This is my first year racing with a powermeter. I believe a rough guide is to race anywhere between 90-105% FTP for sprint distance. Near all my planned races this year have hills/climbs/pulls so therefore is it best to use NP rather than AP? For example, my first race, a sprint duathlon, consists of a ~9K out and back bike route of which 1.3K to 7K is a gradual pull of average 2% with some sections around 7%. Having never used a powermeter before in racing, how does one tackle this without of course blowing up? I know there is always go by feel but sometimes post race I always think I had more to give and hence now have a PM to assist in pushing that bit more. Thanks
Are you actually racing or participating?
Racing, I would typically finish within top 5 in age group.
Sprint Distance I ride 95% or harder on the bike on the flat sections. Short uphills near 110%, long uphills near 100% downhills just try to keep the power up.
If you are not well rested you may need to go a little easier.
If you are not a strong runner I would back of a few percent.
jaretj
And is that using AP or NP? Or is it that over a short distance and in TT there would be little coasting so the two would be very close anyways?
AP
I don’t think NP is meaningful for pacing at all.
Try looking into bestbikesplit. You can load a course up and then it will help predict your time given all your input data. It will also tell you how many watts to push at each point in the race. I think that this may help you determine how many watts you should be using to push going up hills.
Also, I use a combination of NP and AVG Power when racing. Ideally your variability index is within a few points of 1.0 so NP and AVG Power should be close to the same number. If they are not, then I’d go off of AVG Power.
edit: also, for efforts under 20-30 minutes, never use NP as it will not be accurate.
Try looking into bestbikesplit. You can load a course up and then it will help predict your time given all your input data. It will also tell you how many watts to push at each point in the race. I think that this may help you determine how many watts you should be using to push going up hills.
Also, I use a combination of NP and AVG Power when racing. Ideally your variability index is within a few points of 1.0 so NP and AVG Power should be close to the same number. If they are not, then I’d go off of AVG Power.
edit: also, for efforts under 20-30 minutes, never use NP as it will not be accurate.
Superb piece of software, thanks for the heads up
Sprint Distance I ride 95% or harder on the bike on the flat sections. Short uphills near 110%, long uphills near 100% downhills just try to keep the power up.
Using bestbikesplits and putting in all my data and course profile etc, it came out not far off above for the hills! Thx
Almost as if I had some experience with that
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Scrap the PM for the sprint distance and go as hard as you can over the distance. That’s why it’s called a sprint.
Scrap the PM for the sprint distance and go as hard as you can over the distance. That’s why it’s called a sprint.
I knew someone would suggest this. Every 5k I’ve ever run was littered at or before the 2 mile mark by folks “going as hard as they could”. It’s a piss poor strategy for even a 400 meter run as you’ll even see Olympians have the piano fall on their back in the last 100 meters of a 400 when they go out way too fast.
YMMV,
Hugh
The OP obviously knows how to run a 5km if he is top 5 in every race he does. Not only that, the post said the issue was having too much in the tank at the end of the ride.
It’s a piss poor strategy to rely on your power meter in a sprint race unless you are really struggling with your run. If that’s the case, the best advice would be to stop spending so much time looking at your PM and spend more time running
The OP obviously knows how to run a 5km if he is top 5 in every race he does. Not only that, the post said the issue was having too much in the tank at the end of the ride.
It’s a piss poor strategy to rely on your power meter in a sprint race unless you are really struggling with your run. If that’s the case, the best advice would be to stop spending so much time looking at your PM and spend more time running
I somewhat agree. I was actually about to post something along the lines of ‘am i the only one who just balls out the bike as hard as i can, and hold onto your 5k pace as much as possible’?
I dont pace a sprint tri bike leg in as much as being too concerned with power numbers UNLESS i start way too aggressively in which case i will dial it back a touch. But i dont become very aware of power numbers in a sprint like a 70.3 etc. I will glance at my watts to let me know if im ‘on’ or not. I can usually tell by how i feel anyway. But i wont ride at 250 watts and hold it as close as possible because thats my apparent magic number for sprints. I will balls out a bike sprint, i actually didnt think people stuck to numbers in sprints to be honest?
In a sprint, I use the PM to stop me pushing too hard in the first few minutes, and then use it to keep concentration on pushing hard as otherwise I can subtly ease back without realising. The overall AP or NP is interesting to look at afterwards, but doesn’t get looked at during a race. For a hilly race I’d set ceilings for the climbs dependent on length.
The OP obviously knows how to run a 5km if he is top 5 in every race he does. Not only that, the post said the issue was having too much in the tank at the end of the ride.
It’s a piss poor strategy to rely on your power meter in a sprint race unless you are really struggling with your run. If that’s the case, the best advice would be to stop spending so much time looking at your PM and spend more time running
I somewhat agree. I was actually about to post something along the lines of ‘am i the only one who just balls out the bike as hard as i can, and hold onto your 5k pace as much as possible’?
I dont pace a sprint tri bike leg in as much as being too concerned with power numbers UNLESS i start way too aggressively in which case i will dial it back a touch. But i dont become very aware of power numbers in a sprint like a 70.3 etc. I will glance at my watts to let me know if im ‘on’ or not. I can usually tell by how i feel anyway. But i wont ride at 250 watts and hold it as close as possible because thats my apparent magic number for sprints. I will balls out a bike sprint, i actually didnt think people stuck to numbers in sprints to be honest?
I don’t stick to numbers, but a PM is extremely helpful to make sure you don’t overdo it when starting, that you’re not +20W over your target average, etc. It’s not quite as important as a 70.3, but going “balls to the wall” means you’re not going to run very well. It’s very easy to start out going way too hard and suffering at the end of the bike, which means you’re pacing suboptimally. It also lets you avoid the classic mistakes of going too hard up hills and burning yourself up doing 500W up a hill.
A “sprint” tri is still an hour-long athletic endeavour. If I’m doing an hour-long workout with the intention of pacing to be perfectly exhausted in the last couple minutes, that’s a hard thing to do optimally without a PM. For me, I know that I can currently do 310W-ish for a well-paced hour, so if I did a sprint, I would aim for ~310W on the bike. If I did 330W, I’m obviously not going to run well since that’s my 30min-then-fall-off-the-bike pace. If I did 280W, then I probably left a pile of time on the table.
If you’re doing sprints to be competitive or for PBs and not just as a fun workout, paying attention to pacing is nearly as important as it is in a 70.3.
With the forenote I am a long course guy who lives by his PM on 70.3 and 140.6, I am in the same boat as you. Especially if training volumes have been at high levels preparing for 140.6. The last local sprint this summer I rode as hard as I possibly could for 30 including some pretty big 800w surges, still ran well and… most importantly it was fun. Trying to monitor power on something like a sprint for me would be liking having a PM on the mountain bike…it would take all the fun out of it.
x2 well said
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The OP obviously knows how to run a 5km if he is top 5 in every race he does. Not only that, the post said the issue was having too much in the tank at the end of the ride.
Just to clarify he said top five in AG.
Sprint Distance I ride 95% or harder on the bike on the flat sections. Short uphills near 110%, long uphills near 100% downhills just try to keep the power up.
What do you recommend for Olympic and 70.3?