Wattage & time

1_reaper

Hi all. At the moment I'm stuck indoors on my Tacx Fortius due to a work related accident and can't get out on the road just yet. I've been back to training this way for five weeks now. My average wattage(according to the Tacx) is 164 watts with an average heart rate of 162(I'm 43)over 26 miles. now what i have to ask may be how long is a piece of string type question but how do i increase my power? never had access to this type of data before so for all i know i could be maxe'd out? is it just a matter of time or particular training methods ie intervals etc? and one more question will all this training on the turbo transfer over to the road when i eventually get out? i understand i won't have the miles/endurance in my legs but hoping it will give me a bit of a start bike fitness wise. Thanks

SBezza

The normal standard is the 2 x 20 mins at about 95% to 105% of FTP (max you can do for an hour).

Now ideally you need to test what this might be, and most do a 20 min test and use 95% of this figure, though this is more of a guessimate, but it is close enough to work from.

If you are 100% sure the power figure from your Tacx is 100% repeatable, then you can use this, but be warned unless you set it up exactly the same each time, it could differ quite a bit from session to session. If you are not sure, you can go via HR, but you would need to ascertain your MaxHR from a test and then aim to complete the 20 mins at around 95% of MaxHR, it will start of low and gradually rise throughout the 20 mins.

The most simplest way is to go as hard as you can for 20 mins trying to keep a steady pace/effort, rest for 10 mins and then go again, but if you have nothing to gauge the effort, the second one, might be at a lower effort than the first even though it feels just as hard.

To make the transition a little easier, try building up to 20 mins, perhaps try 15 mins first.

sungod

depends on your history, size/weight, fitness etc., but that wattage/heart rate suggests the first thing you need to do is really build your base aerobic fitness and endurance

usually you do that by doing long rides at sustained, but not too hard, pace, say around 140bpm, keep cadence 80+

from the distance you are comfortable with now, ramp it up by 10-15% per week until you are ok doing 80km/50miles

you'll need plenty of fluids, a fan is a good idea as well

if you need to drop weight, try to train in the morning without eating first, or only light breakfast if you can't face it without, keep a full-sugar coke/juice/whatever handy in case you feel the need

don't do it every day, you need rest in between rides, maybe two days on, one off

all that's ok on a bike, doing it on a turbo will be mind buggeringly boring! not sure i could do it, maybe the vr will soften the pain

for variety maybe do some shorter harder rides some days, i.e. simulate hills, you can drop the cadence a bit here

don't neglect warm-up time, go for about 10-15 minutes, and make sure your bike set up is correct - you'll increase risk of injury if the set-up is wrong, especially as you gain power

turbo wattage can be a long way out, but if it's in good nick and properly set-up, i think the tacx should be close at least for average power readings once warmed up - i checked a tacx flow vs. my srm, it was within a few % of the average power

but tbh i would not worry about power so much right now, first get fitter

the turbo time will translate to improvement on the road, hope you are soon on two wheels