New Premium Feature: Advanced Power Training Analysis

As of today, Premium members who ride with power meters can start training more intelligently with Strava Premium’s new Advanced Power Training Analysis. This initial set of power meter features is just the beginning, setting the stage for Strava Premium to give you even more reasons to love your power meter, train effectively, and hit your goals.

Here’s a breakdown of what power meter athletes now get with a Strava Premium membership:

• Weighted Average Power: Weighted Average Power looks at all of your power variation and provides an average power for your ride. This is a better indicator of your overall effort than simply taking your average power.
• Training Load: We calculate Training Load by comparing your power during a ride with your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and seeing how much load you put on your body during the workout. Training Load is a great way to determine how much rest you need after your workouts.
• Intensity: Intensity is Strava’s way of showing how difficult a ride was.  Strava looks at your Weighted Average Power for the ride and compares it to your FTP. For example, if your Weighted Average Power is 250W and your FTP 300W, then your Intensity would be at 75%.
• Power Curve: The Power Curve shows your best average power for time periods of 1 second up to the length of your ride. We pinpoint your best efforts during a ride and you can compare them with your best efforts in the last 6 weeks, the current year, years past, or all time! The Power Curve can be displayed in Watts (W) or Watts per Kilogram (W/kg.)

• Power Distribution by Power Zones: While the Power Curve shows your best efforts for given periods of time, Power Zone charts take each 1 second of power from your ride and distributes it by training zone based on your FTP.
• Power Distribution by 25W Increments: Similar to the Power Distribution by Power Zones, the Power Distribution by 25W Increments simply puts each 1 second of power into a 25W training zone from 0 to the highest power output on the ride.
• Power Curve in Training Section: Similar to the Power Curves on your activities, the Power Curve in the Training section allows you to compare any two of your power curves. For example, you can compare the last 6 weeks to all of 2012 or 2011 and see how you’re progressing.
• FTP Management in Settings: You’ll be able to manage your FTP so that Strava can accurately calculate Training Load, Intensity, and Power Distribution by Power Zones. FTP Management is very basic at this time, but we plan on giving you the ability to post-date previous FTPs.

We look forward to growing our arsenal of power meter features. If you aren’t already a Premium member and want to get the most out of your power meter in 2013, upgrade for only $6 per month or $59 per year. Enjoy!