Tips to increase power output?
 

I wonder. Any tips, training, etc.?
I use the estimated power output given by strava. Yes I take this data with a grain of salt but I've heard it wasn't that bad. I currently sit at 130W (3hrs ride) and would like to hear the experience of other in their quest of an higher average. I am 66Kg and heard 4W/Kg was considered Good. I am far from that!

Like mos people, I think that you have the power but just aren't putting it out to the pedals. Most of my rides, the Strava estimated power output is around 240, why..... I'm doing some work when I ride the bike.
It used to be higher, but I am learning that "spinning" is the key to going faster, not necessarily pushing harder on the pedals.
If you feel like you lack strength in your legs, get to a gym and work on the lower body but also do core strengthening exercises. A strong core is paramount to fast cycling!

Ride more. Go faster.

Sweet spot training.

if you go on a ride, spin the 1st halfway (try spin above 80rpm in a gear that works your legs) .....

on the way back, choose a smaller back gear that works your legs and grind at 60 RPM all the way back

this has worked for me

That's a very, very bad estimate you're trying to improve. If THAT is the number you want to improve, then I suggest you just go ride with a tailwind. It will shoot right up with no more effort on your part.

Draft somebody. Since you're measuring with Strava ...

Do hill repeats once a week.

You can produce 240 watts spinning or mashing.

OP,
Shorter high intensity group rides. Find a solid B ride and try to hang...say a 18 to 20 mph 30 mile ride.
If this becomes too easy and you yearn for more fitness find a A- ride which is my sweet spot...say a 30 mile ride with a 21 mph average which has a sprint in it and speeds can get to 25 if the group is getting frisky.
Next level is A or A+ rides replete with CAT racers. These are eat your young rides with attacks and dropping. When I was younger I was more for this.
A- riders can do sub 5 hour centuries when members of the group want to do a long ride together.

Most of us lack motivation to train hard by ourselves and why riding with good riders helps as a motivator.

My suggestion is if you want to get stronger, stay away from your 3 hr, 130watt rides and start doing intervals, shorter duration and higher intensity.

Good luck

As a newbie to this sport, and only using Strava since the new year, I can only assume when mashing a section. There are sections that are over 400 (shorts bursts for several seconds) and most of my rides have an average output around the 160 range

Since it's so topical to this thread, I've actually been meaning to ask what differences in power numbers on Strava you've seen since recently getting a power meter. You probably haven't ridden with it long enough to really tell, but did you notice a big difference in the data right away?

Strava grossly underestimates my z2+ rides and doesn't take into account NP at all, and grossly overestimates my recovery rides. Climbing segments it typically estimates 20-25% lower than actual output. My point is that I would caution against relying on Strava for power estimation.

To increase power output, it helps to know what it is first. Strava estimates are really just junk data that you can't even use to compare against yourself much less anyone else. Just about the only time they're reasonable is if you're doing a long steady climb with little wind and your rider/bike weight are entered accurately. Otherwise, stop/starts, draft, wind, false climb data (bridges), and other things can all cause weird estimated power spikes that greatly skew the "average" number you're looking at.

TL;DR if you really care, go find a cheap used powermeter like a Powertap rear wheel.

I clearly hear and understand that advice and even agree but since it is all that I have to go on, I figure it's nuances in error might be consistent enough to use as some sort of gauge, even if inaccurate. I run 2 programs for every ride, they never agree on anything, not even distance. Sometimes off by over a mile, esp if Mtbing. That might be the way the program calculates valleys, dips and such as a straight line rather than down the incline and back up, IDK.
I once ran Strava on my GPS and phone, and still got different results, so ... lol, it is just a simple tool to get basic information. If I was a more serious cyclist, I would invest in better equipment.
Thanks for the heads up info.

[MENTION=379815]mooder[/MENTION] - to get stronger you'll want to look into interval training. If you're looking for something less formalized (because interval training isn't exactly fun), [MENTION=88222]Campag4life[/MENTION]'s group rides suggestion is a good one, as getting used to surges and matching the pace of other riders will naturally lead to increased power output.

I haven't done an analysis of this yet. It's too early for a whole number of reasons: 1. Quarq installation requires like a month to settle down due to the crank retention system they use. 2. Quarq PM itself has a settling in period. 3. I'm still getting used to it. 4. Not enough rides yet.

The only data point I have so far is the zwift FTP tests that I did just a few weeks apart. 169 with zpower, and 189 with real power. But, that says nothing of strava's power estimates.

It would be really useful if strava would go ahead and give me the estimated power data for a ride even if I provide my own real power data. Currently it's one or the other. I can think of some manual ways around this using golden cheetah, but I'm not going to mess with that until the above issues are settled.

Thanks for the suggestions. I just subscribed to a club. They have an event every week, they ascend the mt-royal in montreal 6 times. It's a 8km loop and ~150m ascension 9-11%.

I don't know my spinning speed, I always try to have the right gear but I can't tell if I am doing 60 or 80 rpm. Does it really help a lot? Ideally I would like to have one that can communicate with Strava. I like to check the stats after a ride.

The Strava power estimate could be quite inaccurate, like other posters have said.

I think that 130 watts average would be pretty good for a lot of riders that don't do competitive group rides. Remember, just like average speed, the average be lower than the "flat road power". I'm guessing that many riders are in the 100 to 150 watts area.

More power and speed:
At least 3 rides a week, an hour or a few hours each.
On those rides:
Attack some hill climbs. Go all out!
Do a longer ride once a week.

For me, group rides that are a little too fast for me are the best. I push way harder to keep up with a group than I would when riding solo. And I have to keep riding every week to stay in shape enough for the ride.

Good decision to join a club. The simplest way to get stronger is to ride with stronger riders. Whether that's a group ride, a few friends, or just one training partner, you will always be able to push yourself harder with others.

I use wide, flared bar similar to a dirt drop. The ends of the drops are 58cm wide. I ride drops only, no hoods or tops. The width of the bar gives more leverage and more power at the crank.

Exhale on the down stroke and inhale on the up. Fart in between.

inside - trainerroad.com - helps to focus your training on the trainer. I'm working on sweet spot training.
outside - i like long rides, so i just go for distance. I also try to focus on my spinning, keeping pressure on the crank during the 360 rotation.

Goodluck.

I think that Strava works out your power output based on your weight. I have a few KOM's (for my age group), and the estimated power is a lot different for the other guys who weigh much less and who's times are very close ... i.e I think Strava works out that the fatter you are, the more power is needed

I'm just guessing though

[MENTION=379815]mooder[/MENTION] 4w/kg is normally used in the context of FTP, not for a 3hr ride.

The best advice to get stronger is to ride more hours per week, even if it requires you to reduce intensity.

In fact, long low intensity rides build your aerobic base, so that you burn fat in favor of glycogen at higher power levels. Doing this, I've been able to increase my zone 2 power to 230 watts. This is my easy pace. That leaves a whole lot left in reserve when you want to truly crank up the power.

Then, depending on your age, fatigue level, and recovery, add the hard group rides or intervals once or twice a week.

Ride 7-10 minute intervals as hard as possible once a week to increase your anaerobic threshold and power for durations from minutes to a couple hours. It's simpler to do those up-hill because you won't need to pedal significantly faster accelerating down small less than flat spots. Some people also find it easier psychologically to push themselves up-hill; although you want to do that at a high enough cadence you're not limiting yourself.

Spend the rest of your time below your aerobic threshold (where breathing becomes rhythmic, conversation doesn't flow, and lactate/hydrogen ions accumulate) to improve power for durations over an hour.

Have a lower volume, lower intensity week out of every 3-4 to allow adaptation to occur.

In terms of power calculation, Strava precision is roughly in the range of +/- 25%, mainly because it can not reasonably account for air resistance (which is around 60-80% of your effort above 30 km/h speed). Wind and drafting other cyclists seriously affect the calculation. You simply can not take enough "salt" to correct it. My smallest power shown on Strava is when when I "kill" my feet fighting with a strong front wind. Guess why?...

You can google for "FTP intervals", "Threshold intervals", "Increase functional threshold power" and similar - they are easy to understand and practice. You must find the actual value of your FTP and design intervals around it. A powermeter on the bike would be great (I don't have one, it is very expensive), but a heart rate monitor is much cheaper and can do a reasonable work for measuring efforts during intervals.

Alternatively, you could measure the power with a smart trainer, if you use one, and perform FTP intervals on the trainer as well. The measurement might not be very accurate, but still much better than Strava, not only due to a lower error (air resistance does not exist), but also because the measurements are reasonably consistent: they might not show your very accurate power, but they can show the real progress you do (the errors are roughly the same during consecutive measurements, so they cancel each other and finally show a reasonably clean evolution curve).

If no smart trainer available, then just start a schedule of FTP intervals with with a heart rate monitor (use heart rate threshold) and trust that they work, even if you can not measure progress.
Anyway, forget Strava for power calculation. If your training is mainly riding alone, you might well outperform some of the guys that ride only in a pack and have 10-20% higher power than you on Strava - this is just Strave error in power calculation.