Wattbike power test

I have been very pleasantly surprised by the results of my training so far. Without really trying I have managed to get back to form that has approached, sometimes even bettered, my lifetime best.

The main factor in this has been to change the way I pedal, largely achieved by the happy chance of crap summer weather resulting in me spending most of my training time on my Wattbike.

I have felt very good when on this, so good in fact it crossed my mind that it may simply be down to the Wattbike giving high power readings.

So I plan to do a few tests to check this and did the first of these over the last couple of days. Simple process, ride the same power interval on Wattbike and road bike + Powertap and compare how they look in terms of RPE and HR. 

Yesterday I did a session on the Wattbike including a solid 30mins alternating 5 mins at 280W+/5mins 300W+. (push a bit on last 5 mins) I chose this as I was pretty sure I could repeat it on the road. Further it represents a key power zone that I would aim to compete at and the zone that marks transition to from sweetspot to hard going.

Today was a nice sunny day so I went out on the bike and did a session aiming to do the same 30 min interval. As expected it was quite straightforward to achieve, (which by itself is an indication of how well I am going!). It ended up being slightly longer due to traffic conditions.

In terms of RPE:  If anything it felt easier than the Wattbike. Partly due I think to time just passing more quickly when you are riding for real. Obviously power was a bit more up variable on road but I still managed to hit the targets np and felt really strong.

HR: Summary stats for the two sessions are

Wattbike 30:08 296W/296NW HR av 159bpm max 168bpm drift 2.13%

Bike 34:38 302W/303NW HR av 161bpm max 170bpm drift 2.42%

Breakdown of the 6 intervals is as follows (Wattbike first, HR shows average and peak during the interval)

    Wattbike                     Powertap

I1 281W 149>154bpm 293W 149>155bpm

I2 310W 159>162bpm 311W 159>163bpm

I3 286W 160>161bpm 286W 161>165bpm * 8 min long including slow/sprints

I4 306W 163>166bpm 317W 164>168bpm

I5 281W 161>164bpm 289W 163>167bpm

I6 313W 165>168bpm 327W 160>170bpm * 6 mins long

Bottom line is that both sets are pretty much identical in terms of HR and RPE to produce this power interval. Which is good news, in terms of the zone most relevant to me in terms of real world performance the Wattbike is pretty much dead on compared to my bike.