Cycling: Why a Steady Effort Pays Off

A big concern among triathletes is being able to ride steady on the bike—regardless of hills or unpredictable terrain. But what is "steady riding?" And how do you maintain it during a race?

Riding Steady

The ability to ride steady is essentially the ability to maintain a nearly constant effort, regardless of uphills, downhills, winds or other threatening terrain, with few to zero surges of power/effort. To explain why this is important let's toss out some power-geekery terms:

• Average Watts: The physics of you riding your bike—rider with weight X, aerodynamics of Y, puts up Z average watts for 112 miles on the Ironman Wisconsin bike course and puts up a 6:xx bike split. "Average watts" is the physics of what's going on there.
• Normalized Watts: A construct created by Hunter Allen and Andy Coggan, normalized power attempts to account for the fact that all watts are not created equal. The metabolic cost of watts gets much, much higher as watts increase and normalized watts tries to account for this. In short, "normalized watts" is how tired you felt after producing your average watts.

More: Can You Control Fatigue?

Normalized watts allows us to compare two very different rides, and normalize them.

For example:

• Timmy does a flat ride and his average power (Pavg) is 200 W.
• Billy does a big climbing ride and averages 200 W. (Assume Billy and Timmy are identical twins on identical bikes.)
• Timmy's normalized power (Pnorm) is 210 W, however Billy's Pnorm is 225 W. In short, although Billy and Timmy both produced the same average watts, Billy's ride was harder and more costly to his body. In other words, Billy's style of riding made him more tired.

More: Why Is My Brother More Powerful Than Me?

How a Steady Ride Comes Into Play

If we divide Pnorm by Pavg we get Variability Index (VI), a measurement of how variable or "non-steady" each ride was. In the example above, Timmy's VI is 1.05, Billy's VI is 1.125. A low VI ride is more steady than a high VI ride.

Using these definitions of average watts (physics of riding your bike) and normalized watts (how tired you got while producing those watts), we can now talk about how we (at Endurance Nation) want you to ride your bike on race day:

The Idea: Produce your optimal average watts while expending as little energy as possible.

More: 5 Reasons to Train With a Power Meter

That is, Pavg and Pnorm should be very close. Which means we want to see a low VI.

What does this style of riding look like on the road?

How You Should Ride

Goal watts: based on your fitness and the length of the course, your goal is to ride at 220 W. So you're riding on the flats at 220 W.

• Hills: The road starts to go up. You look at the power meter monitor and dial in about 230 to 240 W. You maintain this effort across the crest of the hill and keep it up (or dial it down to about 220 W) until you hit about 34 to 35mph?then you just coast, or you keep pedaling at your goal watts until you spin out. If coasting, as you drop under about 30 mph you start to pedal again at 220 W and your speed bleeds down to your normal cruising speed.
• Headwinds/Tailwinds: You simply maintain your 220 W into the wind and 220 W with the tailwind.

More: Should Your Sit or Stand When Riding Uphill?

Contrast this to?

How Everyone Else Rides

• Hills: Watch the people around you. You'll see that as the hill starts they step on the gas and may quickly put several bike lengths between them and you. Remember that the metabolic cost of watts increases exponentially, not linearly. There is a BIG price to pay, later in the day, for stepping on the gas like this. Next, you'll see them come off the gas and, if the hill is long enough, this gap between you and them stabilizes. As the hill reaches the crest, watch their body language as they come WAY off the gas. Shagged from their effort, they keep these low watts up just past the crest of the hill and then keep pedaling, weakly, on the downhill. Or they start to coast right away. Compare their 27mph to your 35mph.
• Winds: Watch your competitors step on the gas into the wind; they have an exponentially higher cost of high watts. Also, resistance increases exponentially with wind speed. So your 220 W into a 20-mph wind gets you 18 mph, while their 275 W into the same wind gets them about 20 to 21 mph. But when the wind changes, they come way off the gas while you stay on 220 W. Your speed is now 30 mph to their 24 mph.

More: 4 Tips for Cycling Uphill

So you and your non-EN (Endurance Nation) friend go round and round the bike course, exiting T1 and entering T2 together. And, of course, you're identical twins?again. Both of you finish with average watts of 220 W. However, your style of riding has created a Pnorm of 230 W while your friend's style as created a PNorm of 250 W.

More: Climbing Smart on Race Day

You've both done the same physics, meaning the same bike split, but we could say that your style of riding was more efficient, making you less tired.

Myself, Patrick McCrann, and many, many EN athletes have been racing like this for years. It absolutely, positively works, in that you can see just how hard everyone else around you is working?and not getting anything for it. They charge up hills, killing themselves to get to the top, and then shut it down, again and again and again. Before long they just go away or end up suffering on the run.

More: How to Ride Steady

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