... power and being on the bike, and how to apply power, and
there's a lot of misconceptions as to where that comes from and what may happen.
So, with that, what we're going to have Doug do here is—we've got him outfitted on the watt bike—
We are going to have him go for a couple of max effort, for about 20 seconds, for max
effort rides. He'll be set on a 10 damper setting for the watt bike, which is the
highest gear that would be on your bike.
And he'll go for 20 seconds as hard as he can. What we're going to do—and I'm not going to beat him with the belt—
I am going to actually anchor him down on one of these to the seat. So
that he's literally anchored down and he can drive a much power and force as he can
out of his legs so that he's attached to it. It's almost like having a seatbelt on.
With that, we'll be able to see where he's more effective.
What that would say is that if it is all about getting that force and having big strong legs and
being able to apply that force, is that the other factors wouldn't be involved
where your general center of mass is over the top of you and your body weight comes into the whole thing.
Let's just play this thing out and see where it goes.
So what we're going to have him do right now is we'll go without the
the strap and we're going to go for 20 seconds. He's
warmed up already. You're warm, right?
Doug: Enough.
So, I'll kill it at 20 seconds,
I'll hit escape and we'll get all of the parameters of what Doug is capable of doing.
You ready? Go.
So, he had a peak power of 716 watts and
his power average was—in 20 seconds—
615 watts.
I'm going to let him totally recover. The interesting thing is his left to right was
50 percent, his average cadence was 104.
It's a pretty big gear to be pushing that kind of an average cadence.
He topped out at about 109 cadence—his peak.
His distance was 314 meters
in 20 seconds. Nice.
20.42, so just a hundredth of a second under.
His average wattage was 583,
and his peak was 726. So he
actually put out a peak real quick of 726—a little higher.
But his average was 583.
Doug: 305 covered.
So, much more efficient.
That's using just the muscles versus using all the variables and what we're
doing on a bike and using all that stuff
in unison. Doug: I think it was
—that was just 20 seconds.
There's not too many races that are 20 seconds unless you're on a track.
So extrapolate that out over a 40-km time trial or a 20-km
time trial or a 100-mile road race,
those numbers are going to get wider and wider and wider apart—
less power.
So, the less effective you are on the bike, the more you're trying to use just muscular effort,
muscular effort, muscular effort versus using those variables, those outside
variables where you can get more efficient at it,
and ride the bike better or run better or swim better or row better,
you're going to be more effective.