This article is a part of the final articles in the Power Meter Project 2007. I will try to describe the training programs and results from the 5 participants in the project.

Dave Simonson had finished 3 ironman competitions before he entered the power meter project so I knew he was a very experienced athlete. If you don’t have a clue on training it is very unlikely that you can finish three ironman competitions. The reason Dave entered the project was because he recently had purchased a power meter. He had bought a Cycleops Pro 300PT (Powertap indoor) and wanted to learn more on power meter training and get some experience.

Optimizing of physiology for an ironman athlete
The goal for Dave was to increase his average power output on long distances (112miles/180km). This is often trained with very long rides at a comfortable pace, but I believe in building up this endurance with intervals close to race speed and even intervals performed at VO2 max once in a while. The reason for these tough intervals is that a higher VO2 max also improves your performance at lower workloads. Another reason for doing intervals close to race speed is to learn the pacing strategy which is made easier than ever before by the development of power meters. Thus, Dave’s program was a combination of short 3min intervals to build VO2max, repeated 6min bouts of high aerobic intensity and finally long 15min pacing control intervals. By doing the intervals very frequently he had a good chance to get familiar with the pacing strategy.

Read the full results and a short interview with Dave Simonson

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I thought it was time to make some posts about the Power Meter Project 2007 since the project is over and I got all the results ready. For people who haven’t heard about the Power Meter Project I will start with a short summary about the project:

Inclusion criteria: SRM or Powertap
Back in November 2006 I invited motivated riders to participate in the Power Meter Project 2007. The purpose of this project was to investigate what results completely unknown riders were able to achieve with wattage controlled intervals dictated by me. The only requirement to be included in the project was to have a calibrated Power Tap or SRM power meter mounted on their bike.

Goal: Stronger riders, better coaching

For the last seven years I have coached riders in Denmark with great success, but training with power is still a quite new phenomenon. I have some great data from wattage controlled training in the winter months for my riders, but having data from more riders simply increases my overall knowledge about coaching and power meter training. Thus, I thought the internet was a great way to achieve more data from riders there were willing to strictly follow my program for 12 weeks. By offering them a free training program it was a win-win situation for both parts.

Communication via email
The 5 participants in the project did an awesome job throughout the 12 weeks (one rider dropped out after 9 weeks). They sent me emails, questions and race reports that gave me an idea of how they were doing and showing me that their motivation were enormous. It was really difficult to know how to adjust training because all I knew was a short summary of their power meter data and a brief report about how they were doing.

Intervals three times per week
I decided to make tough programs with interval intensities close their scores in the maximum power output tests. E.g. 20 min maximum power output were converted to 3 or 4 intervals of 6min with 20min power (4min recovery with 50% 20min power). The frequency of intervals was also higher than in most training programs with 3 interval days per week. Some of the riders replaced one of the interval days with a race day.

Summary of results
• Improvements in 5 sec power, but not all riders. One didn’t spend time on sprint training, because his focus was on aerobic endurance. Another rider was probably close to his potential when the project started.
• Great Improvements in 1min maximum power (anaerobic endurance). This skill is probably where power meters are most valuable. Precise intervals resulted in increments of above 20 percents.
• Great improvements in 5min maximum power (VO2 max). This skill is really useful, so it has a great impact on performance in most cycling races. These are the improvements that satisfy me most.
• Good improvements in 20min maximum power (Threshold power).

Conclusion
Overall I will conclude this project as a success. The riders achieved great success and were impressed on their own progress. In the following posts I will take a closer look to each of the participants’ progress.

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The post about who had the lowest resting heart rate was well visited. Thus, I thought it might be interesting to hear who has performed the highest power output ever? One of the interesting conclusions from the empiric study about resting heart rates indicates that genes often play a bigger than training level it self. That is greatly illustrated by Sue who counted her husband heart rate to as low as 31 beats per minute.

Power Output and Sprint Performance
Having a high maximum power output is important in sprints and accelerations. Like I have described in ‘How to win a bunch sprint’ it is not only a question about putting lots of watts in the pedals. Also it is important to consider how much impact your body weight has on your sprint performance. I have discussed the topic in a post about maximum power outputs and body weight.

Are there any 1500+ or even 2000+ Watts riders reading this? Well, show me your best power output ever!

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I want to publish a collection of power meter reviews. If you have used your power meter (SRM, PowerTap, Ergomo, Polar etc.) for more than 6 Months, please write a review of it and share your experiences with people at Power Meter Tips (yup, there is a new name on this blog..!)

The review shall contain details about: Installation, Software, Pros/Cons and Overall Rating (1-10).

You can submit a review here.

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Well, if you can’t win the races, you’ve got to focus on other competitions. One of my personal favorites is the physical parameter: Low Resting Heart Rate. As I have described previously, your resting heart rate gets lower as your conditions gets better. You will probably already have noticed that your resting heart is lower when you are in good shape. This is because of a larger stroke volume or more correctly a bigger parasympathic drive on the sinus node. It is easy to monitor your resting heart rate, just put on your Polar rim when you wake up and relaxe for a couple of minutes. Now I want to know: Who has had the lowest resting heart rate ever?

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The ideal test is a short warm up followed by a gradual increase in intensity until you reach your maximum heart rate. Sounds simple, but damn hard!

I have discovered that using a power meter might be one of the best ways to make the increments in intensity just as smooth as needed. Making small increments of 10 Watts every 30 seconds is a successful approach to attain your maximum oxygen consumption. You might have noticed that I recommend the same strategy for Watt Max Testing.

Typical mistakes when testing Maximum Heart Rate

Starting out too fast
If you start out too fast there is a great risk that you get exhausted before your oxygen uptake is ready to perform at 100%. The reason for this is that your body uses anaerobic metabolites to produce the required energy.

Starting out too slow
If you start out too slow it is very unlikely that you will have the power when you need it. Again you can conclude that pacing strategy is very important for the final result.

Not motivated
If you are not motivated when you perform a maximum heart rate test (or any other physical test) it is obvious that your performance will go down. Try to motivate yourself before the test and have a training partner to support you through the whole event.

It is not an easy to job to find your maximum heart rate, but if you prepare a physical test with the tips I have recommended above, there is a good chance that you can make a new personal record.

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