Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Watts...whats...and how to become a better climber using them


Watts...whats...aren't they whats... watts... found in a lightbulb. Ok, enough of the highjinx. Watts are a unit of energy. Yes, found in a lightbulb, but more importantly in the cycling world a measure of power output used to gauge your efficiency and overall cycling performance reletive to certain terrain i.e., hills or a course riden. Which when understood can dramatically improve your performance.

So, tell me...tell me...how can they help and what do I have to do to improve them...can I buy some carbon fiber or light weight watts? No definitely not, but heres an idea of what you can do.

Consider your body weight, sustainable watts and outside conditions. All three variables must be taken in consideration to fully benefit or understand how to generate greater wattage. First, if you drop weight you will produce greater watts per kg. Is that good? Yes. Consider this example, Elizabeth is 130 lbs and Sean is 190 lbs and they are both climbing a 20 min hill in St. Geogre, Utah and Sean produces 425 watts for 20 min giving him a power to weight ratio of 5 watts/kg...what does Elizabeth need to produce to be more efficient up that same hill? The answer is a sustained effort of only 360 watts thus giving a power to weight ratio of 6 watts/kg and ultimately allowing her to climb the hill faster and more easily because of the effects of gravity(power per unit of wt is important when climbing; the higher the percent the faster the climb on a hill). If you drop weight you can essentially climb faster because your power to weight ratio is more efficient. FYI: top climbers have a 6-7g/kg power to wt ratio...thats why the average profle of a Tour de France rider is close to 5'10 150# and the top climbers are under that weight tipping the scales at around 140#; all in an effort to be more efficient.

However, if you consider the same two riders on different terrain, say a flat 20 min course ,Sean would be more efficient because now gravity is not working against him and he is producing 65 greater watts than Elizabeth's 360 thus moving him faster. He would finish first.

In conclusion, drop some weight if you are going to be riding a hilly course for a race or local ride/s, train harder and longer at steady state watts with a powermeter, computrainer or other device that allows you to accurately assess your wattage output or do both. If you are not going to drop weight or train sustainable watts ride the flats if you are "phat" and ride the hills if you are "all that."
Cheers!

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