DATA OVERLOAD

The software that crunches power numbers

Where there’s data, there are nerds eager to harvest it. The software that has accompanied the development of power has been brilliant and confusing in equal measure.

The first system to process power into a variety of metrics was Cycling Peaks, developed by Hunter Allen (peakscoachinggroup. com), which evolved into Training Peaks, the tool of choice for countless pro cyclists and coaches. Training Peaks’ most basic metric, the ‘performance manager chart’, uses heart rate and power data to map fitness, fatigue and form. That technology has been taken on by Strava, which also offers metrics such as a basic ‘power curve’ to model just how long a rider can sustain any given power.

For real data junkies, that basic software formed the framework for what is now called WKO4, also developed by Allen. It offers, to name a few metrics, power distribution by mean temperature, power average by cadence, functional reserve capacity vs modelled functional threshold power, and a bilateral power duration curve.

Another option is Golden Cheetah, a totally open-source alternative to Training Peaks or Strava. ‘Yeah, they just copied our software early on [as did Strava],’ Allen says. ‘Shame on us for not patenting it. We weren’t worried at the time because they made it for Mac and we didn’t, but who would have known back in 2004 that the Mac would come to dominate the market?’

Although it doesn’t boast everything on WKO4, it has amassed a vast array of metrics of varying levels of use, including claiming to be able to calculate a coefficient of drag figure from power and speed – effectively a rolling wind-tunnel.