I bought and began using a Computrainer for the first time a couple of weeks ago. My coach has prescribed that I train at certain wattages for certain intervals of time. Pretty standard, right?
Well, I seem to have NO POWER!!! I thought I was a fast MOP-er (or MOP-ette, technically), but it’s embarassing how little I can sustain an 80-90 RPM cadence at the levels assigned (and trust me, they are embarassingly low).
Before each workout, I warm up and recalibrate my trainer close to the 2.00 setting as suggested by the manual. But every time I get the power setting up high, I can sustain it for a few minutes but then it’s a struggle between my brain and my legs and I want to take a little rest, and then it’s all blown to sh*t and I suddenly can’t get the pedals around faster than 30 RPM.
What’s going on here? Are my pedalling mechanics this bad and I never knew? Is this typical when you begin to train with power? FWIW my coach thinks based on my outdoor riding times I should not be having this issue… thank you ST sages!
Perhaps you can give us some idea about what your race times for certain distances, HR zones and the workout your coach has prescribed you? Also it would be helpful to get an idea about how much you weigh and what your bike set up is, i.e., how aero you are.
A 140 lb guy who is very aerodynamic can push less absolute Watts to go as fast as someone who is heavier and less aero. Perhaps you are the former. We need more info.
Also, I have noticed that sometimes the computrainer doesn’t calibrate correctly so even though you set it to 2.00 it feels much harder (e.g. pushing 200 W feels as if you are pushing 250 W). In those rare cases I simply switch off the computrainer and unplug it and restart the calibration process. This fixes it. However, let us know about your actual performance as well as your weight and bike set up
What sorts of wattage is your coach expecting you to put out? Has this coach trained with you in person? Like the other poster said, times don’t solely depend on power…
I have seen computrainers off by up to 60 watts straight out of the factory. Don’t automatically assume that the number are right. Your coach should have a good idea if the unit is off. Double check with a power tap if you can borrow one.
Go to analytics cycling and check out what kind of power you should be able to output over a 40km ride. Compare roughly with what you see with the computrainer.
If you were a slow cadence kind of guy, it will take you a little while to be able to put out big watts at a high cadence. Most people slow down the cadence significantly at higher loads. High loads at a high cadence are very hard.
Ok - I have to tell you my weight? Sigh. I am a 135-lb. female. Lots of the weight is muscle but some of it is body fat, sigh. 5’ 3" tall. 5th year of triathlon, training for first IM in July (Lake Placid). Doing Wildflower 1/2 next weekend.
I ride a custom-built bike so the aero position feels very comfortable and ought to be spot-on.
Tonight’s ride, for example, was prescribed as:
15 min. warmup Z1,
3x18 in Z3 with 1 min. rest intervals
20-min. Z1 cooldown.
Followed by a 46-min. run
Last night’s workout was:
15-min. Z1 warmup,
5x1 min. low gear/high RPM
10 min. Z1
5x4 min. SFR
3x30s one-legged pedalling (each side)
20 min. Z1 cooldown
It kills me to admit the wattages. The SFR from yesterday was done at 170. I held the SFR cadence (around 60). Today’s 3x18 Z3 was supposed to be between 175-180. I held the 175 for about 5 minutes for the first interval. Then I wanted to ease up just a bit, and all of a sudden, again, nothing and back down to very very slow RPMs. Then back up a bit, then down again, etc.
Mentally and emotionally, I couldn’t make it to the third interval at any level. My confidence is just getting shot to hell these past 2 weeks, right in time for race weekend next week, even though I rode the WF training course a couple weekends ago in a pretty decent time.
What other information would help? Thanks for listening.
Thanks - this looks like a very interesting website! Can you give me a little more information on what part of the website you’re getting the power estimates from?
I recommend (and you should probably run it by your coach) that you do some performance testing, such as a CP30 test at the minimum. Doing such a test will give you a better idea of your Lactic Threshold Heart Rate, as well as you power zones to train in.
Thus Z1 would be 55-65% of your CP30, Z2 65-75%, Z3 75-85%, z4 85-95%, z5 95-105%
Also what course are you riding on? Are you in erg mode or riding a course. Very hilly courses will be harder than flatter ones (obviously). So doing those power target workout could be very hard.
I put in a few numbers for you assuming a 68kg body+bike weight (150lbs). Using their standard parameters, on the flats, for 170 watts you should go at about 35 kmh. If you have a good aero position, may be up to 37kmh. That should help you compare with road speed for a similar exertion.
First of all, for a small woman, it looks like the number may be OK. Women often get intimidated by the big numbers put out by many man. Power to weight ratio is a much more meaningfull number. I put out about the same wattage as a training friend that went to the Athens Olympics (road race). She is however 45 pounds lighter than me and can drop me anytime she wants.
Only the very best women age grouper will put out wattage in the 200+ watts (or tall, big women). Computrainer wattage may also be a bit less imprecise at below 150 watts. So your aerobic cycling in the 90-150 range may be actually at a slightly higher power.
Hope this helps,
Francois
Keep the higher cadence, even if you fail workouts. You WILL get better.
Thanks – never done a 1/2 or IM-distance so I can’t say for sure. I have done a lactate threshold test (not the blood-drawing kind) so we are working within good measured HR Zones. I’ll look into re-doing it with the power zones.
I’m actually not riding any course at the moment, just using the manual settings on the handlebar controller.
Again, I really appreciate the information and encouragement.
I have a similar story… Maybe that will make you feel better… I am 5’4 124 pounds. My coach got me started on these computrainer challenges in december. He picked a course (about 30-40 min) and I would do them, riding hard. He said (before i did the first one) he said that he expected me to average about 200 watts for the course. Well I went all out and got a wimpy 150 watts averaged… i was way depressed and had my confidence shut down. over the next 3 months, it started going up with my best one being like a 182 averaged… still, I really thought something was wrong with the computrainer (based on my coach info) and thought about sending it back. Some others women coached by him would get much higher results… so now I don’t know if it was me or the trainer but I improved and am happy with that… fyi… I had 3 people come over to ride, and their’s was low as well. hope this helps
One more thing… doing that got me much stronger on the bike
Thank you, it does help! I’m convinced that doing this kind of hard work is going to help in the long run, but it’s been hard wrestling with this lack of confidence so close to my race! I appreciate your thoughts.
oh and as far as it being close to your race, the closer I got the worst the power got because I was tired… More like 160-170 av. Bottom line is, even if it bummed me, i ended up qualifying for hawaii if that helps to boost your confidence at all
