Andy Somnifac 

For comparing power curves from various timeframes, assuming the data is on Strava or Garmin Connect, I'd look at https://intervals.icu.It's a great tool.

Riveting

I've had a PowerTap G3 hub for ~5-6 years, and have~20,000 miles on it. The easiest thing you can do with your initial numbers is to review your "last 6 weeks" power curve (easily done on pay-for-Strava, or for free using GoldenCheetah) and identify any negative power spikes/dips and note the duration that dip occurs at, and then simply go out on your next ride and try to increase your avg power at those dips so that your power curve is more smooth. Then, once you have a nice smooth curve, prior to your next ride, go ahead and pick any duration(s) on the curve and simply increase your avg power at that duration by some percentage (5%?). Rinse/repeat for all durations on your curve, and just keep doing this over and over and you'll get stronger/faster like Paul Bunyon lifting Babe the Blue Ox as a growing calf.

Of course there are many structured plans you can follow too. I don't like those myself, since there's too many variables that pop up in real life to undermine structure.

EDIT: I sse you're using W/kg. I personally rely more on analyzing raw watts and not W/kg, since it's more a factor of your weight, and if you're losing substantial weight that will show that you're W/kg is increasing, so you may simply just be getting faster, when if fact you're putting out LESS power. It really all depends on your goal.

terrymorse 

Thanks, that seems like a very sensible approach. So the first goal is a power curve that's fairly smooth and decays gradually.

I was thinking that W/kg is a fair estimate of climbing speed, so I can compare mine to my ride buddy's to see if I'll get shellacked when we go climbing together.

Andy Somnifac 

I'm with you there. Power numbers alone in a vacuum are meaningless. I can keep up with guys that dwarf my raw power numbers but also dwarf me in size. That's not to say I'd neglect watching the raw numbers, but they need context.

Riveting

Training with the PM to beat, or not get shellacked by others was never a point in the OP, and that changes things slightly, but I slightly disagree. A power meter can easily be used in your own vacuum to increase your own fitness/power without EVER comparing yourself to other's W/kg, it's how I trained, and how I started closing the power gaps with the veteran riders in my group. A power meter simply allows you to know empirically what effort you are doing, and allows controlled incremental improvements, and the beating of others will naturally follow, regardless of whether you know their numbers or not.


Just imagine going to a weight lifting gym that has no weights listed on any of the equipment. The incremental gains would be a lot tougher to achieve by feel alone. A PM simply adds those empirical numbers to your cycling training, as opposed to training by feel alone, which also works, just not as well IMHO. You can get stronger in the gym, and become stronger than your friends without ever comparing your benchpress to theirs, as is true in cycling.


With that being said, I went through a phase where I religiously tracked W/kg for a year or two, but I never compared it to others. It was just my way of improving my overall performance, especially on hills where the kg mattered most, and I had somewhat plateaued on power, so the kg's were all I had to improve on, so that's what I did. But I never cared about another rider's W/kg, I just worked on mine. And the hill climbing gains naturally followed.

Seattle Forrest

I look at watts not watts to kilos when I'm evaluating my power curve. They're both important, and unless you're at your limit for either of them you address them in very different ways. I weigh myself weekly, the number jumps around; it also changes through the day as my hydration level changes, these slight differences aren't meaningful but can shift the numbers around enough to be unhelpful. I just find raw watts more meaningful and consistent.

Also, w:kg only influences uphill speed in a big way. On flat ground and moderate hills its w:cda. They're both watts and making more of them helps you be faster all around.

That's my thinking anyway. Double your money back guarantee.

Andy Somnifac 

I mean, you can't track w/kg without tracking raw watts, so I'm in no way advocating ignoring that side of the equation. My workout targets are actual wattage targets and don't change depending on if I had that extra slice of pizza the day before. Granted this time of year I'm really only doing one structured workout a week, with the rest being outdoor group rides.

My point was that it is a much better measuring stick after the ride when Johnny Thunder-Thighs brags about the 450w pull he did and you can ask him: "Then why did you drop off my wheel when I was pulling @ 300 watts?" It gives you at least something to put the power meatheads in their place, metaphorically. And when you're only a bit about 61kg, you'll take any ammunition you can get.

In a race or hard group ride, neither of them really matters. You hold on until you can't hold on any longer. Then you work to increase both of them until you can.

tomato coupe

I don't know anyone that has W/kg displayed on their Garmin or Wahoo while they ride, and I've never had a coach tell me to do a workout based on W/kg.

RChung

Sometimes the things we display on a head unit in real time aren't what we would want to know about after the ride.

That said, I was just talking with some people a couple of weeks ago about what could be useful supplementary fields to see, either post ride or maybe occasionally during a ride. One would be W/kg; the other would be (v^3)/W, or possibly (v^x)/W, where v is measured in m/s and x is some number slightly less than 3. We were bandying about 2.7.

Just like we now say "Oh that guy has a W/kg of 5" or "he was climbing at a VAM of 1300" we could say "That guy has a (v^2.7)/W of 3.2". We decided that if the exponent is 2.7, the unit should be called an Anhalt, so you could shorten the last phrase to "that guy averages 3.2 Anhalts."

Andy Somnifac 

Who has advocated doing a workout based on w/kg? I specifically stated my workout targets are wattage based.

The only thing that's been said had been that w/kg gives that power number some context. For example, I can look at it and see how stupidly I raced on Zwift last night, putting out significantly higher w/kg trying to stay in the front 2 or 3 positions when I should have hung back a bit more, since the winners followed that strategy and averaged much less while I used energy I could have used at the end.

tomato coupe

Tells you about aerodynamic efficiency, I guess?

tomato coupe

My comment has nothing to do with you. It's just a comment about my experience.

Doomrider74

Anyone who uses Zwift has this data visible on the screen.

tomato coupe

Good to know; I don't do Zwift.

Erzulis Boat 

I just started using power 3 days ago. Just riding and having fun right now, and making mental notes of what's on the screen vs. my perceived efforts.

1- Soft pedaling can be sub 40 watts. Puts a new perspective on the amount of juice it takes to run a city! A 40w bulb wouldn't even get enough power.

2- People on the MUP are pushing WAY less watts than they think they are.

3- A steep hill is a surefire recipe to get a massive jump in watts, and be forced to hold it (from 112 to 348 in seconds for example)

4- Holding power is hard (700+)

5- My Strava and my PM are very close, at least at the moment.

RChung

Yup. W/kg tells you something about your potential to go fast on climbs. Anhalts tell you something about your potential to go fast on the flat. Tom Anhalt was way underpowered compared to many of the guys he raced against but he was able to stay competitive because he was low drag.

The stop watch and finish line don't really care whether you're faster because of more power or less drag. You can do both -- that's allowed. Even though they're much more affordable now than in the past, power meters are still expensive so if you're only using one to train power but not to reduce drag, maybe you're missing an opportunity. When I first got a power meter, I used it to raise my power; then as I got older I used it to keep my power from falling. Now I'm at a stage in my cycling where my power is declining so I've got to do all this crazy **** to keep from being even slower.

bykemike 

I am just getting my first power meter experience, the powermeter came with the new to me BMC Roadmachine SLR 01 I received two weeks ago and showed up on my 530 as I was dialing that into the Red eTap system.

The seller said it needed a new battery to work but it came right up showing battery at 75%. So off I go on my first ride on the bike and I set the screen to show power readings including max watts as well as average and current readings.

I am deeply humbled. My average for 12 miles was 120 watts, a short (very) stand on the pedals burst of 480 watts. It was like looking at something I never expected to see (I have been riding most of my life and am 73 now) but I had trouble changing screens during the ride, I found it fascinating.

I expect I'll be watching this for the next few hundred miles, I just hope it doesn't spoil my riding experience,, it may be TMI for me but fun to play with for now. The idea that I am also seeing what gear I am in as well as the health of the five batteries I have on this bike is a bit over the top in itself.