{"id":2109,"date":"2013-05-22T02:19:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T02:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crankpunk.com\/?p=2109"},"modified":"2020-05-21T07:21:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T07:21:46","slug":"the-power-problem-whats-with-the-obsession-with-the-watts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crankpunk.com\/ja\/2013\/05\/22\/the-power-problem-whats-with-the-obsession-with-the-watts\/","title":{"rendered":"the power problem: what’s with the obsession with the watts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Power-to-The-People-33665394798\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHow did it go?\u201d I asked a young Frenchman when he\u2019d finally retrieved something akin to a normal breath after the 7.2kilometer individual time trial at the recent Tour of Friendship race in Thailand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, putain!\u201d he exclaimed, working his facial muscles into a look of disgust and wrangling a soggy baguette out of his back pocket. \u201cMy SRM console screwed up, stopped working, so I didn\u2019t know how hard to go\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

I just stood there looking at him, unable to find a comment that wasn\u2019t going to insult his intelligence. I mean, seriously? The guy had become so dependent on his power meter that, when it ceased to function, he didn\u2019t know how to judge his own body\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n

This obviously is an extreme case but as ever in life, it is often only at the extremes where we really begin to learn anything. This guy had gone over the edge, way beyond the line where a power meter went from being a tool, a guide, to a point where it had become his own personal cult leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d you may be thinking, \u201cthat guy went too far. But I use my SRM to tell me my limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

But therein lies the problem. Accepting limits.<\/p>\n

Two examples why. The first involves a guy who used to be on my team, who would never attack but who always finished in the pack, seemingly content with a 24th<\/sup> place and not getting dropped out the back.<\/p>\n

Now, some kids on my teams come up and ask me for advice, and I can talk to them all day about training and recovery, about how to limit lactic acid build-up in a race and about when and how to attack. It\u2019s a pleasure, to have young riders seeking ways to get better, and to be able to help them.<\/p>\n

On the other hand you have guys who blatantly need help who never ask anything. Whether it\u2019s shyness or arrogance I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019m not about to start telling someone ways to improve if they don\u2019t first seek it out.<\/p>\n

But this guy, he obviously had talent, and one day I\u2019d had enough of him soft-pedalling in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you never do anything in the race?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean? I always finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFinishing top 40 is worse than attacking and a DNF! You never attack. How do you expect to ever learn anything or to get better?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah but my heart rate monitor tells me I\u2019m near my limit. If I attack and get caught, I\u2019ll get dropped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bonk\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, \u2018knowing his limits\u2019, and worse \u2013 accepting them \u2013 was leading this kid to play it safe every race. Yes, if he did attack with 5km gone he would probably get dropped once he got caught. But so what? Getting dropped through hitting the wall toughens you up. The first time he might only have managed 50km.<\/p>\n

But the next time he might manage 60. Then 70. Then\u2026 well, who the heck knows? And that\u2019s it \u2013 nobody knows how good he might become with real dedication and a willingness to risk it all. But if he rides forever thinking \u2018I know\u2019<\/i>, with his current attitude, then he\u2019ll never improve.<\/p>\n

Second example. A guy is on his indoor trainer, riding with power. He does a test. He finds he can do X watts for 60 minutes. He trains each week for 6 weeks to get ready for a race, using the power meter each time he rides, indoors and out.<\/p>\n

Studies the lines, crunches the numbers. Examines data. Goes on FB to tell his pals he is improving. Then, race day comes.<\/p>\n

Boom! <\/i>Straight off the line the pace is mad, he\u2019s looking down and can barely see straight, then it goes uphill and \u2018h<\/em>olycrapIcan\u2019tdothis<\/em>!\u2019 \u2013 and then sure enough, he pulls the plug.<\/p>\n

The fact is that his beloved numbers have obscured from him the fact that almost always in a race, without fail, you are going to be riding harder \u2013 a lot \u2013 than you can in training, no matter how regimented and serious you may be.<\/p>\n

Improving is not always about a steady progression, in anything in this world. Every once in a while, amongst the grind and the slow push, you need to get turned inside out, strung out, dropped from a great height and just plain old battered.<\/p>\n

You need, from time to time, to glimpse the other side of the wall. To hang in there with someone who is on another level for as long as you can and to go home with a footprint on your backside – but one well earned.<\/p>\n

I remember my first race. Once my 15-year old self had just about gotten over the size of the muscles on the legs of the older guys around me, we then went up a hill that I rode all the time alone, but this time at a speed I couldn\u2019t even begin to get my head around.<\/p>\n

But I went up it. With the pack. And we did it another 5 times in total, and I almost won after being in a three-man break for 30 of the 50km race, but bonked so hard with just a few km to go that I fell over and just lay there for a minute until a car came by and asked if I was ok. Despite having entered another dimension of time and space, I think I said \u2018UGH\u2019, and they left me there, my feet still strapped to the pedals and half of my sweaty face covered in small pebbles and a cigarette butt.<\/p>\n

Possibly a rabbit dropping or two.<\/p>\n

\"easter_bunny_poo_sticker-p217280753637865779qjcl_400\"<\/a>Next race on the same coure, about three weeks, it was the same story all over again, except for the ending: this time I won. My solo attack (I took off a mile into the 33 mile race) almost petered out and the pack was just 100m behind me as I crossed the line, but goshdammit, I won. I fell off the bike straight away yet again, but this time with a huge smile on my face.<\/p>\n

We are surrounded by limits. We encounter our first at home, then a truckload more at school, the \u2018do this\u2019 and \u2018don\u2019t do that\u2019 \u2013 some perfectly reasonable, some less so \u2013 along with the \u2018you can\u2019t do that!\u2019 lot, which are far more insidious. And then, as if there weren\u2019t enough limitations imposed us by society, we then begin to impose them upon ourselves.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m too fat. <\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too old. <\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019m too \u2018me\u2019. <\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>Well, shove all that. You\u2019ve all no doubt heard those tales about mothers driving down the highway. The car flips. The woman gets out. Her child is inside. There\u2019s a flame. It\u2019s growing. She runs to the car and tries the door, no good. Then, knowing that she must do something or her child will be dead, she gets a grip and heaves and strains and lifts the car<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Extraordinary strength brought on by extraordinary circumstances<\/a>. Think she\u2019d have done that if she was using a power meter?<\/p>\n

Exactly. Not a chance.<\/p>\n

We are extraordinary beings. We are of stars, of this universe, from this universe, and that universe, most wondrously, is within each of us. Whenever we say \u2018I can\u2019t do that\u2019 \u2013 however essentially, unarguably true it may seem \u2013 we are denying the limitless potential of the human mind and spirit, of will and the determination to succeed.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t start riding to accept limitations, you start, by and large, to be free. To escape. To just ride, and ride fast. Then we become more \u2018serious\u2019 and start to get into the science of it all, and that\u2019s fine, I love science, I wish it would shine its light on more of the world and our befuddled attempts at existing in it. Yet to allow it to rule us is to deny the very unscientific elements that, ultimately, make people achieve such wondrous and unfathomable feats.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the immeasurable<\/i> that makes it all so worthwhile.<\/p>\n

Amundsen and Scott didn\u2019t have power meters. Neither did the first men to set off on rickety vessels across the great oceans. Nor the early climbers of the high mountains. Neither did Eddy Merckx.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/a>
Scott & Co<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, I\u2019m no Luddite, and yes, modern technology and power meters and the like can be extremely useful, but let them guide, not rule. Put them away a few days a week. Try not using an SRM in a hilly race. I\u2019d wager that something like 85% of people who have them don\u2019t use them properly.<\/p>\n

I know because I was one. SRM sponsored me for a year, and the console just stopped working after 2 weeks. It was 6 months before I sent it back, and to be honest, I just kept it on the bike to scare people. Because it meant I was serious. <\/i>It worked, too.<\/p>\n

[NOTE this article was written in 2013 when not many riders our here had PMs- <\/em>CP]<\/em><\/p>\n

Riding is so much in the mind that your philosophy of riding <\/i>can have a profound effect on everything you do.<\/p>\n

See what you can do. Feel your body and its incredible ability to adapt.<\/p>\n

And, most of all, feel limitless. Go on, give it a try\u2026<\/p>\n