whitemax

Recently got a Stages power meter and in an earlier post, I questioned about the differences between average and normalized power. I got several good educational responses and thanks to all for that. So after a nice hard ride, you check your power meter. What number (normalized power) would you be looking for that made you feel good about the effort you put out?

DaveLeeNC

This is (obviously) going to be a function of your ftp. Now that you have a power meter you should become familiar with this concept. See https://stagescycling.com/us/news/how-to-ftp-test/ or any # of sources for explanations and ways to measure this.

For me on a ride of 1-2 hours without any meaningful breaks, a NP of 90 to 95% of my ftp is an aggressive ride. And on really good (and rare) days it might be a tad higher.

dave

fa63

That is a tough question to answer; it depends on a lot of things.

But if you just want data points, I recently did a 2.5 hour ride at a normalized power of 225 W (as measured by a Pioneer power meter). Averaged a whopping 13 mph.

PepeM

400 watts - BF's collective spirit.

RChung

People who buy Stages believe that absolute measures of power don't matter, only consistency does.

DrIsotope

Depends entirely on what your goal was for that ride. Most of my rides fall into a range of intensity between 60-70% of my FTP, so between 220-240w NP. Bumping it to 80% will take about 270w. Once you've established your FTP, you'll know your power zones, and can ride to a desired level of intensity.

Over the past few months, I've watched my average daily intensity decline, as rides get much longer and I better learn to pace myself. Well, that and riding solo all the time, I tend to default to a comfortable, upper-Z2 all-day pace. Whenever a ride gets that above 3.0W/kg, I feel pretty good about it.

PepeM

z

generalkdi

4W/kg

cthenn

Average, normalized, whatever, doesn't matter. A guy weighing 100kg who puts out 300 watts isn't as impressive as a 65kg guy putting out 260 watts. So it's all about power/weight ratio. It's like talking about speed, it's really useless to gauge.

cthenn

This is a pretty good number for "decent". You can be competitive in Cat 4 with that kind of W/kg (in NorCal racing).

topslop1

I'm not under powered, just over weight.

therhodeo

Only if the road is going uphill.

nycphotography

Depends on your goals.

Example: if you were supposed to do 90 minutes of steady zone2, your normalized power should look very close to your average power, otherwise you're doing it wrong.

But really normalized power is a way of showing you how variable your effort was.

99Klein 

My NP is usually 260. You wanted a number, there is mine.

DougRNS

It's a simple question of weight ratios

99Klein 

Looked for this yesterday when I replied but didn't have time to find it. This is a good read.

https://cyclingtips.com/2017/06/just...road-cyclists/

rubiksoval

Normalized power is...eh...old. It can be very well and easily manipulated.

I once did an hour with 6-7 x 30s max efforts followed by about 10 mins of coasting/z1 for each one and got a normalized power of 372 for an hour. With all of 3.5 minutes of super hard pedaling.

That's a pretty ridiculous number for me (30w+ over threshold).

Also just did a crit with a np of 340+ for 1.5 hours. Again with 30s really hard every 2 mins with 30+ secs of coasting in there, too. What's that tell me? Nothing, really.

I don't think it's nearly as useful as it was initially made out to be, personally. When tss and everything is then tied to those metrics, it kind of makes me question the whole pmc and all of that. Perhaps it's a wash in the end with enough data, but I'm not analytical or scientific enough to suss that out. In any case, I always fall back on the "body feelings" anyway in regards to pushing through or resting.

rubiksoval

If racing depended primarily on w/kg and not actually racing.

whitemax

Makes sense. Perhaps it would mean more if going out on a solo ride trying to keep up a stout pace. In my case in the foothills of N.C. there are inevitable hills and downhills.

Billy1111

watts per kilo is what matters here.... i think around 3 watts would be an average rider

rubiksoval

I think that's something you can get better at, keeping ap higher throughout a ride, not ever coasting downhills, always pushing the pedals unless having to brake.

It's made a tremendous difference in my training over the years. Not all hills are the same, of course, but I can still put out good watts on 40 mph downhills as long as I'm not braking/stopping. Took some adjusting and getting used to.

exmechanic89

Just curious, what would a pro rider put out typically?

cthenn

Here you go.
https://cyclingtips.com/2017/06/just...road-cyclists/
https://cyclingtips.com/tag/by-the-numbers/

cthenn

Well of course that's true. But we're not talking about tactics and teamwork and so forth in this thread.

exmechanic89

Interesting, thanks for posting that.