Power Measurement

Recently I decided to have a look at other methods of measuring power - specifically the Velocomp Newton and Powerpod, as opposed to the "traditional" strain-gauge systems that an increasing number of cyclists are using. I hope to write more on the Velocomp system, but the thought inspired me to have a look at a variety of ways (both realistic and less-so) of measuring power in cycling.

Zoot Wikiwiki Wetsuit

Whilst a session in the river - on a warm evening as the sun goes down - is the hilight of any training week, I've never considered myself a strong swimmer. As a result I've stuck to the mantra of Buoyancy Above All Else - on the understanding that weaker swimmers are often better off in the lower-end (and less flexible) suits.  However, after hearing about the new Wikiwiki and getting a chance to see it up close at the Outlaw Half, I jumped at the chance to give it a go.

SHFT.run - Initial Thoughts

My photoshop skillz are second only to my running style

As a rule, triathletes are data and gadget freaks - and I am no exception. In the pool, you can usually spot a triathlete by the selection of "toys" they bring down; on the bike cyclists despair at our covering our beautiful machines in power meters and storage boxes; and I feel the run revolution is just getting going. Garmin's Run Dynamics (now a proper ANT+ profile) and Stryd's power measurement are well known - I had the opportunity to try out SHFT.run's two-pod system and report my experiences from my first few runs here.

Threshold Part 4 - Other Models

In Part 3's exploration of mathematical thresholds we were looking at methods of approximating a rider's power curve, which allows us to estimate maximal power for a given duration. However, that's rarely how we ride (or run, except on the flattest courses). The models discussed assume that an athlete stays at precisely the same power for the duration of their effort, but in the real world only TTers even come close. So this post will look at ways of dealing with variation.

Threshold Part 3 - Mathematical Thresholds

So far I've looked at the biochemistry behind thresholds, and evidence for whether thresholds exist (it appears they do, but not the one we all call 'threshold'!). For this post I'm going to look at some of the ways that we have tried to describe our thresholds and limits.

Combining Zwift with Sufferfest/PerfPro (or TrainerRoad)

Zwift is new and exciting, but I still reckon the last two reps of Sufferfest Revolver are as close as I'll get to a religious experience, and I'm a big fan of Perfpro's easy customisation and ability to display live graphs of geeky accessories like my Moxy SmO2 monitor. Is it possible to get the best of all worlds?

Zwift on a Budget

In the last month or so I've found myself getting into Zwift, the online cycling game. Last night I attended one of their events, where I ended up demonstrating racing in front of a large crowd (who were mostly looking the other way), and showed conclusively that turning up late to the race start with no wifi isn't a brilliant idea! (Much respect to the colleague who managed to build his computer for me in the 4 minutes before the race started and managed to get me starting only 15 seconds behind the main pack!)
A few people have been concerned about how much it might cost to run Zwift, particularly if you're going to end up leaving the computer in the garage for ease of access. So I thought I'd document my setup to show you can run it on fairly old kit.