Monday 28 January 2013

The stats are in

I had a watt bike test on the weekend - more about that later - but I know some stats geek want to look at my stats. I'm not sure why these are exciting, as I have only been riding since mid November but you know triathletes, a little bit obsessed with detail!

So to power: Average power output achieved in final minute:  183 watts. I'm sure I could have done more if they didn't make me do lots of cycling for the 59 minutes prior!

Power to Weight Ratio: 3.3w/kg

So I'm not quite a Bradley Wiggins in pure power, but my power to weight ratio isn't that bad...

Here's the science:
The basic science of power to weight ratio [P/Kg]
The best explanation is to consider hill cycling ability. Assume two cyclists of equal ability and identical equipment riding uphill side-by-side. The first cyclist weighs 85 Kgs and has an average power on the climb of 450 watts. The second cyclist weighs 65 Kgs and has an average power on the climb of 380 watts.
Looking at pure absolute power the natural assumption is that the first cyclist would easily beat the second cyclist on this climb because of the 70 watt power difference.
However, power is not the only variable that cyclists have to contend with whilst climbing. Part of a cyclist’s climbing power is used to move horizontally in a forward direction and part to overcome the influence of gravity in moving in an uphill direction (i.e. climbing the hill).
When weight is taken into account in addition to absolute climbing power the result for each cyclist is:
• Cyclist 1 P/Kg= 5.29 W/Kg (450/85)
• Cyclist 2 P/Kg = 5.85 (380/65)
Cyclist 2 in most circumstances would get to the top of the hill first even though cyclist 1 is producing 18% more absolute power than cyclist 2.


There's also this stat, that I am yet to understand!
20min Threshold Power Min 137 watts to 147 watts but apparently for a half iron I need to cycle at100 to 113 watts. I'll try that for four hours before I make a judgement on that.
Oh and my predicted VO2Max: 40.8ml/kg which is how many blowfish I can pull faces at while underwater on a bike.

Finally my leg power split is 49/51 % even so I'm not as fussed about that yet while I concentrate on drawing peanut shapes while I cycle.

More on what it's like on a watt test and our day trip to Sheffield to come.

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