Felled by the common cold

No posts this week... time off for battling the common cold....

I work at home and only go out to train or ride at the track... So I can only assume that someone else at home here brought the cold bugs home. Probably the kids who are still in University.

Hopefully I'll be back in training mode soon.

Tomorrow I'll be at the track, but only for a work party.

Computrainer - Map test, misc

Snowing outside, so had to do computrainer again today. Saw Uhl's post on doing a MAP test which reminded me that I have been meaning to do one for some time.

I constructed a simple MAP test erg file, ramping from 100-200 watts with 25 watt jumps per minute, then 5 watt jumps every 15 seconds.

The test protocol is simple, just match the required watts until you can no longer do so.


Then look at the Pavg for the last minute.


The results where a bit low. Only managed 346 watts in the last minute.


According to Ric Stearns MAP info page here that results in the following.

Zone	Min Watts	Max Watts	Ride type	Level
Recovery	0	138	Recovery	Recovery
Zone1	138	190	Long Endurance 1.5-6hrs
Zone2	173	225	Core Endurance	Endurance
Zone3	208	242	Tempo Training
Zone4	225	260	Long TT Power	Intensive
Zone5	242	294	Shorter TT Power(and MAP/VO2Mx work)
Zone6	277	381	MAP training (VO2Max efforts)	Maximal
Zone7	381	519	Anaerobic Work Capacity (<= 30s)

Estimated power outputs for distances based on MAP
3km	89-91% of Map	308	-	315	Watts
4km	88-91% of Map	304	-	315	Watts
16.1km	75-81% of Map	260	-	280	Watts
40.2km	72-77% of Map	249	-	266	Watts
80.5km	64-72% of Map	221	-	249	Watts
161km	60-68% of Map	208	-	235	Watts

Which seriously (I think) under estimates my power zones. Even assuming a (huge!) drop from this summer's TT performances, for short TT's I was doing 340 Pavg for 12-14 minutes (8-10K TTs).

Playing with the numbers show that to achieve that performance, according to MAP test protocol, would require a MAP test result of 400 watts Pavg in the last minute...!! Which I'm sure would not have been possible even at my summer peak.

I suspect this is a product of my power profile. Very low numbers on the left (5 second and 1 minute) and quite high on the left (5 minute and 1 hour..) I can go a (very) long time at FTP (say 320 watts) and just above (up to 350 watts), but as soon as I go above a certain point (say 370 watts) I run out of steam very quickly.

This also impacts on racing, both road (where short hard hills that other riders power up can cause me to burn a match) and on the track.