Indoor Climbing Calculation

Here’s a rough rule of thumb about Indoor Climbing Calculation….

1. Note your Normalised power (NP) for the activity from the Power Agent download (if you don’t have NP then use average power ).

2. Note your energy consumption (E) in kJ

3. Calculate what your total mass (M) would be if you were riding (i.e. you+bike+kit+Camelbak etc)

Climbing meters then = (F x E x 1000)/(9,81 x M)

How does it work ? A straight application of Newton’s Law, assuming that most of your energy whilst climbing goes into overcoming gravity, with assumed losses accounted for by factor F.

If you think you’ll be climbing over rough terrain (Epic perhaps) then use F=0,75-0,8 (obstacles, loose surface etc), for road rides maybe 0,9.

e.g. for a 1 hr workout at NP of 208W and energy consumption of 708kJ. Say M=102 kg and a loss factor of 0.75 (for MTB rider)

The climbing meters= (0.75 x 708 x 1000)/(9,81 x 102)= 530 m