I don’t have a power meter on my bike but do have access to a rowing machine. I’m curious as to how the power on the rower would compare to riding. Are they similar? In other words, can I assume the power I get on the rower is comparable to what I would see on my bike if I had a power meter?
Thanks.
When I rowed I never used watts, we always used min/500m, so I had to go and look up my 2k times and 1 hr splits converted to watts.
It’s hard for me to give a proper comparison as I haven’t rowed in 15 years. I stopped rowing and switched to cycling, so not really an apples to oranges comparison as my 27 year old self was much stronger.
In any case my 1h splits from my younger self are similar to what I can do currently on the bike for 1 hour (via FTP test).
Something to consider is that I was/am a heavyweight (210 lbs) which was good for rowing; but not good for cycling lol.
Not sure how this translates to lighter people.
Edit Upon thinking more on it I don’t think there is any way I could get my 1 hr erg score (in my current body, no matter the amount of training) to match by current cycling FTP score. So I would think that the erging wattage is lower given equal training to both sports.
Just an observation with a sample size of 1.
I think if you were equally trained for both disciplines the erg would be slightly less in power output due to body mechanics.
My best 5k on the erg is 19:59.06 which is 202 watts. That was an all out effort that had people getting ready to speed dial EMS. I’ve done a few similar efforts on the bike (outdoors) and if I were to go all out for 20 minutes on the indoor bike trainer I would guess about 210.
I’ve read on other ST threads the delta is higher for other athletes but I imagine there’s a lot of individuality packed into the data.
I don’t have a power meter on my bike but do have access to a rowing machine. I’m curious as to how the power on the rower would compare to riding. Are they similar? In other words, can I assume the power I get on the rower is comparable to what I would see on my bike if I had a power meter?
Thanks.
Maybe Dev will respond. I seem to recall he ran lots of numbers and seemed to develop some napkin math comparing power numbers in one to the other.
Did you have fans for cooling while erging? I’ve used a Concept II with a paddle adapter to cover several million meters over the past couple of years and found that adding excellent fans for cooling make a world of difference in efforts beyond 15 minutes. On the bike outdoors we have the natural convection due to the speed of the bike. Inside not so much with a good fan. The same applies with indoor bike trainers. FYI, paddling wattage is pathetic compared to rowing or biking.
YMMV,
Hugh
Different sports. For me my erg watts are lower then my bike watts which are lower than my running watts which are lower than my elliptical watts.
If you want average bike power, Strava is a reasonable estimate for a med/long ride (you need to give it a chance to even out some of the variables it doesn’t know, like wind conditions). Probably good +/-10% if you are riding a road bike mostly on the hoods.
The real value of power is that it responds instantly. HR is a better measure of effort, but it has significant lag making it worthless for shorter, non-steady efforts that are common in cycling.
I use a Concept2 year around as a supplement to cycling. This time of the year time spent on each is about equal – 12-14 hours combined. Power is consistently higher for cycling. Maybe because I’m relatively light – 6’ & 147 lbs.
When I rowed back in college we didn’t take watts into account. It was all about the 500m split times. My best 2k as a lightweight was 6:36 - not really even sure what that equates to in watts at 165 lbs. Best 5 min effort on a bike is around 420 watts, which is obviously a bit shorter in duration than the 2k time.