written by Leah Prudhomme
The Kurt Kinetic Power Computer is there to help you make the most of your workouts! DATA DATA DATA! Remember to record your work efforts and all the power output that you are gaining in your training. What is happening to your body in the meantime when you train with INTENSITY during class? How is your body changing to put out all that power you want?
Triathletes and Cyclists can gain from interpreting their HR data correctly and understanding what is happening when they train below at or 5 points above their AT (anaerobic threshold) doing threshold intensity work... Go Fast! to be FAST!
The need to have HR tied to the Power Watts Function is apparent as it should be FRONT and CENTER as co-efficient to power watts and eventually on the same page/screen view area. Use of a Polar HR monitor or the integrated WL wireless HR function on the Kurt Kinetic Power Computer also works, but if you have a Polar HR Monitor on use it in addition to your WL Bike Computer to see side-by-side comparison data.
The use of it side by side watching your power, then cadence and HR functions allow you to better track your AT and lactate Threshold and you start memorizing those numbers and how it feels too. In other words, if you have a Polar HR monitor handy they interface and use that along with your Kurt Kinetic bike computer to track results simultaneously even though your Kinetic Strap and Computer is there sometimes the watch function is more easily glanced at when in the hard moments of suffering… thereby you learn your body’s limits and get comfortable with RPE - how it feels being at AT… do your legs burn? Can you get through it with a focused effort? Are your legs having that knawing feeling and your body is looking for a way out? Make the mental preparedness to get through it and ‘bear down’ and apply mental toughness, but while you’re working that out, don’t forget to look over at your HR number and start mapping how long you think you can hold that number and is it static or dynamic? Holding it steady or is going up up up and then down and up up up more?
Just remember, your HR is like the ‘lagging tail of a comet’ and catches up to you about 15seconds after a hard burst of strength or power and if you let it, overtakes you. That’s where your endurance has to come in. So watch your HR rise and hold to a high steady state after your working out your 300 watts or 250 watts and notice that it comes back down a little once you’ve warmed up into that pace.
The SAID Principle working, Specific Adaptation for Increased/imposed Demand…in other words, I said do it and your body does it… that works in the short term, priming the pump with 120 cadence warm ups to get the muscles ready for fast twitch (Type 2A) work and then the Time Trial or high wattage output sets. Watch your HR go above your AT and then settle at or just below it if you keep your focus and breathing steady.
First is the ability of a cyclist/Triathlete to clobber themselves during climbing or the cycling leg is to end up with a power output that is noticeably less than the average for the entire ride. Example, if you hit it hard on your trainer pushing the biggest gear you got and you can only get out 250 watts and you were averaging a steady 220 there is a disparity in the increased demand. “If I’ve done the ride at an average of 270 watts but I’m cresting the summit at 220 watts, that’s an indicator of what kind of power I’ve got (or more precisely the power I haven't got) while entering the run. If I’m finishing up at 260 or 270 watts I know I’m a lot less likely to fold in the run, where big time can be lost.”
The second mishap concerns one’s overall peak power during a ride. This is different from peak power in the pedal rotation or pedal efficiency of power. I find how often I go out to attempt to ride a steady (see challenge post previous to this one) effort—averaging 250 watts for 90 minutes to 2hrs. at a moderate TT pace and never exceeding 300 watts—and find out after I’m done that I’ve put out 500 + watts somewhere during the duration of that specific ride. I am not sure when or where. Whether it was on the indoor trainer session or a power burst up a hill. It’s easy to do this and to not feel the effort coming on, because cycling has a latent rest factor when coasting or descending (cornering and so on also has it) that running and swimming do not contain. Indoor Trainers tend to have 50% more effort and are like the 2 for 1 special of 1 hour on a trainer is like 2 on the road, why? There is not latent rest, even when the small chain ring is engaged, unless you stop pedalling altogether, there is constant effort even at 100+ watt level. Back to 'where did that 500 watts kick in?"
It’s the hill that’s a bit too steep after a bit of a rest that’ll do me in. No, I won’t feel the negative effect of this effort while I’m doing it, but I’m sure to feel it later on in the ride, if not during the ride then during the run split. In this one narrow instance a heart rate monitor isn’t going to pick up this mistake, it is again like the lagging tail of a comet so if or when it does read the data, it’ll only chronicle the mistake you’ve already made and surge just after the effort not during. On a downhill coast this is fine for reasons of Active Recovery, on a trainer, the effort is still there cardiovascularly albeit not muscularly.
This is why power is a useful tool for the Triathlete or cyclist but probably even more so than to the bike racer. A competitive mass-start racer doesn’t have a lot of choice in the matter and when the wave goes, or when the age-group goes, you go to. In that matter, you cannot afford to say, “Let the newbies go.... I’ll be seeing them 'on your left' and wheel past them later in the ride.... by just my better techniques of energy conservation.” Triathletes can view distance for the sake of the run however. Cyclists need to conserve based on their perceived effort during the ride, not just one facet or leg of the race.
In sum, the average power and ballistic power (initial max rep) and peak power are all ways to rev up power systems and determine protocols for testing power through data collection from your Power meter or Kurt kinetic power Computer. This is the best way to calculate your peak power during a ride and demand more from the body. THE SAID principal, or the initial loading up of the body of applied demand allows your body to do it, the "what I say or said" (with the SAID principl) and this instinctive ability for your body to do it allows for muscle memory and increased intensity work. Your body naturally adapts over time and repetition. Keep the power coming!
Written by, Power Coach Leah Prudhomme
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