SLU Cycling

Power Cycling Training is probably the best way to train.

Woah! Quite a claim!

Here I will discuss why Power Cycling Training is the best way to train, and how to train correctly using a power meter.

So what is all this hype about power meters, and power training? Why not use a heart rate monitor, or go off perceived exertion?

A lot of different factors affect your heart rate while training: Hydration, Nutrition, Wind, Road Surface, Gradient, Tread Pattern, Tyre Pressure, Illness, Cardiac Drift and Near Death experiences. This makes it extremely difficult to keep a steady effort, whether for training purposes, or if you are Time Trialling.

The same thing applies for perceived exertion, if you are coming down with an illness, you are in a bad mood, or you just won the lottery, will all affect how you feel whilst training.

Power Cycling Training removes those other factors.

A great example of why a Power Cycling Training is so great is when you come to a hill, and want to maintain a steady effort.

If you could be bothered, you could stop, measure the gradient of the hill, your average speed, and then use a formula to calculate the speed you should go up the hill to keep your effort constant. Obviously this is very impractical!

With a power meter, you would simply look at how much power you are outputting, for the sake of this article, lets say 170W. As you start climbing, simply adjust your gearing and cadence so that you are still outputting 170W. Simple! That is why Power Cycling Training beats any other method of training into the ground!

Now lets get a little more technical, don’t worry! No need to hire Steven Hawking to help you understand the next part!

If you have just bought a power meter and are wanting to start Power Cycling Training, you need to measure something called your “Functional Threshold Power” (also known as FTP). Now don’t let that phrase scare you! It is simply the power you are capable of producing for one hour.

By periodically measuring your functional threshold power, you can see yourself progress, which gives a great boost in motivation. (You will also have a bit of an advantage over your competitors who don’t do Power Cycling Training!).

So how do you find this “magic number”?

Ideally you would want to do this on a turbo trainer, however if you don’t have one, or just can’t stand indoor training, there is no reason you couldn’t do Power Cycling Training on the road, just find a route where you wont be interrupted often, the countryside is perfect.

Get warmed up with 15-20 minutes of easy cycling, then cycle as hard as you can for 1 hour. Make sure to pace yourself correctly, so that you don’t run out of energy, and at the end, your average power output is your FTP!

This will then allow you to pace yourself correctly during time trials and road races, and you can see yourself progress! This is why Power Cycling Training is so great!

By: Sam Kennedy

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