Following the hilly Sunday ride I had a week of short moderate-intensity stuff leading up to my second ‘test’ on the Friday and the first Sportive of the year, a short blast around the Ashdown Forest. I was a bit concerned that this might be a bit much at the end of my first 4 week period of proper riding of the year but my coach told me not to worry about feeling a bit ‘flat’ on the Sunday for the sportive.
Tuesday session was a ‘Microburst.’ After warming up you ride for 1.5 hours and do a 10 second interval every 3 minutes where you try and get up to 500w as quickly as possible then hold it for the duration of the interval. If you happen to be on an uphill when the 3 minutes comes around it feels pretty easy and you have to control the speed to stay in the zone. If it happens on a downhill you’re in trouble, cranking out 500 watts on a descent with so little resistance you suddenly find your legs windmiling at 130rpm as you head towards red lights or the backs of cars at over 35mph because you’ve been staring down at the powertap. Not recommended. 500w isn’t much for 10 seconds - the idea is not the power but how quickly you can get there - but after you’ve done 30 of them you start feeling it ☹
Next day was supposed to be an easy day on the rollers in order to recover for the test the next day but my heart rate was significantly low for good power so I went for it right there. The best way to do a 30 minute test is to ride for 30 minutes – I hate it, but think the results are more accurate than doing a 20 minute test and subtracting 5%
Anyway after burying myself in the shed for 30 minutes I emerged with threshold power figure increased by 11w since my first. RESULT! 261w instead of 250w – at this rate I’ll have 300w for 30 mins by June (That’s a joke Toks
).Seriously though this is a significant step forward and I felt a little buoyed. It’s only 11w but believe me there is no way I could have achieved that in the first test the way I was feeling.
The sportive is one I do every year as a measure of how early-year training is progressing and this one was the best I’ve ever done. Despite a proper hilly course and getting caught up in the firefight of the lead group I felt good all the way round, attacked at the end, didn’t have any signs of cramp (unusual at this time of year) and generally had a good day.
So 4 weeks in and I’ve got to say that the Powertap has already brought quantifiable improvements.
A couple of things to consider – I had 6 weeks entirely off the bike (after doing the first power test) with illness before xmas (and I mean illness here– didn’t do ANY kind of training in gym on bike or anything.) When I lined up for the Sportive I had sat on the bike a grand total of 12 times in the 4 weeks leading up to it. That’s the best January form of my life, ever, on 12 rides. The only way I can see that being possible is down to the powertap – every single minute of all those rides had a purpose and a wattage target zone which I stuck to religiously. From the two 4 - 5 hour solo rides at a mind numbingly tedious pace in early January to the threshold and sweetspot sessions more recently.
So that’s where its at at the moment – had a rest week after the Ashdown and now I’m starting the second block of 4 weeks training, I’ll post how that goes, be it death or glory.
.[quote="Ian MunneryA1size"]I bet ol' finbar loves this topic......