Because riding speed is affected by factors such as slope, wind direction, weather, etc., power has always been the best data to monitor the intensity of bicycle training. Power directly reflects how much energy you are expending on your bicycle.
So does this mean we can take the maximum power as an indicator of a person's "riding ability"? The answer is no, simply because a person can outride another person with a maximum power of 400W, yet he may not be able to ride for two hours with 200W. In contrast, a mountaineering expert with excellent endurance may be able to ride for 250 hours with 250W at 350W.
Therefore, in order to more objectively define a person's riding ability, we must use the ratio of Functional Threshold Power (FTP) to weigh in as a reference value, and each value corresponds to a riding strength. The Functional Threshold Power scale judges everyone's riding ability by riding power. In order to understand this, first, we need to understand what is the Functional Critical Power (FCP) and how it is defined. We must understand this before we can get to know what the term "Threshold Power" means.
The human body produces lactic acid at any time. Whether it is riding slowly or trying harder to gain speed, lactic acid will be produced. As long as the strength does not exceed the "critical value", the body can expel it in time. When the strength is further pulled up, lactic acid will increase, and at the same time, the body's mechanism for removing lactic acid will also increase accordingly, so that the lactic acid concentration in the body is maintained in a dynamic equilibrium state. But when the strength continues to increase, the amount of lactic acid produced exceeds the load of the exclusion mechanism, resulting in the failure to maintain the dynamic balance, a large amount of lactic acid will be accumulated.
In the process of increasing exercise intensity, one thing is that the cumulative amount of lactic acid is equal to the amount of lactic acid eliminated. At this time, it is the critical point of your lactic acid accumulation. Exercise physiologists call it "Lactate Threshold" (LT). The power output when the body is at the lactic acid threshold is called "critical power".
Although, in theory, the cyclist can maintain it at the lactic acid threshold, because the body's lactic acid elimination mechanism will decline over time, the better the aerobic ability of the body, the slower the decline of the body. The elite sports players can sustain up to 1 hour (60 minutes), but an untrained person may only last 10-20 minutes. The definition of FTP is to set a ride with your best effort for a fixed time of 60 minutes. The final average power is FTP. This value is also called CP60 (Critical Power of 60 min. Maximum average power). When you exceed FTP, the pedaling power will quickly decline, and when you step under FTP, you can maintain your pace for a relatively long time.
How do we define the maximum and minimum riding power? The level of riding power is from the lowest 20 to the highest 85, so how do we define the highest and lowest values? Although we can find out the FTP of each knight, because of the different weights, it is not possible to grade the actual riding power. For example, the A player is 130 pounds, his FTP is 300 watts, and the other B player is 200 pounds. 300 watts. Obviously, the strength of player A must be a lot higher than that of player B on the playing field.
So we first find out the best FTP of several current elite sports players in the world, and then divide by their weight to see what the relationship is. Later we found that they all fell to about 6.4, so we put the maximum FTP / weight ratio of 6.4 is set to 85 riding power.
We looked for a few girls with no riding experience and used the 10-minute FTP test to find out their "FTP / weight" ratio. We found that the lowest girls were all-around 1.5, so we put the "FTP / A riding value of "weight" of 1.5 is set at 20. Finally, we use the equal difference formula to evenly distribute different "FTP / weight" ratios to each level to rank the riding ability. As long as each knight enters his FTP and weight, our program will help you compare your current strength of that level of riding power.
This test is only the first step. After you learn your riding power, you can design a personalized training schedule (that is, there is no so-called personalization without testing). If you are interested in riding power, you can go directly to the "Ability Test" page and input your recent "critical power" and "weight" directly in the "FTP test results". Then press "Detect", and the following that will appear is your riding power and training power at all levels.
Now, do you know your riding ability value? Don't forget to follow Himiway electric bikes where we will update you with the latest electric bike knowledge every week!
