Using CP30 Values for Fitness Tracking in WKO+
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 2:57PM by TrainingBible Coach, Jim Vance
In my past articles on the PMC charts and overall fitness monitoring, I discussed how WKO+ is a coaching and training tool which goes largely underused relative to its true value, which is seeing the overall picture of training and fitness progression.
If a coach or athlete is only looking at a single training file, then there is little value if it has nothing else to compare itself to. If the athlete has many files to compare the single file to, then there is even more information which can be gained.
The progression of an athlete’s fitness over the course of a season is not linear, and will always have ups and downs. However, the general trend, or slope of the fitness, is what we want to watch for. If the trend is down, or flat, the athlete has reached a plateau, and some adjustments to the training need to be made.
One of the best ways to do this is simply to track an athlete’s best CP30 watts value, by week, and view the trend. Why CP30 values? Because there are a lot more 30 minute samples in a week, than say 2 to 3 hours. Below is a CP30 chart by week:
You can see this athlete was progressing well thru the early part of the year, before a broken collar bone in a crash sidelined him for a month. Due to the lost training time, we had to start over with some base work, and progress toward Ironman Florida.
Because of a plateau appearing in the training over the last 5 weeks, we decided to rest and test for CP30. The test result is the high point on the far right, with the prior test being the next higher point, 6 weeks prior. This test result gives me confidence in the training we’ve been doing, and confidence for the athlete, in their preparation.
The chart below shows the CP30 value by week, for run pace, in kilometers per hour for the same athlete. Using this chart, I can manipulate the training if I see a plateau. I can also see if the training stress I am applying is working. So far, the past four weeks have seen increased volume of the same intensity, yet the athlete has seen improvement in their CP30 run values. This is reassuring as a coach. Again, making sure the trend is positive.
Track trends of fitness, not just looking at individual files, and you’ll really get a great sense of where your athlete is, where they’re going, and even where they came from.
Best of luck!
Jim Vance is a USAT Level 2 and Elite Coach for TrainingBible Coaching. You can see many of his webinars on WKO+ at Performancewebinars.comand follow his writings and training advice at his coaching blog, CoachVance.blogspot.com. Questions or comments can be sent tojvance@trainingbible.com.
Reader Comments (5)
How do you set up a cp30 pwer chart? I do not seem to be able to find anything that can guide me in doing this.
Hi Pete,
Great question! I just posted the steps over on the forum: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/bbs-forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=67652
Let me know if you've got other questions. Hope that helps!
Happy training :)
[...] Using CP30 values for fitness tracking in WKO+ [...]
Is it possible to create a custom chart using the TrainingPeaks web tool? The closest I can get is the "Fitness History" chart, which shows historical 20m and 60m power.
Jacob: TrainingPeaks.com has multiple Charts that allow for customization, both for the Detailed Workout View and the Dashboard View. http://support.trainingpeaks.com/personal-edition/charts.aspx
Take a look at the Peak Power Chart here: http://support.trainingpeaks.com/personal-edition/charts/peak-power-charts.aspx
and the Power Distribution Chart: http://support.trainingpeaks.com/personal-edition/charts/power-distribution-chart.aspx