There have been some delay of the final tests in the Power Meter Project, but I have received some test results and race reports that indicate improvements. I’m really impressed by the participants because I know that they have been through some really tough interval workouts during the last 12 weeks.Wattage controlled intervals are a great way to control pace and secures that the rider trains exactly the physiological skill he is interested in.

Until now I have received the incredible results from Paul Skiba and Gonzalo Vilaseca. I will post some comments on these results soon, but you are welcome to take a closer look at them now. I have not seen how many watts Marc Moeller was able to do in the final week, but I know that he has made some great results in a couple of cycling races. Please consider that podium places are more important than watts on your PowerTap anyway…

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Marc Moeller has a season goal of moving to cycling race Category 2. Moving up one category per season seems fair for serious cyclists like Marc, but doing it with only 8 hours per week is a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, he has worked hard for the last 6 weeks to improve his already good fitness. And with great success! Here are the results from the critical power tests Marc has performed with his PowerTap:

Critical Power Tests	5sec	1min	5min	20min	Body Weight
Week 1 (Watt)	1110W	600W	395W	337W	82.6kg/182lbs
Week 1 (Watt/kg)	13.4W/kg	7.3W/kg	4.8W/kg	4.1W/kg
Week 6 (Watt)	1184W	649W	417W	351W	80.4kg/177.2lbs
Week 6 (Watt/kg)	14.7W/kg	8.1W/kg	5.2W/kg	4.4W/kg

Week 7 to 12
I know that Marc is getting close to a plateau where additional improvement requires a bigger training amount. But by giving his high intensity training program some periodization, there is a chance that he can continue his progress. I am really satisfied with the results I have seen from him so far, and predict that he will deliver even more watts next time. It is though pretty clear that he will have to work very hard for every single watt from now on. But as I told Marc in an email: “Every single watt counts at your level”.

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Gonzalo Vilaseca has done the first six weeks of the power meter project, thus he has now entered the final six weeks of the project. This part of the training is considered as race preparation.

Competing in a cycling race is one of the best ways to prepare you for your main goal. The reason is that you train exactly what you are going to compete in. I have previously discussed races as preparation for cycling races in an earlier post here. Gonzalo will use Sundays for races where the race itself doesn’t have high priority, but the training he gets from it has a high priority since it is one of the three weekly intensive training sessions.

Evaluation of Gonzalo’s critical power tests performed in week 6

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Four riders have completed the first 6 weeks of wattage controlled cycling training. In week 1 they performed four critical power tests to evaluate their sprint power, anaerobic endurance, VO2 max and threshold power. After the initial testing week they have performed four weeks of wattage controlled training based on their test results and personal goals. In week 6 they performed another test week with four new critical power tests performed under the same conditions as in the first. The four riders have achieved some great results as you can see on the graphs below. I will make my comments on their critical power tests and talk about their future training programs based on these test results later in this week.

If you are interested in having a closer look on their results in the critical power tests, you can find their numbers here:

Marc Moeller
Paul Skiba
Dave Simonson
Gonzalo Vilaseca

Ps. Thomas Davis has had some troubles with his knee, so he has only just begun on the training program.

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While I am waiting to receive the results from the critical power tests, I have done some interviews with the participants in the Power Meter Project. Gonzalo Vilaseca did the 5seconds and 1minute critical power test yesterday. Here is my interview with Gonzalo after four full weeks of wattage controlled training.

Yesterday you have completed your critical power test for sprint power and anaerobic endurance after 4 weeks of training in the Power Meter Project. What is your reaction to your performance in these tests?
Gonzalo: “Overall, I expected some improvement in every critical power duration because I had been a few months without training before the power meter project. My guess was that the largest improvement would be seen in 1 and 5 min test, moderate improvement in 20 min test, and little improvement in 5 sec sprint.

As I said, after looking at what I have exercised in my training I expected little improvement in the 5 sec power but a good improvement in 1 min power, and it has been as expected, I’ve improved my 5 sec sprint by 3,8%, but my 1 min power has increased an 8,4%, which is more than I expected. I didn’t expect an increase of 47 w in such a short period of time.”

In what way have your training been different during the Power Meter Project?
Gonzalo: “Compared to this period in past years, during the project I have performed short intervals and LSD days (long steady distance) have been longer. On previous years I did endurance rides with some moderate intensity (Zone 3) work, but no intervals of any sort. During the project I have performed short intervals twice weekly, and that is far more stimulating than just endurance riding.”

Before we know the results from your vo2max and threshold tests: What are your conclusions so far?
Gonzalo: “My conclusions so far are that I have regained fitness faster than expected, but this should be confirmed with the 5 and 20 min test. Im not surprised about my test results as I know Im not at my peak (and I don’t want to be now) and I need more training, but Im really surprised at how good I have assimilated the training load and how that has translated in fast improvement.”

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The Power Meter Project 2007 has now entered the 6th week of the project, which means that the riders will perform four critical power tests to see if they have made progress with their individual training programs.

The critical power tests will be done in the exactly same order and same conditions as in the first week of the project. This procedure is done to minimize errors. For the same reason I led the riders test the testing procedure two weeks before the project started. This was done to make sure they knew what they were supposed to do and how they should pace themselves properly. As I have said previously this is not a scientific study, but I think it is good way to see who can benefit from wattage based cycling training.

I’m really excited to get the reports from the riders in the end of the week. I have already had some emails from the riders, indicating that there are some improvements to look out for. I know that they have done a great job, so I predict improvements for all of them.

After this week, the riders will receive a new program that will prepare them for the race season. The final tests in this project will be performed in week 12.

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