A question for the Stravaminati.

[Vicegrip]

Power tap meters are to be found used from time to time. there was one on CL recently in the $800 range. The Stages unit is $700 to $900 depending on the type of crank set you have. It works with an Garmin edge or other ant+ head unit. I am no expert in any of this but I have found that simply doing the most you can when you can is key. Keep some fun included and find a way to measure gain. Use gains made as a reason to not make an excuse not to get out on the bike or not eat right or whatever. I lost 20% of my body weight using boring cardio methods and eating well. Watts per kilogram. Add watts and reduce kg. Ether or more likely some of both produce measurable results. Few things motivate as well as good results.

[hozn]

Yeah, Strava’s HR zones are completely wrong/meaningless — or at least they’re not the (de facto standard?) Joe Friel zones (http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/11/quick-guide-to-setting-zones.html). Before Strava allowed members (premium only, I believe) to create custom zones, I just adjusted my max heart rate to get the correct lactic threshold (or zone zone 4/5) HR boundary. My suffer scores got much lower when I actually set the zones to Friel zones (once they added that feature). But really, Strava suffer scores are only valuable for comparing with yourself. Due to the availability of custom zones (or lack of that feature for non-paying members?) and other variation there is huge variation in suffer scores of different athletes for the same effort levels. But I like to have a simple metric that lets me know roughly how hard I am pushing on a given course — like my commute.

[NicDiesel]

@Vicegrip 57142 wrote:

Power tap meters are to be found used from time to time. there was one on CL recently in the $800 range. The Stages unit is $700 to $900 depending on the type of crank set you have.

For right now I’m just going to have to go with not having a true wattage record. If PowerTaps offered a 36h version I’d gladly build one up but 32h is not going to support this weight. I looked into the crankset version but I’m having more wheels built so that’s going to have to wait until after I move. My boss was looking for a good “semi-going away” present so I might have to drop some hints his way.

@Vicegrip 57142 wrote:

I lost 20% of my body weight using boring cardio methods and eating well. Watts per kilogram. Add watts and reduce kg. Ether or more likely some of both produce measurable results. Few things motivate as well as good results.

Mos def. I’m down 30% off my starting body weight and its all been through changing my eating habits and a ton of insanely boring low impact cardio work and weight training. Being able to buy clothes at a normal store is great and all but just being able to feel good in the morning and walk 100 feet pain free, much less bike 50 miles like I did this weekend, are the real motivators. I’ve still got another 17% of my starting body weight to go so seeing progress like this weekend has been a real motivator.

[Tim Kelley]

@NicDiesel 57107 wrote:

While I do weight 360lbs, and look like I should be in really awful shape, I have a really healthy heart, a resting heart rate below 60, and, if I weren’t lugging around an extra 140lbs, could easily run 10 miles in a day. I did spend this past fall and winter “woodshedding” at the gym getting my heart and lungs built up by spending an hour on the elliptical and dropping 60lbs but 360lbs is still 360lbs; it’s the extra 140lbs that I think throws Strava and other exercise scores for a loop.

Looking at this a little closer, if your heart is in really good condition then it would be surprising if you max HR really is 165, which is what you have Strava set at. For comparison, my Strava Suffer Score for 225 miles of riding this weekend was only 254…

[NicDiesel]

@Tim Kelley 57175 wrote:

Looking at this a little closer, if your heart is in really good condition

Allow me to clarify – it’s in “really good condition” compared to where it was at before, not that it’s in “ELITE athlete” condition. I mean, when you’re starting at “it’s lucky to be ticking” getting it where it can handle any strenuous activity is an accomplishment.

[Tim Kelley]

@NicDiesel 57186 wrote:

Allow me to clarify – it’s in “really good condition” compared to where it was at before, not that it’s in “ELITE athlete” condition. I mean, when you’re starting at “it’s lucky to be ticking” getting it where it can handle any strenuous activity is an accomplishment.

Sounds like you need to do some testing to figure out what your HR zones really are so that you can accurately calibrate Strava:

http://www.trainingbible.com/documents/UsingHeartRate-Power-Pace.pdf

[americancyclo]

So where’s your favorite spots for LTHR testing? Hains Point? Fort Hunt?

I’d imagine an uninterrupted loop would be nice.

[txgoonie]

So Strava uses Friel to auto calculate zones? Just curious, not a Pro member. HR zones, depending in who you listen to, can be calculated based on widely varying percentages. A Friel Zone 1 is different than a Coggin or a Carmichael Zone 1. I know of 2 coaches who also do it slightly differently. Kinda frustrating actually.

That said, the fact that NicDiesel didn’t spend any time in Zone 1 (whichever one it is) on that ride seems rather fishy. Even during a race, you’re gonna dip down and recover for a moment. And holding threshold/VO2 max is exactly what competitive athletes do interval workouts for, and, honestly, if you haven’t done any kind of threshold training, the likelihood of being able to stay in that zone for 60% of the ride is rather small. Things are definitely off.

Fort Hunt is my choice for testing. Minimal crowds and one stop sign that’s relatively safe to, uh, you know, not stop at (shhhh). Check that Strava segment — it’s a hot spot for local TT specialists to whip each other. I have no idea how they go that fast.

[hozn]

No, I think Strava just divides up heart rate into 5 equal zones — or something silly like that (they may have changed this; I haven’t paid attention since they finally allowed customizing them). You’re right; there are competing zone definitions. I always assumed the Friel ones were the most commonly used in cycling, but that may just be because the people I happend to hear talking about HR zones were using Friel zones. So I set mine up based on Friel zones, or at least as good as I’ve been able to do without ever really applying scientific rigor to my HR benchmarking.

[Tim Kelley]

Strava allows you to customize based off of a max HR. You can move the sliders:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3245[/ATTACH]

Good point on never hitting Z1 either–looking at his ride, it was only in Z2 for 6% as well. That means really cranking, or numbers are way off…

[americancyclo]

@txgoonie 57206 wrote:

Fort Hunt is my choice for testing. Minimal crowds and one stop sign that’s relatively safe to, uh, you know, not stop at (shhhh). Check that Strava segment — it’s a hot spot for local TT specialists to whip each other. I have no idea how they go that fast.

31 seconds and 80 places behind Mr. Kelley. Maybe I should head back down there again for a good ten laps.

[Tim Kelley]

@americancyclo 57215 wrote:

31 seconds and 80 places behind Mr. Kelley. Maybe I should head back down there again for a good ten laps.

Yeah, but my speed shown there was held for 20 minutes, not just one lap. Check out the average: http://app.strava.com/activities/38271429

I think I should go back to see how fast I can just done one lap in!

[bikeeveryday]

Recently learned about this site. Pretty cool to compare riders to see where time is lost or gained on a particular Strava segment.

Let me know what you think.

[NicDiesel]

The zones Strava assigned are completely arbitrary so I went in and changed them using the Friel method with a guesstimated max heart rate of 175. Depending on how I feel tomorrow I might cruise over to Hains Point and see if I can actually get my proper max heart rate using the Friel methodology. You people are going to drive me to the land of ELITE!!!!!

[consularrider]

@txgoonie 57206 wrote:

… Fort Hunt is my choice for testing. Minimal crowds and one stop sign that’s relatively safe to, uh, you know, not stop at (shhhh). Check that Strava segment — it’s a hot spot for local TT specialists to whip each other. I have no idea how they go that fast.

Is this your chance for a speeding ticket on the bike, I think the posted speed limit there is 15 mph. :p

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