In 2003 I got serious about cycling. I had a VO2 test, and received a training plan to follow based on my heart rate. I did the training and got stronger. I even got my weight down about 10 lbs.
Training using your heart rate is good, but using both power and heart rate is better. In 2005 PowerTap came up with the first relatively affordable power meter. I bought one, downloaded some software to analyze the data, and the way I think about cycling changed completely.
Non-cyclists sometimes ask me how fast I ride. The answer is “It depends”. Which way is the wind blowing and how hard? Am I climbing Mont Ventoux or sailing down Carbondale Road? Am I sitting on Marlin’s wheel or out front trying to shelter Roberta and Margret from our version of the Mistral? Speed tells you almost nothing.
But power data tells you everything. 200 watts is the same effort riding uphill at 5 mph or 20 mph on flat pavement.
Since I’ve been riding with a power meter for so long, and since I’m kind of anal retentive when it comes to recording every piece of data about my rides, I know quite a bit about my performance over time. Perhaps too much.
The graph is called a Power Curve. Time is on the horizontal axis and my maximum power for that amount of time is on the vertical axis. For example, the graph shows that back in 2016 my highest power output for 1 hour was 226 watts. This year the maximum one hour effort is 177 watts. As you would expect when the time period gets longer the maximum power drops; you can ride harder for 1 minute that you can for half an hour.
The graph above shows my power curve for 2021 and compares it to my numbers from 2016. As you can see there is a bit of a drop off. Strava calculates something called Functional Threshold Power (FTP) from the data. It is an estimate of how much power you can generate for 1 hour. Back in 2016 my number was 245 watts. So far this year it is only 201 watts.
I picked 2016 for a reason. I turned 60 that year, and I remember thinking back then that I really hadn’t changed much as a cyclist since 2003 and the day Max Testa changed my life. But over the last 5 years I have gotten ‘less strong’ which is a nice way to say weaker.
Poor numbers this year are at least partly due to the pandemic pall. I am not motivated. I even wrote a blog about ‘the end of the affair’ with my love of cycling late last year. That has eased a bit, and perhaps if we ever get to travel and take our masks off, I’ll get enthusiastic again. I know I can do 200 watts for an hour if I have a nice lunch in Malaucene to look forward to at the finish.
Rich Freggiaro Cycling Blog 