How do I use my PDC?

Your PDC is individual to you, your fitness, and your abilities.

It changes as you train (or detrain).

If you’re training for an event, it should move up (higher power for same duration), to the right (longer duration for same power), or both.

What does this mean?

As long as your PDC is accurate (an up-to-date reflection of your capability), you can use it to:

✅ identify the power you should be able to maintain for every duration modelled on your PDC – your current capability

✅ estimate how well you might perform for a shorter event, where you’ll be running at an effort where the fast component dominates

✅ estimate how well you might perform for a longer event, where you’ll be running at an effort where the slow component dominates

✅ estimate your threshold, although your PDC isn’t usually used for that. Your threshold lies approximately where the two curves meet – the vertical blue line in the image

How do I know if my PDC is accurate?

A good question, and one that deserves a separate post.