More on power

As I've mentioned, I bought an iBike to assess my current (low!) power and to try to lift it. I lament that I didn't have such a device when I was 29, but hey, now I'm 49 and I have one. So as a data junkie I am in now in heaven. Early results are positive (still on same battery after 4 weeks, filled the data log after less then 3 weeks) and the data looks good, if a tad low. It was originally too high, so I re-ran the "coast" test until it looked right. Now I worry if it's too low but hey, it's all relative, so I'll leave it as is for a while.

Some thoughts:

• too many "zeros" will lower your average power. By simply minimising my freewheeling I have cut the zeros from around 12% to under 8%. Alternatively you can just remove those zeroes from the CSV file in a spreadsheet
  
• So I began around 168W average and now have it up to 190W average (over an hour). Removing all of that freewheeling has helped but I am also getting fitter and stronger
• My peaks have declined from over 900W to low 800W but my 20 minute average is up from 230 to 290W
• So is it still making sense?

What is the norm for a nearly 50 year old racing cyclist who hasn't raced for a couple of months, but who has a 35 year history of riding and racing? I did find this interesting chart:

Men Averages
Measurement Value Average Age (yr) 38.9 Average Weight (lb) 175.9 Average Body Fat 16.7% Average BMI 25.3 Estimated VO2 Max (ml/kg/min) 55.3 Average Wmax (Watts) 346 Av Power-to-Weight Index @ Wmax (W/kg) 4.4 Av Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (bpm) 167 Average VO2 @ LT (ml/kg/min) 43.6 Average LT percentage of VO2 Max 79.1% Average WLT (Watts) 267 Av Power-to-Weight Index @ WLT (W/kg) 3.3 Average WLT percentage of Wmax 77.2% Average Power @ 12 seconds (Watts) 666 Av Power-to-Weight Index @ CP0.2 8.3 Average Power @ 1 minute (Watts) 482 Average Power @ 6 minutes (Watts) 316 Average Power @ 30 minutes (Watts) 267 Average Cadence (rpm) 92.0

Which at least suggests I'm in the ballpark... hope you find power training useful. I guess I'll have to test it out in a race soon...