Every single watt counts at high level cycling

by Jesper Bondo Medhus on February 24, 2007

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 maximum power tests Marc has performed with his PowerTap:

Maximum 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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Jesper Bondo Medhus
About the Author: Jesper Bondo Medhus is the medical doctor and cycling coach helping cyclists to ride faster with less training. He has compiled a very successful e-book with his best training techniques for time limited athletes and has just released the final version of his 12-Week Winter Training Program.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

enrico delpino March 23, 2007 at 12:37 pm

May you explain the right way to do a Critical Power Tests on a trainer or on the road with a powermeter? Thanks

Enrico Delpino
Copenhagen

Jesper Therkildsen March 27, 2007 at 4:00 pm

E.g. 5min critical power test: Make the highest average power output for 5 minutes. I will recommend you to do the test the same place as you normally use your power meter. That will give you a better opportunity to plan wattage controlled intervals.

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