Power/Weight Thread

[fire_munki]

Age - 37
Height - 170cm
Weight - 68.8kg
FTP (60min) - 222
W/kg - 3.23

Nice 10W gain between Xmas and now, making good progress towards 3.5w/kg. Not eating all the lockdown junk would help I bet!

 

[xdcx]

62KG just now and done my best ever 20min in a Zwift TT yesterday.
Had a day off completely on Wednesday. Got very little sleep Weds>Thurs as the wee boy got his 8 week injections so wasn't best pleased. But then manage this. I honestly do not understand the way my body works most of the time.

 

[UTmaniac]

62KG just now and done my best ever 20min in a Zwift TT yesterday.
Had a day off completely on Wednesday. Got very little sleep Weds>Thurs as the wee boy got his 8 week injections so wasn't best pleased. But then manage this. I honestly do not understand the way my body works most of the time.

Saw you won that TT yesterday, that power (nevermind the W/Kg) is insane to a MAMIL mortal like me, the longest I've held 358W is for 5mins back in mid Feb before I lost all my winter gains, due to what was almost certainly mild COVID-19.

Given how my fitness jumped off a cliff after basically not training from end of Feb until very gingerly in the last couple of weeks, I was quite happy to average 290W in the 1830 run of that British Cycling event at Richmond Flats last night.

 

[SoliD]

62KG just now and done my best ever 20min in a Zwift TT yesterday.
Had a day off completely on Wednesday. Got very little sleep Weds>Thurs as the wee boy got his 8 week injections so wasn't best pleased. But then manage this. I honestly do not understand the way my body works most of the time.

The body is great when it's all fired up! incredible numbers and some I would love to be able to achieve some day!

I still don't understand half of why/how my body does, but that is part of the mystery of cycling, some training days I feel awful on the 3rd day of a training block, take an extra 10 minutes to get warmed up and then smash out some lovely consistent power. Just as you say a shame that at the moment you've got nothing "real" to put those legs to!

 

[xdcx]

@UTmaniac - There was a lad finished ahead of me. 61KG and done 6.2 avg. But he's been removed from any Zwift event he has ever done. Definitely sketchy but I was ending myself trying to catch him so I shouldn't complain. I finished ahead of Bevan as well, he is currently ranked 6th in the world on Zwift rankings and has won some big big community races recently!

Your fitness will come bounding back. It may not feel like it initially but it will come back in fair lumps sooner rather than later. I'm glad you only had a mild bout of that **** and are on the recovery from it properly buddy.

@SoliD - Yeah after these years doing this to ourselves it sometimes still makes no utter sense what so ever. It's quite frustrating but equally what keeps a certain mystery as you say. If we all knew how to get 100% out of ourselves at any given time it would be rather boring. The chase of form is a great thing.

Was talking to my mate about it last week. In the midst of big base block I done last year I could jump on the bike feeling fresh, ready for a big structured session, and end up bailing it after 1 effort..... then other days I could have done 3 hour rides both days before and jump on the bike for another 4 hours feeling like utter rubbish. Barely even the motivation to get on the saddle then 4 hours later come home having averaged 34kmh and going like buggery. NO SENSE! I've almost given up and just put way less thought process or effort into understanding aspects of training/myself now. Take it as it comes.

 

[Lethal`]

Not that I do any real training but I've often found I'm faster when I've had little sleep the night before and felt knackered throughout the day. It's weird.

 

[SoliD]

@SoliD - Yeah after these years doing this to ourselves it sometimes still makes no utter sense what so ever. It's quite frustrating but equally what keeps a certain mystery as you say. If we all knew how to get 100% out of ourselves at any given time it would be rather boring. The chase of form is a great thing.

Was talking to my mate about it last week. In the midst of big base block I done last year I could jump on the bike feeling fresh, ready for a big structured session, and end up bailing it after 1 effort..... then other days I could have done 3 hour rides both days before and jump on the bike for another 4 hours feeling like utter rubbish. Barely even the motivation to get on the saddle then 4 hours later come home having averaged 34kmh and going like buggery. NO SENSE! I've almost given up and just put way less thought process or effort into understanding aspects of training/myself now. Take it as it comes.

Indeed, it's good fun just flogging yourself at times too. Been quite enjoying the semi structured way i've been working last couple of months. Riding more, definitely improving and definitely enjoying it more than I would have if it was fully structured. Been enjoying the MTB and CX bike more as I'm not so focussed on hitting the numbers or the power because I know I'm doing enough to improve. Luckily not had any days where I can't do the efforts, although last Sunday was getting that way, took me a good 45 minutes to even summon any energy. End of the day we've all got so much other stuff going on, you're not a pro and even they still have outside influences like kids and money etc. A life without these things even then the body would stil throw some confusion your way.

 

[merlin]

Not that I do any real training but I've often found I'm faster when I've had little sleep the night before and felt knackered throughout the day. It's weird.

That makes literally no sense at all. It's the complete opposite of what our body should be doing!

 

[SPG]

A sleepless night before an event does not effect performance as such, the human body can cope with it, What it cant cope with is two sleepless nights in a row which is why you should always prepare your race kit 3 days before the event. But this is in the real world and not the everyday is race day zwift wants you you believe

 

[Vigoro]

Decided to have a trial of Sufferfest to see how it compares to Zwift. Started this evening doing a Half Monty ramp test to see where I was at, as I had only got an idea of FTP from Zwift before which was sitting at around 255 last time it changed around a month ago.

Age - 29
Weight - 82kg
5 Second - 992w
1 Minute - 473w
5 Minute - 332w
20 Minute (FTP) - 267w (3.25w/kg)

December/Jan when I started on Zwift it was only at 193w and I was also 92kg instead, so seem to have gone from 2.1w/kg to 3.25w/kg in about 6 months

 

[Jonny ///M]

That is some great progress with the weight loss and increase in power mate, keep at it!

Don't get too caught up chasing FTP as the gains will get smaller as you get even fitter.

Get outside and ride with groups that'll make you push yourself harder.

 

[SoliD]

Oh to dream of gains that big, nice work! Amazing how quickly the body adapts at first.

 

[Vigoro]

That is some great progress with the weight loss and increase in power mate, keep at it!

Don't get too caught up chasing FTP as the gains will get smaller as you get even fitter.

Get outside and ride with groups that'll make you push yourself harder.

Thanks! I was going out with others before lockdown etc which seemed to be helping, rides outside over the past few weeks seem to be helping as well though as I seem to be getting a lot of PB's on Strava segments at the minute!

Oh to dream of gains that big, nice work! Amazing how quickly the body adapts at first.

Think it just shows that I was not as fit as I thought, not as used to cycling as I thought and also weighed too much

 

[merlin]

Ok so still a little fatigued but managed 232w ftp today. 3.46 w/kilo.

I now have a mini-goal to try to touch 3.5w/kilo by June/July, but really the core focus hasn't changed - my climbing needs to be better, and my sustained sprinting is utter dog ***t, needs sorting out.

Mission accomplished with the w/kilo. Just come off a recovery week, legs felt fresh yesterday so straight into ramp test.

247w yesterday. Weight 149lbs. 3.65w/kilo.

I feel strong. Thanks to the dude on this forum who gave me a trainerroad trial - it's been a revelation.

 

[#Chri5#]

I had a crack at the new Sufferfest ramp test called Half Monty on Sunday. Compared back to 7th January above:

Weight - 80.7kg last Tuesday, 81.6 today - hopefully that's water retention, not cake retention!

5 second - 998w; 11.88w/kg (no change - not tested)
1 minute - 453w; 5.39w/kg (no change - not tested)
5 minute - was 325w, now 350w (4.32w/kg)
20 minute - was 262w, now 285w (3.5w/kg)

All the morning TT sessions during lockdown are obviously helping. Not sure if I got the ramp test protocol correct - are you meant to stop as soon as you can't hold the target? Even if you could surge back up and hold it for another a short window?

Thought it was time for some proper misery, so fired up the Sufferfest Full Frontal test last Sunday morning. My weight seems to be all over the shop recently... Tuesday 9th 80.2kg, Tuesday 16th 78.6kg and Thursday 81.4kg (wouldn't normally get the scales out on a Thursday but wanted to check if the Tuesday was a freak). Garmin Connect says I've averaged 80.3kg over the past four weeks so I'll use that.

5 second - was 998w, now 996w - down 2w; 12.4w/kg
1 minute - was 453w, now 473w - up 20w; 5.8w/kg
5 minute - was 350w, now 364w - up 14w on the May ramp test, up 39w on January full test; 4.5w/kg
20 minute - was 285w, now 284w - down 1w on the May ramp test, up 23w on January full test; 3.5w/kg

I had hoped to get to 300w for 20 minutes but I think I'm still getting used to the elevated targets from May's ramp test on the training sessions. I've also not being doing many FTP targeted sessions on the turbo as the shorter Sufferfest sessions I've been hitting before breakfast target the shorter windows. I've got up a bit earlier this week to put longer sessions in to get more threshold time in. Target is for 300w FTP by the end of the summer.

 

[GSVBagpuss]

On the ramp test protocol, I think the idea is to go as long as you can and not restart after a short rest. But the key with any test is to consistently do the same test so you can track progress. No one cares what your FTP is and neither should you but you should care whether it’s going up or down

 

[GSVBagpuss]

Thanks to the dude on this forum who gave me a trainerroad trial - it's been a revelation.

I’ve got 3 month long trials if anyone wants them

 

[xdcx]

The death of me.

 

[Shadowness]

Nice one!! @xdcx

4.68 is my best 1hr w/kg. That hurt too!

 

[Jonny ///M]

Nice big w/kg numbers in here!

I'd need 400w for an hour to get that, no chance.