Edge 500 with powertap. Settings anyone

[capeofstorms]

Hi,

I'm new to using a Powertap with the Edge. Are there any tips/tricks for the settings on the Edge?

 

For Example

 

1.Should smart recording be on/off?

2. Should auto pause be on/off

3. Average with zeroes Yes/No

 

Any other tips on how you use your edge with a powertap would be appreciated. Power reading flucuate quite a bit in a ride. What averaging to you use to deal with it. What metrics do you look at when you ride?

[Minion]

1.Should smart recording be on/off?

2. Should auto pause be on/off

3. Average with zeroes Yes/No

 

Any other tips on how you use your edge with a powertap would be appreciated. Power reading flucuate quite a bit in a ride. What averaging to you use to deal with it. What metrics do you look at when you ride?

The data capture philosophy for a PM is to record as much as possible. You can always delete data you don't need after the fact, but you cannot re-create data that you didn't gather in the first place. So to answer your questions:

1. OFF. It's very important that you use 1s recording with a power meter to get correct values for normalised power and training stress score. Smart recording uses a variable recording interval.
   
2. OFF. Again, you need to record as much info as possible to get correct values for TSS etc. Not all training software handles gaps in data (created by pauses) correctly.
   
3. Doesn't matter. This one only affects how average fields are displayed on the device, not the recorded data. Yes: any zeros will be included in the displayed average - not pedalling lowers average cadence, stopping lowers averaged speed. No: zeros are ignored - displayed average speed and cadence will be higher.
   

I like to use 3s averaging: it gives a good balance between immediate feedback and smoothing. When training I look at PWR 3s and Lap NP in addition to lap time, HR, lap distance, cadence and time of day (on an Edge 800). I have a separate page mainly for racing with total time, total distance, Power - kJ/work and speed.

[capeofstorms]

Thanks Minion....nice and informative. If you were doing a 100km training ride that has some hills in it and your intention is to ride at say 90% of FTP. How do you maintain this wattage as the wattage will very(in some cases quite significantly) with each pedal stroke.

 

Watts seem to fluctuate "quicker" than speed or cadence, so it's knda difficult to keep an eye on it

[Minion]

Thanks Minion....nice and informative. If you were doing a 100km training ride that has some hills in it and your intention is to ride at say 90% of FTP. How do you maintain this wattage as the wattage will very(in some cases quite significantly) with each pedal stroke.

 

Watts seem to fluctuate "quicker" than speed or cadence, so it's knda difficult to keep an eye on it

I'd say just ride normally with the Powertap for a while to get used to it. Look at the numbers, but don't let them control you. Download the data and see what it does. Once you've become used to how the power number fluctuate you'll start getting a feel for what certain intensities feel like and can start doing more targeted stuff.

 

All power programs I've seen will give a target range, rather than a specific value, for very reason you've mentioned. It's relatively easy to hold power between 85% and 95%, but difficult to sit exactly at 90%.

 

Edit: In my experience, I find it easier to sit at what I think is a constant effort and then glance occasionally at the display to adjust that up or down as required. You're training with power, not by power - don't become completely governed by the numbers on a second-by-second basis.

Edited November 22, 2012 by Minion

[capeofstorms]

Hi,

 

OK, so I took my powertap out for it's first long ride. The metrics that I was monitoring was elapsed time, average power, power 3s and lap power.

 

After a while I stopped looking at the power on the Edge. The flucuations was a bit too much on the eye. I'm not sure how you guys get used to it.

 

I didn't try to ride in any particular band of power, but I can see that this could be very difficult. Again how do you guys do it?

 

Given a band of power to ride in sy 250W-280W are you able to maintain this with ease.

 

See power distribution attached

[Minion]

You get used to it after a while. It's also much easier to stick to a target on a hill or the like. The only time I try to religiously stick to a single zone is when I'm doing intervals, which will usually be on a hill anyway. I wouldn't try to stick to a zone throughout an entire long ride,

 

My program might call for a ride that's generally in Zone 3, but going to Zone 5 on short hills or Zone 4 on long ones. In that case, I'd try stick to the zones on the hills, but otherwise I'd not be too concerned about moment to moment power values. I'd just use NP or feel to make sure my ride is generally within the overall zone. I'll upload a typical graph a bit later.

 

Have you read Coggan and Allen's Training with a Power Meter book?

[Minion]

I'll upload a typical graph a bit later.

Here's a graph (Gautengers may recognise the elevation profile) for part of a ride with the following goal (from a while back when I was actually fit):

Mostly at ~155 - 250W, up to 250 - 310W on the climbs (even up to 320 - 440W on some of the 1 - 3min climbs).

 

I pushed a little bit harder than that, but this is what it looks like.

 

 

You don't really see what the power track is doing until you change the scaling and spread the lap out over a wider horizontal scale (using WKO+):