𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?
There’s an inverse relationship between power and duration: the higher your power (your effort), the shorter the duration you can sustain it; the lower your power, the longer you can sustain it.
You can chart this relationship. The result is a curve showing your Mean-Max Power (MMP) – the power you can sustain for each duration.
You can use your MMP to obtain your Power-Duration Curve (PDC), a modelled relationship between power and duration based on your completed workouts.
The picture accompanying this post shows a typical PDC (with accompanying MMP).
It’s usually charted using a logarithmic duration scale – which expands the left side of the curve and compresses the right side, revealing that the PDC is actually two separate curves.
𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐃𝐂 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞
Your ability to resist fatigue has two components – a fast component and a slow component.
Both elements of fatigue are always present, but the fast element of fatigue dominates at higher intensities, and the slow element dominates at lower intensities.
While both elements are always present, researchers have been able to separate and model each component, finding that:
🔹 you can model the fast component of fatigue using a hyperbolic curve
🔹 you can model the slow component of fatigue using an exponential curve
The next couple of posts will explore the two different parts of the PDC.
𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?
From its first introduction in ‘Training and Racing with a Power Meter’ (Allen, H., Coggan, A. & McGregor, S.) in 2006, and its subsequent incorporation into WKO4 in 2015, the PDC has become the standard for modelling your power over all time periods. For more information on the PDC as implemented in WKO, see ‘Scientific Basis of the New Power Duration Model in WKO4‘.
