Peter Thomson asked via email
“How do i produce the most power in each power range?”
I have sort of delved into this in the topic “getting the most out of your power meter” but i will go into a bit more detail here
Those of us training with a power meter and using the WKO+ software would be well aware of the default graph that shows you your 5 second, 1 minute, 5 minute and 20 minute peak power.
As you improve you like to see these numbers grow and when you click the power profile button its good to see the bars slowly improving and your level moving up. Nothing worse than being in that “untrained” zone
This topic aims to help you achieve your best possible numbers in each of these categories
5 Second
5 second power is all out sprint strength. Technique and power will help get you the numbers you want. Obviously you will be doing these out the saddle in the drops. If you have massive legs you will excel here. If you have a track background you will also do well. Its all about fast twitch muscle fibers doing their stuff. You will want to sprint for at least 20 seconds. I tend to sprint until i cant anymore. This can range from about 15 to 40 seconds depending on my form and fitness and how many miles i already have in my legs. WKO+ will work out your best 5 seconds from the entire ride, so don’t worry about trying to make special laps on your CPU.
1 Minute
For ages i used to try and do these seated. then one day i did the minute out the saddle and saw a huge leap in my numbers. So out the saddle seems to be the best way to do it. It will take a few attempts to get your best, start out easy and work up to an almost full sprint when you get to the 45 second mark. you need to have nothing left by the time 60 seconds hits. if you still have energy when you hit 1 minute then keep going. you can look at the data later and see how much earlier you can do your final push. if you find you are completely stuffed before the 1 minute mark then you need to start off slower. your 1 minute power should be about half of what your 10 second power is, roughly. so that helps give you an idea of where to start
5 Minute
These are best done seated. You looking for about 60% of your 1 minute power, roughly. Again start off slow and work up to it. It might take a few attempts to get it right. Again you need to make sure that you have nothing left when you get to the 5 minute mark. If you have legs left then you never went hard enough. if you dropped off before the end then you started off too hard. I find the 5 minute power run quite difficult to do. It burns and you think you have a great run, but it turns out to be quite poor. If you are going to do a few tries in one session i suggest you rest for at least 10 minutes between attempts
Hope this topic helps you improve your power numbers
