Just to prove I actually do something with all the power data I have.
This is the quadrant plot from the road ride I did today.
So what is it?
Quadrant Analysis is a way to measure the neuromuscular power demands of cycling. Taken from the book, "Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Dr. Andrew R. Coggan, "Tools such as Normalized Power, Intensity Factor, and Training Stress Score explicitly recognize the seemingly stochastic nature of cycling power output and help coaches and athletes better understand the actual physiological demands of a given race or workout.
Neuromuscular What? “Neuromuscular function” may sound complicated, but it simply means how fast you can contract a muscle, how strongly you can contract it, and how long you can contract it before relaxing it again.
Each quadrant represents a different combination of force(how hard you push on the pedals) and pedaling velocity(how fast you push on the pedals).
QI: High Force and High Cadence- An example of this would be sprinting.
QII: High Force and Low Cadence- An example would be steep hill repeats, big gear intervals and a lot of Mt. Biking resides in QII as well.
QIII: Low Force and Low Cadence- An example would be a recovery ride or just an easy ride around town.
QIV: Low Force and High Cadence- An example would be a Criterium or fast pedaling drills.
I have highlighted some key areas to look at when reading one of these plots.
These are,
- The general shape of the plot (a tight elipse)
- The direction of the shape (low right to top left)
- Where the outliers are sitting (Quadrant 2- High force, low cadence)
- What the percentages are in each quadrant
So this is what a road training flie looks like. Tomorrow I will post up a MTB ride to highlight a number of points.
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