News, ideas, research, exercises, stories and reflections related to the sport of cycling.
Critical power testing
It is the end of October, and these days winter training/base training is starting for most cyclists. Something common for many is to perform some form of test, to get a benchmark for their training and to see their starting point heading into winter. In the upcoming series of posts, we will go through which tests are common and uncommon, which are easy and necessary, and which are complicated and less necessary for cyclists and other endurance athletes to undertake.
Use critical power to guide your training
In this post, Erik Åkesson explains what critical power (CP) is, how to measure it, and how he has used CP to guide his own training. Simply put, CP is the highest work intensity (power output) at which the body can maintain a steady state and thus work for an extended period, typically 20-40 minutes. When testing CP, you also get a measure of your total anaerobic capacity (W’), that is, how much energy you can expend above CP.