Can You Guess This Profile Objective?

You’re in for a treat next week. I’m putting the finishing touches on the next ICA profile. This will be more than a Quick Profile…it’s going to come with lots of great cueing. It’s a power-based profile that will help you teach your riders about power and wattage. 

I’ve taught it twice in class but realized I needed to experience it in full myself since it’s not the kind of profile you can coach effectively at the same high intensity as your riders. So, I decided to take myself through the session at home and saved all my data.

It did not disappoint. It’s hard…but achievable. Only the die-hards would call it “fun,” but it certainly leaves you feeling proud of yourself!

So, before giving you the profile, I thought I’d post the ride data and see if you can analyze it and figure out the objective in advance. 

For tips on how to analyze power profiles and what you can learn from analyzing them, here are two previous posts on the topic. In this one, I explain how it’s such an incredible way to learn about the effects of your profiles, and in this one, I give you two profiles of two different riders to analyze and compare. 

Now, let’s have some fun…

5 Comments

  1. wait – majority of power was Z2 (75% FTP) so FTP is perhaps higher and targets during intervals were lower! FTP 250?

  2. OK I am guessing at the times but here’s my breakdown:
    Pace and Power challenge. Inverse relationships. muscular strength and endurance
    FTP 200 W
    Recovery 100 W (50% FTP)

    1) 100W 90 RPM 6′
    2) @FTP 70 RPM 2 sets 4’. RBI 100W 70 RPM 3′
    3) Recovery here at 100W 80 RPM 3’
    4) @150% FTP 65 RPM 2 sets 2’. RBI 100W 65 RPM 2′
    5) Recovery here at 100W 90 RPM 5’
    6) @FTP 70 RPM 5’
    7) Recovery here at 100W 85 RPMs 4’
    8) 8 sets 1’ @ FTP at 75 RPM first 4 then 85 RPM final four. RBI 90”
    9) Recovery here at 100W 90 RPM 4’
    10) 2 sets 30” Peak power. RBI 3’
    11) Cool down 80 RPM 6’

    1. Author

      Excellent!

      Very close. However, looking at the power distribution chart, you’ll see that almost no time was spent in power Zone 4 (FTP), so essentially, every effort was above in Zones 5 & 6 (or Friel’s 5a and 5b).

      Note how much time was spent in power Zone 2 (by necessity).

    2. excellent to note that the 8 shorter intervals (they were actually 30 seconds on 60 seconds off, but that’s tough to get from the graph) were at two different cadences.

      My goal was to put out the same power (about 110% FTP) but it was harder to do at 85 rpm (I was getting tired!).

      1. Funny…I have two different ICA accounts, one as an admin and one to see what everything looks like as a member…I didn’t realize I responded from both accounts! It because I have 2 browsers open! 😉

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