <150 watts

-------------------------------------------

Friday- 90min (you can do 60 if you get caught inside)

WU: 15min @ 135

WO: 60-90min @ 130-150 with a 10sec burst to 300 every 5min at 110+ rpm

CD: 15min @ <135

-------------------------------------------

Saturday- 3+ hours @ 170-200 watts. Try to keep it in the zone as much as

possible, be smart. Eat something every 20min and try to drain 2 small

bottles an hour.

-------------------------------------------

Sunday- 3+ hours @ 125-150 (it is really, really important that you keep it

this easy)

-Do a 15sec max gear sprint every 15min after you've ridden 30min.

Thomas, do you have a powertap on your bike to get those numbers? Or are you working off of Hr/watt data you got during a test?

Bike Man wrote:

Well in that case is it that absurd that I am able to do this workout and the wattage be accurate. Keep in mind that I was drained after it and my off periods were at like 70-100 watts.

Correct. The wattage is not accurate.

Wattage, of course, is a function of size, in that a 200lb guy should be able to put out more than a 150lb guy and he more than a 110lb woman. Going on the flat you do not increase power requirements much with weight; however, going up hill you do.

A reality check is to see how fast and consistent you can go up hill. How long can you go up a 6% grade at a given speed. I am slight and so had modest power output but could out-ride all my colleagues up long climbs -- I was Cat II level uphill and Cat IV level on the flats. Partly, that is a mental thing in that strong riders seem to have trouble on long climbs because they are used to hanging on to a group with occasional pulls (higher output) but when they have to manage effort on a climb have a harder time picking the right level and blowup/give up when they cannot power up the climb.

A good road cyclist has a lactate threshold of >300 watts and can therefore maintain 300 watts for pretty much forever.

500 watts for 20 mins is doable for world class TT/track specialists but that is a lot of power.

A good all-around Cat 1 can do ~450 watts for 5 mins and ~375 watts for 20 mins in controlled tests.

I dont think anyone in the world is doing 500 watts for 20 minute power. Not Cancellara, not Gustav Larrson - although those guys might be pretty close. They are also about 80kg.OP. those outputs seem plausible, but of course not necessarily correct.

buckman wrote:

A good all-around Cat 1 can do ~450 watts for 5 mins and ~375 watts for 20 mins in controlled tests.

I agree with these numbers if said cat1 was around 150-160lbs and at sea level.

I produced 528 watts for 4:45 in the 2009 Tour of California prologue. It was good for 38th, 12 seconds back of Cancellara.

Though I doubt your power meter is correctly calibrated (they rarely are, especially on exercise bikes), 300W is not unreasonable for 5 min power for a fairly strong guy. How big a boy are ya?

Here's the file:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/races/2009-tour-of-california-race-file-analysis/prologue-larsson.aspx

I was using a powertap. Sure it was costly but I was very serious about my riding. It was and still is the best training tool I have ever used. Saying that had i been able to afford an srm I would have gotten that. It is just so much more practical.

Thomas

486w for 30 mins:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/races/2009-tour-of-california-race-file-analysis/stage-6-gustav-larsson.aspx

buckman wrote:

486w for 30 mins:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/races/2009-tour-of-california-race-file-analysis/stage-6-gustav-larsson.aspx

fwiw, That file and corresponding performance was dissected pretty thoroughly when it first came out. Long story short, I think it was determined he was probably closer to 465-470w. Regardless, an ASTOUNDING leap in performance based off his 5mp in the prologue just a few days earlier. Roughly the equivalent of going 4:05 1600, then 27:05 10,000.

I hate that that entire site is an advertisement.

But anyhow, I can't imagine having an FTP around 470 (or 450, whatever).

300 watts is sort of what feels like a hard effort to me. I could go maybe 10-20 minutes at that pace. So, assuming that I possess a similar lack of talent in either sport, I'll estimate that it's the equivalent of... maybe 5:20 mile pace? I think it's pretty damn good for a beginning cyclist (compared to the rest of the population especially) but not out of this world.