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?
It means it’s possible:
✅ to identify the power you should be able to maintain for every duration modelled on your PDC – your current capability
✅ to estimate how well you might perform for a shorter event, where you’ll be running at an effort where the fast component dominates
✅ to estimate how well you might perform for a longer event, where you’ll be running at an effort where the slow component dominates
✅ to 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’s the topic of the final post in this series.
𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?
