Are these watts right?
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2015-03-04 9:56 AM |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: Are these watts right? This may be a hard question to answer. I did my first ride on my new Wahoo Kickr. First time I have ever trained with power. I did a 50 min ride. It said my avg wattage was 247. I was not going all out. I was expecting a much lower number but then again I don't really know a lot about power. My avg speed was 18.72 mph. I'm not a very fast biker. I'm around 22 mph for a typical sprint distance race. But I've also gotten a little out of shape over the last few months. I guess my question is do those numbers make sense. I know its really not enough info to give a good answer. Is that type of wattage typical for an average biker? Any type of relative info you could give me would be great? Thanks |
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2015-03-04 10:06 AM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Extreme Veteran 2261 Ridgeland, Mississippi | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Originally posted by mchadcota2 This may be a hard question to answer. I did my first ride on my new Wahoo Kickr. First time I have ever trained with power. I did a 50 min ride. It said my avg wattage was 247. I was not going all out. I was expecting a much lower number but then again I don't really know a lot about power. My avg speed was 18.72 mph. I'm not a very fast biker. I'm around 22 mph for a typical sprint distance race. But I've also gotten a little out of shape over the last few months. I guess my question is do those numbers make sense. I know its really not enough info to give a good answer. Is that type of wattage typical for an average biker? Any type of relative info you could give me would be great? Thanks What was your normalized power, and how much do you weigh? |
2015-03-04 10:08 AM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
New user 175 Houston, Texas | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? I won't say whether it is right or not... I went 23.7mph on my last sprint tri and my ave watts for that race was like 252 for that race. On the trainer at home, just a normal KK fluid trainer, I ave around 16-18mph and more like 160watts. |
2015-03-04 10:52 AM in reply to: toodamnbroke |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Ok that's exactly what I needed to know. I want to make sure that its giving me accurate readings. Because I'm not touching 23.7 mph. Msteiner my normalized was 251 and I weigh 158 lbs. I'm not sure what I need to do to make it work right but I'm pretty sure I'm not pushing 250 watts for an hour. Thanks |
2015-03-04 12:08 PM in reply to: 0 |
Master 2759 Los Angeles, CA | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Did that 50 minute ride have some long hills? Not going all out on hills will up your power output no matter what. I just started training with power myself and I weigh 148lbs and noticed as I climbed some 6% grades, my 3s avg power readings were hovering in the 200-250watts range going at a Z3 to sub Z4 HR. I'm using a Stages PM so your Wahoo Kickr seems to be reading your power output correctly. I recommend you do a field test to determine your FTP when you get a chance. I plan doing doing that sometime this month. Edited by kloofyroland 2015-03-04 12:09 PM |
2015-03-04 12:09 PM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
New user 175 Houston, Texas | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? On the flip side. If you are just using it for training, As long as it is consistant, you can still build workouts around whatever numbers it is giving you. They just won't correlate to a PM on the bike in a race. |
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2015-03-04 12:12 PM in reply to: toodamnbroke |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Yeah that's my main concern is that it stays consistent. I'm going to try another spindown to see if that changes anything. I wasn't doing any kind of course or structured workout. I just did a 50 min moderate intensity ride. Kept the resistance the same the whole time. |
2015-03-04 12:51 PM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Master 2759 Los Angeles, CA | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Interesting... the wattage does seem a bit high for a moderate effort at your weight. |
2015-03-04 1:02 PM in reply to: 0 |
Master 3205 ann arbor, michigan | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? I'm about your wieght and have been close to 22 mph in my last several HIMs...... and pushing 250 for an hour would put me in to a world of hurt. I am admittedly not the strongest cyclist in the world and I would guess that my threshold power is probably a little under 250 right now. I actually probably could not hold 250 for an entire hour. I suspect that your Kickr is somehow off a little bit. You could just be super strong and 250 is your easy, but I'm guessing something needs calibration Edited by wannabefaster 2015-03-04 1:03 PM |
2015-03-04 1:04 PM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Subject: RE: Are these watts right? 247 watts for 50 minutes steady...no warm up or cool down is likely inflated power if you don't consider yourself a fast biker. Generally people that can just hop on the trainer and do that type of wattage at a moderate effort are very much FOP on the bike at triathlons. It's difficult to translate to speed since all courses are different, but if that power were accurate, I would suspect you wouldn't be outside the top 15 overall on the bike at a typical local race with 200 people. Possibly even top 5 if your position is good. |
2015-03-04 1:33 PM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Master 10208 Northern IL | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Was rider size put in on the Kickr? What type of course was ridden on it? I don't know what all it does or takes into account, but hadn't seen those asked yet. Something doesn't seem to be matching up, so start with the setup. Make sure everything you were supposed to enter was, and was done correctly. Then you can start taking the course into account. |
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2015-03-04 1:44 PM in reply to: brigby1 |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? So it sounds like what yall are saying is that I have become a super strong cyclist over the winter when I thought I was taking a break. I look forward to winning some races I guess! Ha! I will try to recalibrate it and see what happens. I really appreciate the insight. |
2015-03-04 1:46 PM in reply to: 0 |
Extreme Veteran 2261 Ridgeland, Mississippi | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Originally posted by mchadcota2 Ok that's exactly what I needed to know. I want to make sure that its giving me accurate readings. Because I'm not touching 23.7 mph. Msteiner my normalized was 251 and I weigh 158 lbs. I'm not sure what I need to do to make it work right but I'm pretty sure I'm not pushing 250 watts for an hour. Thanks That's a pretty impressive number. Those numbers aren't too far from my FTP and weight (260 and 155), and I'm a 24ish mph guy on most local courses. Edited by msteiner 2015-03-04 2:01 PM |
2015-03-04 3:43 PM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Pro 6582 Melbourne FL | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Your not the only one! Seems like there's a lot of variability in units out there. Not great for something of this expense. |
2015-03-04 3:53 PM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
1660 | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Sounds a bit high, but honestly, if you're averaging 22mph on race day outdoors, you will be pretty close to 250FTP at your weight.
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2015-03-04 4:21 PM in reply to: yazmaster |
Extreme Veteran 2261 Ridgeland, Mississippi | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Originally posted by yazmaster Sounds a bit high, but honestly, if you're averaging 22mph on race day outdoors, you will be pretty close to 250FTP at your weight. I would say you're leaving some speed on the table if you're averaging 22mph off 250W. |
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2015-03-04 4:49 PM in reply to: 0 |
240 | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Originally posted by msteiner Originally posted by yazmaster Sounds a bit high, but honestly, if you're averaging 22mph on race day outdoors, you will be pretty close to 250FTP at your weight. I would say you're leaving some speed on the table if you're averaging 22mph off 250W. X2. I am same weight as OP with a 231 FTP. On flat course, would probably avg around 24 MPH at threshold. Averaging 19 MPH, would put me around 185-190W. So yes, I do believe your power numbers are a bit inflated or you are a very strong rider but not very aero. Edited by StevenC 2015-03-04 5:05 PM |
2015-03-05 6:31 AM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Extreme Veteran 1986 Cypress, TX | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Originally posted by mchadcota2 This may be a hard question to answer. I did my first ride on my new Wahoo Kickr. First time I have ever trained with power. I did a 50 min ride. It said my avg wattage was 247. I was not going all out. I was expecting a much lower number but then again I don't really know a lot about power. My avg speed was 18.72 mph. I'm not a very fast biker. I'm around 22 mph for a typical sprint distance race. But I've also gotten a little out of shape over the last few months. I guess my question is do those numbers make sense. I know its really not enough info to give a good answer. Is that type of wattage typical for an average biker? Any type of relative info you could give me would be great? Thanks
Did you do the spindown calibration once the unit was warmed up? When I first got my KICKR the watts read about 10% high compared to my Quarq. I had never done a spindown with it. Once I did the spindown calibration it was only a couple of percent off. |
2015-03-05 2:37 PM in reply to: GMAN 19030 |
Master 2912 ...at home in The ATL | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Without another power meter that you trust you will never know, but there does seem to be an issue with some kickrs both drifting throughout a workout and reading high, even after spin down and calibration with their own calibration kit. Between the ST thread referenced above and the other ST thread about "controlling the kickr with another power meter" it seems that many have come to believe this is an issue with some newer kickrs. FWIW I got mine when they first came out and it reads well within the combined margin of accuracy with both my vectors and quarq. It does drift a bit as it warms up, but a spin down fixes that (actually I keep it plugged in and don't do a spin down anymore - it just gets more in line with my other power meters after about 20 minutes of warming up). Just to give you another data point I rode 24mph at nationals on 213w at 148lbs, and with what I believe to be a pretty good position. That course is about as flat as they come, and the wind was light, so overall a pretty good indicator of speed/weight/watts. |
2015-03-06 10:25 AM in reply to: #5097971 |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Thanks everybody for your help. I did another spin down after warming up for 10 min and I think it's normal now. 250 is very hard to hold for 10 min. A moderate 45 min puts me at 185-190. That's more like it. There goes my dreams of being an elite cyclist.?? |
2015-03-11 9:43 AM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Ok I'm not sure what to think. I did my first FTP test today on trainerroad with kickr. My FTP was 258. I thought my kickr was reading accurate power after I did another spin down but 258 has got to be too high for me. Just a little background. The races I did last year were: IM texas- biked 18.2 mph, hilly sprint race- biked 21.8 mph. I've never biked over 23 mph for any race. I have trained hard and consistent for the last 4 years. After last summer I took a couple of months very easy. Very little training. I'd say I started back training in December. Biked about 2-3 days/wk for about 30 min, and ran 3-6 miles about 3 days/wk. No swimming. So the least training I have done in years. I've bumped up my training volume and started training fairly hard the last couple of months. If my FTP is actually 258, I'd say I would be at my strongest point ever on the bike, and I don't see how that could be possible. Of course, I'll have no doubt as soon as I ride outdoors. Haven't ridden outdoors in 7 months. Has anybody had issues with the kickr reading too high? Or has anybody had an experience in which they got stronger by doing less? |
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2015-03-11 10:10 AM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Subject: RE: Are these watts right? How are you determining that your FTP is 258? ehat was your testing protocol and the results? |
2015-03-11 10:29 AM in reply to: Jason N |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? I did the trainerroad 8 minute test. My two intervals were 295 and 279. |
2015-03-11 10:35 AM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
439 nashville, Tennessee | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? I wonder if a 20 minute test would be a better representation of my fitness. My longest rides for the last couple of months have been 50 minutes. So I would think that my endurance is not great. So lets just say that someone did nothing but really hard 8 minute intervals for a few months but never did anything longer than 20 min. Would it be possible that your power output could be really strong for 8 minutes but for anything longer than that really weak? Could my 8 minute test result in a really high FTP estimate whereas if I actually rode for an hour it would be really weak? Pretty stupid question I know but just some thoughts. |
2015-03-11 10:51 AM in reply to: mchadcota2 |
Pro 6582 Melbourne FL | Subject: RE: Are these watts right? Originally posted by mchadcota2 I wonder if a 20 minute test would be a better representation of my fitness. My longest rides for the last couple of months have been 50 minutes. So I would think that my endurance is not great. So lets just say that someone did nothing but really hard 8 minute intervals for a few months but never did anything longer than 20 min. Would it be possible that your power output could be really strong for 8 minutes but for anything longer than that really weak? Could my 8 minute test result in a really high FTP estimate whereas if I actually rode for an hour it would be really weak? Pretty stupid question I know but just some thoughts. Sorta yes. After a layoff I'm much stronger for short durations than long ones. In the Critical Power testing world you can take the 5' test result and divide by the 20' test and see what your balance is. For instance a ratio < 1.1 means your are strong on the longer, 1.1 to 1.15 considered an all-rounder, and >1.15 your are strong on the short durations. I'm often 1.17-1.19 after a layoff. FWIW, you can use the ratio to set your training to a particular focus if you wish. Maybe your Kickr is still reading high, but if its consistent with the spindown then that's what is important and just use the numbers it provides you. |
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