Well, it's time to start a new cycle of the training program. I took most of last week off in preparation for it (you're supposed to have a few days of no training on either side of your "testing" day.
Did the road test on thursday. Results:
Date | Power | Heartrate | Weight |
2012-09-02 | 226 | 161 | 184 |
2012-01-03 | 274 | 163 | 187 |
Pretty happy with the result although I was hoping for 280+. This is a 21% increase over my last test result. If I could do that again (maybe impossible) that would be 328 watts which would put my threshold power at almost 300 watts, which is not too bad.
This cycle I moved up to the "new competitor program" (from the "experienced century" program). The new program gets into the more strenuous stuff a bit earlier, less dicking around for the first few weeks. This session I am going to work harder on increasing the length of time I can spend at threshold, as well as moving threshold power up.
I read recently that time trialists spend their entire hour race at 90-94% of their max heart rate. My max is about 183-185. 90% HR is 171 for me - I doubt I could keep that up for 10 minutes. So increasing my threshold power is great, but it's much better if I can increase how long I can hold it for.
I celebrated my first day of training (today) by skipping my ride this morning. I had to take the car in for unexpected repairs. I will try to get in a ride tonight if I get the chance, probably on the trainer.
This week's schedule:
Date | Exercise |
Mon | 45-60 min EM |
Tues | 60-90 min EM with 3x8min SS (5 min RBI) |
Wed | Rest Day |
Thurs | 60-90 min EM with 3x8min SS (5 min RBI) |
Fri | Rest Day |
Sat | Group ride or 90-120 min EM |
Sun | 90-120 min EM (hilly terrain) |
A short refresher on abbreviations:
EM means "endurance miles". Pretty much every ride is some number of minutes of EM. Often there is another exercise (a set of intervals) embedded in the middle. So if you're supposed to do 90 min EM with, say, 30 min of intervals in the middle, then really you do a total of 60 minutes of EM - the TOTAL time you spend is the time listed in the exercise.
SS means "steady state", which is 45-73% of your road test power
CR means "Climbing repeats" which is 95-100% of road test power (usually, like it sounds, up a hill)
OU means "over under" where you switch between SS and CR with a specific time for each. Like you might to 3x9 OU with 2 over and 1 under. That means you do
2 min over, 1 min under, 2 over, 1 under, 2 over, 1 under - then reset (repeat 2 more times)
SEPI means "steady effort power intervals" - you ride at your max sustainable power for the interval
PFPI means "peak and fade power intervals" - you ride at all out max effort and as the interval goes on, your power fades because you can't maintain it that long.
I thought this would be a huge PITA when I started, but really, I start all my intervals at about the same physical place. I generally ride out to there, do the intervals, and then depending on how much time I have left I make a rough estimate of what route to do for the rest. My area has a lot of good options for rides ranging from about 12-30 miles and I've done em all so it's very easy to tailor.
Last edited by RustyBrooks; 01-07-2013 at 03:24 PM.