How common is 300w for an hour?

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04-12-22, 04:49 AM

#351

AlgarveCycling

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Quote:

Originally Posted by TMonk

I think there are other benefits to being smaller as well, like accelerations and possibly recovery from going into the red. It kinda makes sense that the less excess blood there is to circulate, the faster you might clear lactate. VO2 max goes up also for this reason as you lose weight. I'm not a doctor or a physiologist, just sorta what I've thought.

My power stayed the same from 2018 into 2019 but I lost 10 lbs going from 155 to 145 and it made me waaaaay faster. OK I might have gained like 5 or so watts on FTP as well, but not 10.

I attribute this to my ability to rapidly upgrade from 3 to 2 in 2019 in breakaway situations. Again my power was the same but I was light, snappy and recovered very quickly.

I'd agree with this.

I'm small, only 5ft6in and weigh 140lbs. I can drop that weight more and probably should a little. My ftp doesn't sound great, around 260 at the moment but had it up to 280 last year. My w/kg is around 4.
Yet I beat taller, stronger guys in racing.

Part of it is that I benefit more than most for drafting and part of it is that I have quite explosive acceleration and I'm fairly aero in comparison. I can hit 1100w in a sprint - held 1049w for 10s earlier this year sprinting against a Pro I was training with. I also seem to recover relatively quickly between efforts.

I have no idea what my numbers were when I was in my 20's and 127lbs but I was certainly faster than I am now at 53 but given I'm racing against guys in my own age category, we're all in the same mid-life shape so the extra pounds are not as harmful to my results.