Wattage training zones

moconnor01

I have reently got myself a new turbo trainer, this one is computerised ... I'm not that technical when it comes to gadget, so I just set it up, jumped on and off I went. I have a few friends with some good training sessions progammes which I have been using. I recently flciked thru someof the options on the trainer cimputer and noticed that it gave me a wattage meter - so as I was pedalling I was watching this go up and down and looking at my cadence and the level of resistance. I have heard that power training/outrput is being used by alot of the pro team to measure performance.

So, finally to my question ..... has anyone got an ideas/programmes for turbo training using watts as the measure, rather than cadence?

Bronzie

Can't really suggest any routines without knowing what you are training for / what you are trying to achieve.

But you right in stating that power output is a generally more reliable guide to how hard you are working rather than heart rate (you mention cadence, but this is just a measure of how quick you are pedalling and depending on what gear you are in could be very easy or very hard so is really irrelevant).

You need to target your training in varying zones (depending on what you are trying to achieve) and you can use the table in the following link to guage what your power training zones should be:
http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/power411/levels.asp

bahzob

If you just want a bread and butter drill try 2x20. Warm up, do 20 minutes have 5 minutes easy spinning then another 20 minutes. Key is that second 20 minutes should be greater watts than first.

After a bit of trial and (much) effort you will find the max watts you can do this at. This will be pretty close to "level 4" in the table above and will be a useful benchmark to come back to see if you can better as a result of training on the turbo or elsewhere.

If you want to go further there is a huge amount of extra stuff but as mentioned post above first thing to decide is what you are training for (and it can get very technical).

moconnor01

Thanks heaps for this ...... what am I training for ..???? That in itself is a great question. I have no set race/ride - but am very keen to improve my endurance and climbing ability

Bronzie wrote:

Can't really suggest any routines without knowing what you are training for / what you are trying to achieve.

But you right in stating that power output is a generally more reliable guide to how hard you are working rather than heart rate (you mention cadence, but this is just a measure of how quick you are pedalling and depending on what gear you are in could be very easy or very hard so is really irrelevant).

You need to target your training in varying zones (depending on what you are trying to achieve) and you can use the table in the following link to guage what your power training zones should be:
http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/power411/levels.asp

moconnor01

bahzob wrote:

If you just want a bread and butter drill try 2x20. Warm up, do 20 minutes have 5 minutes easy spinning then another 20 minutes. Key is that second 20 minutes should be greater watts than first.

After a bit of trial and (much) effort you will find the max watts you can do this at. This will be pretty close to "level 4" in the table above and will be a useful benchmark to come back to see if you can better as a result of training on the turbo or elsewhere.

If you want to go further there is a huge amount of extra stuff but as mentioned post above first thing to decide is what you are training for (and it can get very technical).

Nice one, thanks ..... I'll give it a try tonight

polemann

moconnor01 wrote:

Thanks heaps for this ...... what am I training for ..???? That in itself is a great question. I have no set race/ride - but am very keen to improve my endurance and climbing ability

Sounds like your training for the best reason .... to bet your mates.