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Dave Simonson had finished 3 ironman competitions before he entered the power meter project back in 2007 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.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.

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

Results

Bike training with high intensity does not require the same amount of time as training with lower intensities. Dave performed 6 to 8 hours weekly training and that was enough to significantly improve his 5min and 20min maximum power output. It is also worth to remember that these increments are achieved with solid indoor training.

Have a look at these numbers that illustrate his impressive progress:

Interview with Dave Simonson after the Power Meter Project
After the project I asked Dave a couple of questions to get his opinion on power meter training:

Your 20min maximum power went from 219Watts in week 1 to 281Watts in week 12. What impact has this increment had on your performance?

Dave: “My improvement has made it much easier for me to gauge my effort on long rides. Also, I am able to ride long distances faster with less exertion.”

How will you describe your progress through the project?

Dave: “I was surprised that I made the progress I did only on 7-8 hours/week of training. The training program you created for me really enlightened me to the need for specificity for each workout.”

Have you adapted some of the ideas from the power meter project into your daily training?

Dave: “I have adapted your training plan to my continuing training and now exclusively measure my training performance and training progress using power. I download my power data into CyclingPeaks software and evaluate my progress and plan my training from a power perspective.”

Back in January 2007 I did a Power Meter Project to find out how people I didn´t know personally responded to some of my training theories. They performed a 12 week training program with power profile tests in week 1, 6 and 12. The results were really impressive with progress in all major physiological parameters.

Now I’m looking for riders who want to be a part of my project:

Increase your threshold power in 31 days

Requirements:

• Age: 18 years or older
• Own a power meter (SRM, PowerTap, Ergomo or Polar CS600)
• Training amount: 10-14hrs per week.
• Follow the training plan strictly

What do you get?
You get a free 31 days training program that will increase your threshold power. There will be self performed physical tests on day 1 and 31. Training amount will be 10 to 14hrs per week. The training program will be personalized to your current physical fitness based on self performed tests.

If you are interested in being a part of this project, please leave a comment on this post. I will contact you via email with more info.

Last chance to participate is July 7th.

The Power Meter Profile Project has been collecting power meter data from riders from all over the World for the last 3 months. 31st of July is the last chance to join this project and make the total data amount even better. Thus, if you haven’t submitted your power records yet, then it is about time to fill in the form on this site. If you know about PowerTap or SRM users who have performed these tests then please ask them to submit their data. The more data we get, the more power to this study.

Read more about the Power Meter Profile Project here.

I will publish the results and conclusion in August.

Gonzalo is one of the more experienced riders into power meter training as he has been training with power for the last three years (SRM, Ergomo and now PowerTap SL). What he was looking for was a training program that could motivate him for training to cycling races of 80-90km.

Motivation is the cornerstone in many riders training program, because even the best program will end up as a failure if the rider is not motivated. I guess a part of the predicted progress can be explained by motivation. A motivated rider trains harder and obtains better results than a non-motivated rider. Thus, my challenge was to motivate Gonzalo and keep track of his performance during the 12 weeks.

Focus on Aerobic Power
I decided to focus on 5 and 20min maximum power in the first 6 weeks and then work harder with anaerobic power in the last 6 weeks.

I prefer to build a great aerobic base instead of just working on the anaerobic stuff from the very beginning. The reason for this is that it takes longer to build an optimal aerobic engine than anaerobic endurance. It is quite fast to train anaerobic endurance to a relative high level compared to the time it takes to optimize maximum oxygen consumption.

Well, but he asked for more anaerobic endurance and sprinting power?

Yes, but in cycling races of 2 hours it is essential to have a high VO2 max and endurance. If he got that, he has a chance to get home with the peloton or even make a breakaway. But if he is limited in these two factors, VO2 max and endurance, he will be dropped before they get to the final sprint. Thus, the primary goals for the first period were improvements in 5 and 20min maximum power.

Intervals
Like all the other riders in this project Gonzalo had to struggle with intervals three times a week. In the first couple of week it was two days with intervals and on Sundays he participated in some duathlon events of 2hrs duration. The following weeks were with intervals on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Gonzalo performed several intervals of 6min work / 4min active recovery with a workload around his 20min maximum power (Normally done three times on each interval day). There were also a couple of days 3x(3+3)min and 40/20sec intervals to maximize his VO2 max and add some fuel to his anaerobic enzymes.

Results
1min power increased dramatically making him a much stronger rider with more punch in his attacks. Combined with significant improvements in 5 and 20min maximum power, Gonzalo is now a lot more competitive in flat cycling races. I could wish that he was stronger in sprints, but the 1, 5 and 20min maximum power will result in more success for him in the races after all. 

Yesterday I published and commented on the results from Dave Simonson. Today, I will talk about Marc Moeller who is a category 3 rider with an ambition of promoting to category 2 this season. That goal sounds quite fair if Marc’s training wasn’t limited to only 8 hours per week. Thus, Marc gave me a challenge when he entered the project, but also a great chance to test how much progress you can achieve with training program with limited time available.

Wattage controlled intervals
I chose to push Marc’s intervals to the maximum capable amount. He was supposed to do intervals three times a week, but these days were not only like regular interval days, they were really tough workouts that required a dedicated effort to succeed. These intervals were monitored on his PowerTap Pro. There was a risk that this program could be a failure if the total training load was too heavy.

The three interval days were one session with anaerobic intervals (6 bursts of 40 seconds at 600-650W, recovery 6minutes), one training day with VO2 max intervals (3 times 3minutes 400W, 3min recovery or a couple of sets of 6 bursts of 40/20seconds at 410+ W) and finally one day with threshold power intervals in the range of 3 to 15minutes, normally with a total time of 24-30minutes. Two times a week there were sprint sessions with short power sprints and regular sprints.

Results
Marc improved an all parameters and achieved a slightly weight loss, making his watts per kilogram even better. These results are really remarkable because Marc had a very good fitness before he entered this project and even more impressing when you look at the limited time he has spend on training. The threshold power did not improve as much as the other parameters, but that is not surprising. Even though the improvement is smaller in threshold power it’s still worth the effort because that skill is so important in road cycling.

Post script
These results have convinced me that you can reach a very high level of cycling with focused power meter training. Actually I decided to use a lot of the intervals Marc performed as a test pilot on one of my biggest U23 talents who also is limited in training time this spring due to school work. My own rider has had his most successful spring ever, indicating that there is a big potential in tough wattage controlled intervals.