VELOARCHITECT

Mechanical Efficiency is the W/bpm ratio. It captures how much power the engine delivers for each beat the cardiovascular system supplies. Mechanical Efficiency is most useful tracked across months, not session-to-session. Single rides are noisy because heat, fuel, hydration, and pacing all bias the ratio. Across a training block, Mechanical Efficiency answers a different question than FTP tests: is the Athlete producing more power for the same cardiac cost, or holding power at lower cardiac cost?

Protocols: Protocol 1 — Zone Endurance; Protocol 2 — VO₂max Repeats

The metric traverses the closed loop: Intent is the .zwo prescription the system computed against the Athlete’s True Normal. Telemetry is the .fit recording of the executed session. Adaptation is the longitudinal movement of the metric itself, logged against the True Normal and feeding back into the next day’s prescription via Protocol 10 (Adaptive Workout).