Reading your power curve

Your power curve is the chart that shows your best average power over every duration — from one second to several hours. It is the single most honest summary of what your legs can actually do, because it does not care about your training plan, your perceived effort, or your favorite Strava segment. It just shows what happened.

What the curve actually shows

For every duration on the x-axis, the curve plots the highest average power you have produced for that duration in the selected window (a week, a season, all-time). A flat or shallow drop from short to long durations means you are well-rounded across efforts. A steep drop after a few minutes usually means you have not done much work at threshold or longer.

What to look for

• The 5s–30s range. This is your sprint and anaerobic capacity. It is mostly genetic and trains slowly, so do not panic if it is your weak point — but a steep cliff after 10 seconds is worth noticing.
• The 1–5 minute range. This is VO2 max territory. Big swings here come from hard interval work. If this section is hollow, your hardest efforts are not hard enough.
• The 20–60 minute range. This sits at or above threshold. It is the most trainable region for almost every athlete and the most relevant for racing endurance events.
• The 60+ minute range. This is your aerobic engine. Long rides at endurance pace are how this section lifts. Intervals will not do it.

Using the curve for pacing

Before a target effort — a hill climb, a TT, a hard group ride — look at your power curve at the duration you are about to ride. That is your honest ceiling. Pick a starting pace that respects it. If you ride 15 watts above your 20-minute best in the first 5 minutes of a 20-minute effort, the curve has already told you how that will end.

Common misreads

A power curve from a single ride is not your real power curve. Use at least 90 days of data. A spike at 1 second from a sprinted traffic light is not your sprint capacity. Trim outliers when you can. And do not compare your curve to anyone else's — compare it to your own curve from 90 days ago. That is the only comparison that means anything.