Crank Cycling

About 2/3 of the athletes I coach  use power meters to train, and the majority of them use heart rate monitors as well.  But even with athletes that use all of this fancy equipment, sometimes a  “Rate of Perceived  Exertion” (RPE) scale  is the best way to explain  the subjective  intensity of the workout.       This a basically  how hard  you are going on your own personal 1-10 scale.   While  the scale is 100% subjective, it winds up being quite reliable, and has been validated in multiple scientific  studies. ( you can do a Google Scholar search for GAV Borg or Gunnar Borg)

The scale is typically given like this:

• 0 – Nothing at all
• 1 – Very light
• 2 – Fairly light
• 3 – Moderate
• 4 – Some what hard
• 5 – Hard
• 6
• 7 – Very hard
• 8
• 9
• 10 – Very, very hard

But I also sometimes explain it like this:

• 0 – Nothing at all
• 1-2  Super easy, like a slow walk
• 3-4 Moderate effort, you  aren’t going easy anymore, but you can hold this for a long time
• 5-6 Hard  holding this for an extended period is difficult,  at or just below   race pace
• 7 -8 Very hard     race pace, as  you can only hold this for a couple of minutes
• 9 Almost as hard as you could possibly go
• 10 – This is as hard as you’ve ever gone your entire life, like someone is chasing you with a cattle prod.

This is  useful for large groups of people such as stationary  cycling classes ( such as the classes I teach at the  Navy and VA hospitals), or situations where athletes don’t have have access to, or don’t want to use devices such as power meters  or heart rate monitors.  It is also     frequently  use the RPE scale even with athletes that DO use these training devices.   The fact is, that an athlete needs to know  how to go off of feel,  to gauge their own physiological  responses,  just get a  handle on  what they can do,  and when they need to do it.      Don’t get me wrong.  I love training, coaching, and racing with power.   But if you you don’t know and  understand what  your boy is doing at the moment, and what you are capable of on a purely primal level.   You’ll never really reach your maximum potential.

I saw this story on Velonews today:   Upcoming from CycleOps: Heart-rate-based power meters and superlight carbon wheelset

I am going to say this as clearly and simply as I possibly can.  There is no way to measure power using heart rate.   It just isn’t possible.   Heart rate is to dynamic.  It changes due to factors such as fed state, level of fatigue, how long you have been exercising, hyrdation level and more.      Power measured via strain gauges is instantaneous,  and any effort put into the pedals can be measured right then and there, but but  heart rate may take several minutes to catch up.    So heart rate is a reasonable proxy  for effort level on long efforts, but  is practically useless for long efforts.

Like I said, I love my powertap,   I have one on my bike, and I have a studio full of powertap stationary trainers.   But don’t tell us you are measuring power when you aren’t.    What PT is trying to do is measure training stress using heart rate, and make it applicable across different types of exercise.   This is nothing new and it can be useful.    You can read a good article on TRIMP HERE.    But there is absolutely  no no way that TRIMP equals power measurement.

-Sean

A warm up is an important part of your race preparations.   It  is rather silly to  train for countless hours,  travel to a race, and payg entry fees if  you aren’t  going to be properly warmed up. A  proper warm up may not necessarily  win  you the race, but it can definitely lead to a sub-optimal performance and can lose you the race.   We have posted  warm ups for road racing, cyclocross racing, crit racing, time trialing, track racing, and mountain bike racing.    These warm ups are not set in stone, and you may have to experiment a little bit to find out what works best  for you.    If you haven’t been doing a structured warm up, or are looking for something new, consider them a starting point.   If you like them, stick with them,  but  feel free to experiment a little.     You’ll more find  information   links to all of our warm up  protocols here.

I personally have been using power meters since 2002, and I love to use power meters to coach athletes. I’m kind of a science geek and I love to crunch the numbers and evaluate the data. I also love that fact that the power data can enhance or even tell a different story from what the athlete conveys. Power meters give truly objective and accurate information that can’t be obtained any other way. They let us track progress more accurately than any other method, and they help us dial in an athlete’s effort level to ensure an efficient use of time, as well as determine when “enough is enough.” There plenty of resources out there on training with power, and there is ever more powerful software available to analyze, evaluate, and plan training. These are all powerful tools, that help athletes track and attain higher levels of fitnes, as well as help coaches communicate and track their athletes better than ever. The problem comes when athletes and coaches become too reliant on the power meter.

The training and coaching of an athlete is not just a simple recipe or formula with predetermined inputs and outputs. Every athlete is different, and every athlete’s response is going to be just a little bit different. An athlete needs to be viewed as a whole organism, not just a set of power data. In fact the subjective feedback from an athlete is every bit as important as that power data. I think some athletes and coaches easily forget that. They just want to open up a book, take training plan from the book, and adjust it for the athlete’s power numbers. It is easy to get caught up in all the charts, graphs, and information that today’s powerful software provides, but all those charts and graphs just don’t tell the whole picture. I would argue that power data in isolation can even confuse the issue. For example in riders look at their power meter data along with a chart that says they are in a Cat 1 range and get frustrated because they are still a Cat 3.

How and athlete “feels” is every bit as important as what that athlete does. In fact there are several athletes I have been training for years that don’t use a a power meter, a heart rate monitor, or any piece of electronic equipment on their bikes whatsoever. We train primarily using RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion), or how an effort feels, and these athlete have reached many of their goals, as well as put wins on their palmares. Power meters have their place. And if i had my way, most of my athletes would train and race on them all the time. But power meters aren’t for everyone. Price, functionality, and even all of that information makes powermeters and training with power undesirable for some.

For those that don’t want to train with power, RPE works just fine. I used to rely heavily on heart rate monitors for athletes without power meters, but now I’ve gone the other way and prefer to use just mostly RPE. Heart rate data can simply change so much from day to day, and RPE conveys both what I want from the athlete, as well as what the athlete should do much better than heart rate.

Power meters have their place and many coaches and athletes love to use them, but they are by no means a requirement for success. Coaching and training is more than just looking at power numbers, and the entire experience of the athlete needs to be taken into account. Rate of perceived exertion and how an athlete feels is just as important as power numbers, and many coached athletes are successful using nothing more than than their own perceptions and some feedback from their coach.

Use the comments section below to tell me what you think.

I personally have been using power meters since 2002, and I love to use power meters to coach athletes. I’m kind of a science geek and I love to crunch the numbers and evaluate the data. I also love that fact that the power data can enhance or even tell a different story from what the athlete conveys. Power meters give truly objective and accurate information that can’t be obtained any other way. They let us track progress more accurately than any other method, and they help us dial in an athlete’s effort level to ensure an efficient use of time, as well as determine when “enough is enough.” There plenty of resources out there on training with power, and there is ever more powerful software available to analyze, evaluate, and plan training. These are all powerful tools, that help athletes track and attain higher levels of fitnes, as well as help coaches communicate and track their athletes better than ever. The problem comes when athletes and coaches become too reliant on the power meter.

The training and coaching of an athlete is not just a simple recipe or formula with predetermined inputs and outputs. Every athlete is different, and every athlete’s response is going to be just a little bit different. An athlete needs to be viewed as a whole organism, not just a set of power data. In fact the subjective feedback from an athlete is every bit as important as that power data. I think some athletes and coaches easily forget that. They just want to open up a book, take training plan from the book, and adjust it for the athlete’s power numbers. It is easy to get caught up in all the charts, graphs, and information that today’s powerful software provides, but all those charts and graphs just don’t tell the whole picture. I would argue that power data in isolation can even confuse the issue. For example in riders look at their power meter data along with a chart that says they are in a Cat 1 range and get frustrated because they are still a Cat 3.

How and athlete “feels” is every bit as important as what that athlete does. In fact there are several athletes I have been training for years that don’t use a a power meter, a heart rate monitor, or any piece of electronic equipment on their bikes whatsoever. We train primarily using RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion), or how an effort feels, and these athlete have reached many of their goals, as well as put wins on their palmares. Power meters have their place. And if i had my way, most of my athletes would train and race on them all the time. But power meters aren’t for everyone. Price, functionality, and even all of that information makes powermeters and training with power undesirable for some.

For those that don’t want to train with power, RPE works just fine. I used to rely heavily on heart rate monitors for athletes without power meters, but now I’ve gone the other way and prefer to use just mostly RPE. Heart rate data can simply change so much from day to day, and RPE conveys both what I want from the athlete, as well as what the athlete should do much better than heart rate.

Power meters have their place and many coaches and athletes love to use them, but they are by no means a requirement for success. Coaching and training is more than just looking at power numbers, and the entire experience of the athlete needs to be taken into account. Rate of perceived exertion and how an athlete feels is just as important as power numbers, and many coached athletes are successful using nothing more than than their own perceptions and some feedback from their coach.

Use the comments section below to tell me what you think.

Ok, You’ve got this fancy doohicky on your bike. Maybe its made in Germany, maybe its built in the US, . This fancy thingamajig may have cost you just about as much as some people spend on their entire first racing bike. It tells you how hard you are going in watts, it tells you you average watts, your max watts, it tells you how much work you’ve done in kiljoules, and more. It gives you all sorts of information, but what do you DO with all this information.

The coaches at Crank Cycling are here to help. We work with power every single day. We sell more Power Tap and SRM power measuring systems than most bike shops. We’ve helped elite athletes analyze their power files, and adjust their training.  We’ve written articles on power for local and national cycling news outlets, and we want to share our knowledge with you with you.

This clinic will cover:

• The basics such as how power is measured, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different power measuring systems.
• How, when and why you should do field testing with your power meter.
• How to monitor and analyze individual workouts as well as weeks, months, or years worth of data.
• Creating and implementing a training plan based on power.
• Racing with your Power Meter
• and more

This clinic is appropriate for anyone who owns a power meter, or anyone who is thinking about purchasing a power meter.    It is appropriate for self coached athletes as well as athletes who work with a coach (Crank Cycling or anyone else!)*.    Knowledge is power, and the more knowledge you have, the greater your chances for success.

The clinic is scheduled for Sunday November 20^th at 1PM at our downtown training studio and is expected to be 3-4 hours in length.   The cost of the clinic is $99 with discounts being offered to Crank Cycling coached athletes or clubs with more  5 than athletes attending.

Registration is HERE , or use the contact form on the lower right or call Coach Burke at   six- one –nine -865-3389 for more information.

*Athletes that work with another coach may bring their coach with them to the clinic for no charge.  We welcome the company of knowledgeable coaches, and encourage their  participation in the question and answer portions of the clinic.

Ok, You’ve got this fancy doohicky on your bike. Maybe its made in Germany, maybe its built in the US, . This fancy thingamajig may have cost you just about as much as some people spend on their entire first racing bike. It tells you how hard you are going in watts, it tells you you average watts, your max watts, it tells you how much work you’ve done in kiljoules, and more. It gives you all sorts of information, but what do you DO with all this information.

The coaches at Crank Cycling are here to help. We work with power every single day. We sell more Power Tap and SRM power measuring systems than most bike shops. We’ve helped elite athletes analyze their power files, and adjust their training.  We’ve written articles on power for local and national cycling news outlets, and we want to share our knowledge with you with you.

This clinic will cover:

• The basics such as how power is measured, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the different power measuring systems.
• How, when and why you should do field testing with your power meter.
• How to monitor and analyze individual workouts as well as weeks, months, or years worth of data.
• Creating and implementing a training plan based on power.
• Racing with your Power Meter
• and more

This clinic is appropriate for anyone who owns a power meter, or anyone who is thinking about purchasing a power meter.    It is appropriate for self coached athletes as well as athletes who work with a coach (Crank Cycling or anyone else!)*.    Knowledge is power, and the more knowledge you have, the greater your chances for success.

The clinic is scheduled for Sunday November 20^th at 1PM at our downtown training studio and is expected to be 3-4 hours in length.   The cost of the clinic is $99 with discounts being offered to Crank Cycling coached athletes or clubs with more  5 than athletes attending.

Registration is HERE , or use the contact form on the lower right or call Coach Burke at   six- one –nine -865-3389 for more information.

*Athletes that work with another coach may bring their coach with them to the clinic for no charge.  We welcome the company of knowledgeable coaches, and encourage their  participation in the question and answer portions of the clinic.

I just recently sat down with one of Crank Cycling’s coached athletes, James Stout, for an interview about his 2010 season. We talked about RAAM, Superweek, Belgium, soft boiled eggs and Marmite.

We did a little ride before our interview,

Hard Ride!

and then poured a home-brew only to find that my microphone wasn’t working. However we did some planning for the coming 2011 season and had a great photo shoot in the process. We recorded our interview over Skype phone 2 days later.

Home-brew Pour

Planning for 2011

Soft Boiled Egg Cup

Soft boiled eggs with toast and vegimite yum!

Check out the pod cast.
James Stout Interview

I just recently sat down with one of Crank Cycling’s coached athletes, James Stout, for an interview about his 2010 season. We talked about RAAM, Superweek, Belgium, soft boiled eggs and Marmite.

We did a little ride before our interview,

Hard Ride!

and then poured a home-brew only to find that my microphone wasn’t working. However we did some planning for the coming 2011 season and had a great photo shoot in the process. We recorded our interview over Skype phone 2 days later.

Home-brew Pour

Planning for 2011

Soft Boiled Egg Cup

Soft boiled eggs with toast and vegimite yum!

Check out the pod cast.
James Stout Interview