Repeatability: the differentiator

I am sure that everyone has experienced this when riding with a group. You come to the first climb and everyone stays together, and maybe also on the second climb, but as the ride goes on the group starts to break apart and riders get dropped. Why is that? Are they not as strong as the riders out front, are they not in shape? Was the pace too high for them?

Of course, we all want to be able to push more watts. But we need to be careful in thinking that this is the only mark of improved fitness. Take a moment and think about your riding experiences. It isn’t until later in rides that the difference in rider fitness starts to show. Yes, wattage is one part of this. But repeatability is also a key component of riding well. Those that can push decent - not necessarily stellar - wattage repeatedly are often the ones that can make the final group.

Repeatability - the ability to do an effort more than once consistently, is one key element of fitness that is often overlooked. On rides we rarely hit our peak numbers. It is more likely that you will have to do repeated efforts of medium to high intensity several times. How well you recover between each of these efforts determines your ability to maintain your effort level and not blow up. Repeatability can determine your ability to stay with the group.

A good marker of repeatability is doing two ramps back-to-back. Substitue two climbs for ramps and suddenly you are outdoors riding with your friends. Can you push the same wattage and heart rate across the two climbs? We can see two endurance based ramps below.

In making an analysis of repeatability we have to keep in mind that cadence also plays a significant role in affecting heart rate. A slower cadence usually lowers the heart rate. To make the comparison between the two ramps valid the cadence needs to be similar. We can see below that in this case, with the two ramps highlighted, that the rider did a good job of not only repeating the power but also the cadence.

Now to look at the repeatability of the heart rate.

Which we can clearly see when looking at the lap data for the final 5-minute steps in each of the ramps.

Final 5-min of the second ramp

Final 5-min of the first ramp

Repeatability is an indication of the strength of your aerobic system. This is the system that allows you to recuperate between efforts and go again and again, so that you can be part of the group that is pushing the peloton during your weekly club race.

The moral of the story is that you can have an amazing VO2 ability on Zwift, and be able to push big watts, but if you can't use that ability more than once on a climb with your group you aren't likely to be a force to be reckoned with.

While we are all training to be able to do more wattage, we have to be careful to not make that our only goal in training. You need a solid aerobic system to perform, and repeatability should be one of your main objectives when you think about improving as a rider. Tempo and endurance training are key elements in training your aerobic system. They are typically under-appreciated and labeled as being “too easy”, but spending time at these effort levels will make your aerobic system better. The better aerobic system then underpins your big wattage efforts and makes those efforts repeatable. Improving your aerobic system is a big focus of training with Sans Chaine. It takes time, and it ain't sexy training, but it will make you a better rider.