Watts versus pace

[Bob S.]

For racing, pace is the obvious choice, but it's still of use to remember that it's an inverse cube root function of Power.

Correction

Bob S.

[Carl Watts]

Sorry its been a while since I did math but is it not a square cube law ?

2^3 so if you want to say double any given pace you need to put in 8 times the power.

Applies to your Erg (as if it was water) as well as the air resistance your car experiences with speed.

Anything above 2:00 pace is not to bad to take a second off but when you get down to 1:40 pace it's getting very nasty in terms of the increase in power required.

Did find a graph once of pace vs Watts once but cannot seem to find it again.

[Bob S.]

Sorry its been a while since I did math but is it not a square cube law ?

No. No squaring involved here; it is just a matter of cubing in this case. It was just that you had it reversed. The power is an inverse cube function of the pace, so the pace is an inverse cube root function of the power. I figured that it was just sort of a typo, but I tend to get too pedantic lots of times. Old habits die hard.

You are right about the doubling of the speed (inverse of pace as the word is used in erging) would mean a factor of 8 increase in the power required.

I have seen that table you mentioned, but the C2 calculator does the job easily enough:

http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/ ... /watts.asp

Bob S.