Training Plan...

[han-grrl]

Sigh...i have been trying to figure out what is best for spending money on...

right now i am looking at getting the ibike and a trainer that has power on it (the Tacx flow i believe has it, and there is one at nashbar as well).

so together (in canadian$) will be roughly 1000$...which i think is still less than the price of setting up the power tap...

[Cassandra_Cain]

I gave the iBike a serious look before finally deciding on getting a PowerTap Pro. It has been, for me at least, overwhelmingly the right choice.

The iBike has some serious issues with dropouts and rough terrain, not to mention it is useless indoors. The polar is a better option and more reliable, but then it too is useless indoors.

There's a whole other way to go at this though....

The trainer I have, (and use extensively, kurt kinetic) offers an option of a computer that gives wattage readouts (average, max, current) - for just an extra $50 over the price of the trainer itself. I've compared the published power curve for the KK and found it within 10% of my powertap readouts, so I'd say it is useful and reasonably priced. If I didn't have a PM, this method would be my choice.

I won't mention coaching because in doing so once, the words name-dropping and useless were said....

[madisongrrl]

I won't mention coaching because in doing so once, the words name-dropping and useless were said....

I don't understand? Are you saying that someone made some negative comments about you talking about your coach? If so, I think that is b.s. I started this thread to talk about training, coaching systems etc. Please feel free to do so.

[Cassandra_Cain]

I don't understand? Are you saying that someone made some negative comments about you talking about your coach? If so, I think that is b.s. I started this thread to talk about training, coaching systems etc. Please feel free to do so.

No worries - I'm not getting into that coaching question again.

What I am open to talking about is the powertap, which I have, along with one of the cyclingpeaks training plans. The latter is road-based for threshold power (sustainable power) improvement, so it may or may not be useful to someone with a MTN-bking focus. Finally, I've been using cyclingpeaks WKO software and am very positive about that.

[velogirl]

I don't understand? Are you saying that someone made some negative comments about you talking about your coach? If so, I think that is b.s. I started this thread to talk about training, coaching systems etc. Please feel free to do so.

No, it's in response to this comment I made in the piece I wrote about finding a coach --

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...878#post131878

Don't necessarily listen to the recommendations you receive on a public forum, bulletin board, or email group. People are name-droppers. Half the time someone makes a recommendation, they haven't even met the person they're recommending. They just want to contribute to the conversation and probably think they'll sound cool for dropping the name they just dropped. 2nd or 3rd hand recommendations (what I call the "friend of a friend" are basically useless).

In reality, that comment had nothing to do with Cassandra or her comments earlier in the thread, but I guess she interpreted it that way. Sorry about that, Cassandra.

[Cassandra_Cain]

No, it's in response to this comment I made in the piece I wrote about finding a coach --

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...878#post131878

Don't necessarily listen to the recommendations you receive on a public forum, bulletin board, or email group. People are name-droppers. Half the time someone makes a recommendation, they haven't even met the person they're recommending. They just want to contribute to the conversation and probably think they'll sound cool for dropping the name they just dropped. 2nd or 3rd hand recommendations (what I call the "friend of a friend" are basically useless).

In reality, that comment had nothing to do with Cassandra or her comments earlier in the thread, but I guess she interpreted it that way. Sorry about that, Cassandra.

Yeap, that's the comment.

[Cassandra_Cain]

Velogirl - ok thank you. I have no hard feelings or grudges about it.

[Cassandra_Cain]

Here's a PM option I've recently become aware of:

http://www.microsporttech.com/product.php

It is set to come out next year I believe and orders are being taken in advance. Please note I have not seen any data or studies on it, but just figured I'd put it out here as an alternative to consider.

If, and it is obviously a big if, it does what it says, then it would be extremely portable, light, and useful.

[velogirl]

I've compared the published power curve for the KK and found it within 10% of my powertap readouts, so I'd say it is useful and reasonably priced. If I didn't have a PM, this method would be my choice.

10% is actully a pretty big deal if you're training with power. Let's say you're doing threshold intervals (2 x 20s) at 240 watts. Training 10% below (at 216 watts) would put you far below threshold so you wouldn't be getting training benefit. Training 10% above (at 264 watts) would probably be impossible so you wouldn't accomplish your workout. This differential would be even more noticeable with shorter intervals since you're at a higher rate of power.

But since you have a PT, why don't you just use that on the trainer rather than replacing or adding another power device? That's one of the nice benefits of a PT -- you can use it on the trainer as well. Of course, you need to know how to adjust your power zones for inside training since they'll be a bit different.

[Cassandra_Cain]

10% is actully a pretty big deal if you're training with power. Let's say you're doing threshold intervals (2 x 20s) at 240 watts. Training 10% below (at 216 watts) would put you far below threshold so you wouldn't be getting training benefit. Training 10% above (at 264 watts) would probably be impossible so you wouldn't accomplish your workout. This differential would be even more noticeable with shorter intervals since you're at a higher rate of power.

But since you have a PT, why don't you just use that on the trainer rather than replacing or adding another power device? That's one of the nice benefits of a PT -- you can use it on the trainer as well. Of course, you need to know how to adjust your power zones for inside training since they'll be a bit different.

10% can be a big deal with power training but realize that at no point have I said I'm riding my trainer and using the KK computer over my powertap.

What I have done is compare the published KK power curve, (http://kurtkinetic.com/pdfs/Power_Curves419.pdf, which indicates the wattage a rider makes at a given speed on the trainer, to my actual powertap readings. In doing so I've found the wattages given in the power curve are within 10% of the power #'s on the powertap.

So my point is that for someone who cannot afford a real power meter, that using a trainer plus the trainer's computer, can be a reasonably priced solution (say about ~$300-350 USD). One that I'd favor over spending $400 on an iBike unit or $600-700 on the polar PM.

[velogirl]

Sigh...i have been trying to figure out what is best for spending money on...

right now i am looking at getting the ibike and a trainer that has power on it (the Tacx flow i believe has it, and there is one at nashbar as well).

so together (in canadian$) will be roughly 1000$...which i think is still less than the price of setting up the power tap...

Actually, have you looked at the PowerTap prices lately? Once they introduced the wireless, the prices of all the other models fell. And, there's a surge of used PT Pro & PT SL on eBay from folks who are replacing them with the wireless. I'll probably do the same and I've got two that I'll be selling.

Yes, I'm a big fan of PowerTap. It's science-grade accurate, easy to switch from bike-to-bike, and light enough to race with. Oh, and it's easy to use as well.

Of course, no power meter will make you faster unless you know how to train with it!