I’m sure I’ll get bored of my new power meter toy soon. But, until I do, here is a training file from a recent ride. I uploaded to Golden Cheeter and got a headache looking at all the graphs and variables which didn’t really mean too much. In the post-ride slump, examining figures on your computer is not a good idea. Perhaps one day I will learn what Daniels EqP means, but not when I’m on the verge of falling asleep digesting a large meal after a 3 hour ride.
This was a pyramid interval session, loosely based on Gordon Wright’s inverse pyramids. It’s probably about 60% of the length of a full workout, but it will do for me. The intensity is more important than duration.
First up is 25-20 second sprint intervals. Spinning a high cadence. The maximum power I got was 850 watts. When you consider Mark Cavendish manages 1,500 watts for the sprint at the end of a 250km tour stage, you will understand why I will never be a sprinter.
Then there are 1 minute intervals up a small hill. These one minute intervals are good, because you can go full out, but you don’t get too exhausted (relatively). If you leave a good rest in between them, you can maintain a fairly high intensity. The average power was around 500 watts, with a steady tail off as the intervals went on.
Then I went over to A40 climb to Stokenchurch. The first interval was good; it was reasonably fast and I managed 385 watts (compared to max of 435 when fully fresh). But, these 5 minute intervals on top of previous efforts, saw a big tail off in output. The second was at 350, and the third at 335 watts. It’s a funny feeling trying to do an interval when your legs are already tired. Starting the third interval felt like some kind of purgatory. I knew straight away this was going to be hard work. After the third interval I decided to head home. The legs were shattered and it wasn’t possible to train in the highest intensity any more. The ride took 3 hours and was 100 km.
click to enlarge
There’s an old phrase – I went to Blackpool and all I came back with was this lousy T-Shirt. We could change this to I went on a 100km bike ride and all I came back with was a lousy power meter file.
When I wasn’t looking at a power meter, it was a beautiful autumn day. Probably one of the best times of the year to be out riding.
This is the great thing about power – it is not only a good way to see improvements and how good your fitness currently is, but it is completely and ruthlessly honest with you when you’re having a bad day. You can see how much you suck!
While I find this measurement of limitation good, when trying to go out and hit a specific target and stimulate specific adaptations, sometimes it is important to ignore it, just finish the session anyway, and not let the numbers control you.
When I first started training with power, the constant desire to always hit high numbers began to limit me and nowadays I simply do my planned workout, THEN look at the numbers and use them to calibrate my understanding of how I fatigue.
Have you joined the Google wattage group? Lots of knowledge and experts on there to answer all your questions.