For someone "new to power," you seem to have a better grasp of the fundamentals than most!

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"Go yell at an M&M"

You have a great grasp on the basics of power.

Speed is a result of your output but is also influenced by so many other things such as weather and terrain. That is why it is not a good gauge to use for training and racing. I do not even have speed on the main screen of my computer. Just time, power, heart rate, and cadence.

Congrats on the power purchase! You are going to love training with power!

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

you need speed on main screen too!! how else will you know if you are going fast enough to get that Strava KOM??!!

OP: you will not be too gassed to ride home. within 5 min of the 20min effort, you will feel fine. on weekly TTs in the past I would ride 20-25mi to TT, do the 20 min effort and then ride home. Alas, those are not happening here anymore due to the person putting them on having suffered a stroke valentines day '14

Exertion levels may not be the same, because 200 watts at the beginning of the ride may be super easy, but 200 watts at the end may be impossible.

You've got the basics covered, but one important thing to note is that typically your pacing strategy in a race will not be as simple as "maintain 200w." Hills and wind can add complexity to your strategy, in that you may want to be above average for some portions of the ride, and under average for other portions. At slow speeds, adding a little more power can have a big effect on your speed, but at high speeds adding a bit more power does next to nothing for your speed. Don't worry, people here and elsewhere love discussing such nuances ad nauseam, so you should have no problem finding more information!

New to power too and have a couple of questions:
1. Say my FTP (based on the 20 TrainerRoad test) is 200W. What should I target my average power to be for my first IM?
2. How do you prefer to monitor your power on your ride:
Real time: either 3sec or 10sec average (my 3sec is very jittery) OR lap average (my lap is set to 5miles) OR overall average?

I have been monitoring 3sec and overall average but am considering changing from 3sec (or 10sec) to lap average.

Thanks in advance

Your IF (intensity factor) for IM should be somewhere between 68-75% of your FTP. Each of those percentage points represents a huge degree over the course of 112 miles so you should do some long rides in that range and see where you land. Meaning, 68% may set you up for a great run, while 75% could be disastrous. I use 3 sec averaging, but I also hit LAP every 20 minutes to make sure I'm staying where I need to be. Personally I like to "flatten" the hills. That means keeping your race watts the same the entire 112 miles whether ascending, descending or on flats (this is your VI or variability index). If you are pacing correctly, your VI should be 1.05 or less. I have rarely seen anyone mash up big hills (spiking their power) and me not catch up with them later during the run. I often feel sorry for those guys, knowing the hurt they will experience later in the race.

If your goal is an isopower workout, then yes. If your goal is to go as fast as possible, then no. Speed is pretty instrumental in pacing during a race--as speed drops below a targeted amount, you ride harder--above a certain amount, you back off. On a known course, if I could only have only one I'd rather have speed (but monitoring both is great).

As far as training, even then I think "it depends". If you race on a lot of rolling courses, I don't think you'd be best served to strive for an iso-power workout for every ride. I think what's more important is that you stay roughly within the training level at which you're training. So, if you're doing 15-20 minute repeats around threshold, you try to set an upper and lower bound, say 90-110% of threshold, and try to stay within that range. That's a pretty broad range, say 270-330W for a threshold power @ 300W. Same with training in other levels.

Unless you're regularly racing on courses which demand a very steady effort, I don't see the point of forcing yourself to into a super narrow window. I do see the point of staying with a certain training level though to elicit a specific response.

1. Your IM target wattage should be based of your long training rides and maybe a short run afterwards. The end goal is to ride at a power that still allows you to execute the marathon at the best of your abilities. An FTP test can give you a good starting guide as to what that power might be, but you won't know for sure until you start doing those long rides and seeing how well you run after. You'll hear various guides of 60-75%, but that is a pretty big range. And rightfully so because people have different FTPs and different running abilities. Someone with an FTP of 300 and an open marathon of 2:45 can ride at a higher percentage of FTP for an IM because he won't be riding or running for nearly as long as someone with an FTP of 180 and an open marathon of 4:45.

2. Most long course athletes prefer 10 or 30 second average in addition to overall or lap average.

If the course is at all rolling or hilly, Normalized Power is very useful to display as well. It is a weighted average going by the theory that higher power outputs (like when climbing a hill) have a higher metabolic effect than lower steady efforts. You might be showing a lower average power, but if you are constantly surging and falling back (like on rolling hills) you might be "cheating" that average and actually doing damage to yourself in the process. Showing NP can help mitigate that.

also time on the course plays a very big part in setting a FTP % target.

a 5 hr IM ride @ 75% for the studly just may be a damn sight easier than 7 hrs @ 60% for the slower.
do your training, undertake your self testing & set your own target. then recheck in training...

Shorter, my friend: They're called levels and not zones for a reason.

hey, he's new to training by power--don't want to get all Topica Wattage List on him...

A description of my last few minutes.

hmmm, what is "Topica Wattage List"?

Right click, the phrase, search in google

Interesting... hmmmm, huh, rabbit hole, ahhhhhhhhhh

refine the search to be

"Topica Wattage List" site:slowtwitch.com

better, but are forum posts from 2004 still relevant

refine search for just this year

yep, looks like a lot of information... until i do a good FTP test i am just using arbitrary numbers anyways



So far my key take aways from this thread are:

Don't blindly follow a "for an Ironman, i should endeavor to keep my 10s power average at 65% of FTP" ... there are natural variation based on course; for example on a rolling hills the number will skew once i start spinning out of my highest gear and i don't want to arbitrarily add additional power just to keep my average up.

Remember that to some extent, that using power as a training tool can help me be a better cyclist (make my hard days hard and keep my recovery days easy ... instead of having everything in the kinda hard-ish which is too easy on hard days and too hard on recovery days) but on race day, this will help me meter myself so that i still have legs for the run.

Specifically, i am training from IM Canada in 88 days (not that i am counting down or anything)... by riding smart, especially on the flat section in the middle, i will avoid the temptation to "make up time" and blow up on the final climb and/or the run.

Recheck and reevaluate regularly... then run test events (HIM Victoria) to verify that plan is working.

(Not necessarily from this thread) During my FTP test... i need to be ready to go to "a very dark place" and ride significantly harder than I ever have before. If I am not trying to find air to scream out loud... i am not going hard enough.

Just so it doesn't get lost... Thank you all for the input

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I do the same thing as them, just slower

Also,
This doesn't mean that every training ride you should ride at race pace. I did it and it's a recipe for overtraining... Sometimes time in the saddle is what you need even if you're going slower e.g. < .68 IF. If you're worried about going too easy on your long rides I've never heard anyone say "boy... I sure feel fresh after that 5/6 hour ride". Pick your battles, not every workout is a race and it's better to get the volume in rather than skip or fudge sessions because you're wiped out from racing your long workouts the previous weekend.