I have read about the different tests for power, Friel, Carmichael, Lim. What are you doing to test your power?

Just wondering, as I am getting ready to test our team and wondered what the most efficient tests are.

I have read about the different tests for power, Friel, Carmichael, Lim. What are you doing to test your power?

Just wondering, as I am getting ready to test our team and wondered what the most efficient tests are.

You should get the Hunter and Coggan book on power training. In short, you should test power over several durations since this will give you insight into a rider's relative abilities. I don't recall exactly what H & C recommend but I would think something like maximum 5 second, 30 second, something in the 3-5 minute range and then something around 20 minutes would be sufficient to generate a reliable power/duration curve.

I have read about the different tests for power, Friel, Carmichael, Lim. What are you doing to test your power?

Just wondering, as I am getting ready to test our team and wondered what the most efficient tests are.

BEST = average power over 60 minutes / 40k TT -- but that takes some mental fortitude.

BETTER = do a 5 minute max power test, recover briefly, then average power over 20 minutes x .95.

REASONABLE = average power over 20 minutes x .95.

All of the above are for arriving at "functional threshold" (FT), in Coggan-Allen-speak.

I would think you'd want to test shorter durations as well since FTP isn't going to predict those powers very well, those shorter powers are trainable by different techniques than FTP, and those shorter powers could dictate inidividual and team strategies in races as much as FTP. E.g. if your teammate with the highest FTP only puts out 800 peak watts in a sprint and has a similarly weak 30 sec max power, working for him in a sprint is pointless. Similarly if you're trying to improve your sprint or jump, what good is measuring power if your only marker of power is FTP?

I would think you'd want to test shorter durations as well since FTP isn't going to predict those powers very well, those shorter powers are trainable by different techniques than FTP, and those shorter powers could dictate inidividual and team strategies in races as much as FTP. E.g. if your teammate with the highest FTP only puts out 800 peak watts in a sprint and has a similarly weak 30 sec max power, working for him in a sprint is pointless. Similarly if you're trying to improve your sprint or jump, what good is measuring power if your only marker of power is FTP?

Agreed -- 5sec and 1min powers, at min, would be useful to know strengths and weaknesses. Then again, the sprinters usually know who they are and who they aren't.

5 sec, 1 min, 5 min and 20 min are done in the Hunter/Coggan book. Hunter's training plans use the same protocol as the book. Coggan tends to disagree with the Hunter testing protocol in favor of the full 1 hour TT.

The widest protocols for determining functional threshold are:
http://lists.topica.com/lists/wattage/read/message.html?mid=910289158

But if you want to compare to the standard power profile used over at Cyclingpeaks, you'd want 5 sec, 1 min, 5 min and 1 hr estimates/tests.

You can also use the Monod protocol. You can get an excel spreadsheet that helps you out on that from:
www.velo-fit.com