EFFICIENCY vs WORK

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You’re constantly searching for the best performance, but what do you have to do to get there? What factors have to be kept in mind? What kind of workout should you consider?

Let’s start by getting familiar with some basic concepts involved in cycling workouts. Do these sound familiar?

All of these concepts surround our everyday workouts with fellow athletes, especially in the world of cycling. In this article, we’ll focus on clearing up some of them.

The joule is defined as the work needed to produce a watt of power for one second. In other words, one watt-second (W·s). This relationship is also used to define the watt. Kj (kilojoule) =103 J

That’s just a product. I move 100 cardboard boxes an hour. That’s the work I’ve done, the result.

Now, my friend also did this work but since he’s more efficient that I am, he used less energy (fewer calories) and didn’t get as tired.

Several factors come into play here: metabolic efficiency (gas exchange), fitness level (physical factors, strength, coordination, muscle resistance, range of mobility) and also how you schedule the work you have ahead of you (self-regulation/self-adjustment).

Metabolic efficiency is highly attuned to one genetic factor (VO2max), though there’s a lot of room for improvement (more so when people start working out at an early age). But you need patience to see results (especially at high levels). Keep in mind that this involves blood flow to the muscles involved in the specific exercise, cooling of vital organs, lactate clearance, etc.

Mikel Azparren, entrenador de ciclismo

The better the training level, and note I said better, not higher, the better the metabolic efficiency. But scheduling also comes into play here. You have to know your values (thresholds) so you can schedule your workouts and use the training level that’s suited to your values.

In other words, two people (with the same energy reserves) can produce the same power (400 W), but one might need more energy than the other (more or less efficient), and so will have to stop working before the other.

So if you have to ride 200 km on your bike, the first thing you need to do is get your fitness up and build a strong, resistant vehicle with good mobility and agility. It has to hold up for the entire season.

Then you have to work so that everything you’ve built learns to spend as little as possible (anaerobic threshold). Later, you will try to get the biggest fuel tank possible (aerobic threshold). You can get all these values by doing a stress test, which in addition to the above values will also reveal your power threshold (FTP). Thresholds can be monitored via heart rate (which is in turn determined by blood flow to the muscles, cooling of organs, metabolic hygiene and lactate clearance) or using a power meter.

At the end of the process, success will mean being able to generate much more work at your aerobic threshold so your tank lasts as long as possible. Expensive watts leave your tank too empty, even for what should be an easy effort.

That’s why it’s important to realize that the maximum watts someone can generate for a short time (even in a P20) are not a reference for knowing the watts that person should generate in a longer or more variable workout.

Mikel Azparren

Cycling trainer

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