This article will show you how to use power cycling training zones to get an advantage over your competitors.

This article focuses on using power cycling training zones for hard efforts, an effort means different things to different people, for this article, an ‘effort’ is when you have to dig deep, and really push yourself hard.

There are different types of efforts: a sprint is different from a 20 mile climb, and a 20 mile climb is different from a 25 mile time trial.

Each person has a limited amount of efforts they can complete. For example, if you had to do an 80 lap criterium, and there was a sprint every lap, I doubt anyone would be able to do 80 sprints at full power on every lap.

Choosing the right moments to put in an effort is key to winning a race.

By using power cycling training zones, you can pace yourself properly during a hard effort, and avoid ‘blowing up’.

To use power cycling training zones correctly, you must know your functional threshold power (FTP). You can find out that, and more on my hub. (Link is at the end of this article).

For this article, I will use 250 watts as an example of somebodies FTP.

The first power cycling training zone is the 1 minute effort. You would use this zone for a short sprint, either on the flat, or up hill. The effort should be 20% or more above your FTP, or over 300 watts.

The second zone is the 5 minute effort. This zone could be used for a moderate climb, or a breakaway near the finish line. The effort should be 15% - 20% above your FTP, or 287 - 300 watts.

The third zone is the 10 minute effort. This could be used for a long climb, or during a breakaway. This effort should be done at 8% - 12% above your functional threshold power, or 270 - 280 watts.

The final power cycling training zone is the 20 minute effort. This will be close to your 10 mile time trial pace, but can also be used for a big climb, or a breakaway which is quite far from the finish line. This effort should be completed from your FTP, up to 8% above it, or 250 - 270 watts.

Knowing your FTP and power cycling training zones is crucial to pace yourself correctly during a race. If you go too hard, you will ‘blow up’, and will have to slow down considerably in order to recover.

If you do not go hard enough, you wont make much of a gap between you and your competitors, and you will have tired yourself out for no reason.

Those power cycling training zones can also be used for interval training sessions as well.

Find out how all this works on my hub about power cycling training.

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