Help with Critical Power Profile test

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Hi everyone,
I've done a quick search and didn't find anything relevant so I hope this hasn't been raised before, but I was looking for some advice on developing a Critical Power Profile.

A BNA member (nickobec) has kindly lent me a power tap power meter for a week (thanks again Nick!), so I'm trying to figure out my FTP and CPP. However, I'm not very good at pacing myself and am looking for some information on approximate heart rates to aim for (with respect to LTHR) for the 6, 12 and 30 minute tests. I realise for shorter intervals HR is not very useful, and obviously the interval starts when exertion starts, not when a particular HR is reached, but I've never done these kinds of maximum intensity intervals before so any kind of rough idea will help.

Also, which (free) programs would you reccommend for developing the CPP graph? I'm pretty handy with excel if there isn't such a program.

Thanks,

Matt

[nickobec]

Also, which (free) programs would you reccommend for developing the CPP graph? I'm pretty handy with excel if there isn't such a program.

Golden Cheetah is an invaluable free tool, plot CP for single rides and over all rides.

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Thanks Nick i'll download that now.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

HR is unusable to pace the shorter tests well.

Pacing well is something you learn by performing such tests and interval efforts. Sometimes you generate better average power the next time because you pace better.

CP is just the slope of the energy - duration plot.

Just plot the three data points with energy* (joules) on vertical axis and duration on the horizontal axis (seconds). If they were maximal well paced efforts, they points should be on a straight line.

Critical Power is the slope of this line.

The intercept of the vertical axis is a measure of your anaerobic work capacity (joules).


* to get joules for each effort it's just the average power (watts) x duration (seconds).

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Thanks for the rply Alex. Is it correct that the purpose of a CP test is to determine ones anaerobic work capacity? Also, what does this value tell you, what is it used for? Thanks