Strava Watts

mattsaw

I've been using Strava for a little while now - http://app.strava.com/athletes/99118

I've noticed the watts stat on the profile - 5min power/10min power.

I've obviously seen this quoted in relation to pro riders, but can someone explain (as if you were explaining to an idiot) what this is, how its calculated and watt ( :oops: ) is a good reading?

vermin

Mattsaw wrote:

I've been using Strava for a little while now - http://app.strava.com/athletes/99118

I've noticed the watts stat on the profile - 5min power/10min power.

I've obviously seen this quoted in relation to pro riders, but can someone explain (as if you were explaining to an idiot) what this is, how its calculated and watt is a good reading?

+1 :oops:

vermin

...

keyser__soze

Unless you've got a powermeter it's not worth using or looking at, particularly for commuting. It's meant to calculate the power output based off your speed/acceleration and elevation. Your 5-min power and 10-min power are your best average power outputs over 5 and 10 mins respectively. Unfortunately Strava can't take into account wind nor drafting so estimated power outputs are massively out.

mattsaw

Cheers, that does make sense.

There does seem to be a rough correlation between the high outputs and the riders that I would expect to be high, so I guess it's a decent benchmark, just not particularly accurate?

vermin

It seems clever enough to take rider weight into account.

vermin

It seems clever enough to take rider weight into account.

jds_1981

Also see Watts/kg http://www.sound-coaching.co.uk/shop/page/27

rick_chasey

vermin wrote:

It seems clever enough to take rider weight into account.

Doesn't seem you're clever enough to press submit only once .

vermin

Rick Chasey wrote:

vermin wrote:

It seems clever enough to take rider weight into account.

Doesn't seem you're clever enough to press submit only once .

Never. Post. From. Phone.

Paul E

All the time I have used it it hasn't updated once from the inital values, I know I have more power than that now for the pace I can maintain and my hill speed is a lot better than 2 months ago

Paul 8v

Thought I'd resurect this rather than start a new thread, I was wondering how accurate the Watts figure actually is? I've noticed it spikes occasionally to say 900 Watts, is that just a blip? It seems to be in some odd places like junctions, I was wondering if it's where it gets confused with a change of direction or something? Is it accurate enough to use as a training aid i.e. will it give a rough ball park figure or should I ignore it completely?

Cheers

Paul

dhope

Paul 8v wrote:

Thought I'd resurect this rather than start a new thread, I was wondering how accurate the Watts figure actually is?

It's not accurate.

meanredspider

I find it very useful


I can see just how much lighter the people who beat me on the hills are than me without needing a Strava subscription

greg66_tri_v2.0

dhope wrote:

Paul 8v wrote:

Thought I'd resurect this rather than start a new thread, I was wondering how accurate the Watts figure actually is?

It's not accurate.

Aye. It's a reverse engineered estimate. Or a g-u-e-s-s, if you will.

It may be right some of the time, like any guess, but that's not because it is accurate.

Paul 8v

Ah fair enough, looks like like if I really want to know I'll have to get a power meter but you can buy a decent bike for the price of one of them!

meanredspider

Yup - it can only be as accurate as the data that's fed in - speed, weight, rate of change of elevation and even then it can only guess at aero losses. As such, it's only really as accurate as any calorie figure too (after all, it's the same thing) I do find, though, for longer runs, it is at least reasonably consistent within the bounds of its limitations.