Wednesday, 1/26/2005 – Computrainer and Rollers
Today was another of the team Computrainer(CT) sessions. Unlike our normal CT sessions which are designed to be workouts, this one was to be performance test to gauge training and get some TT practice. The course wasn’t anything fancy, just a perfectly flat for 10 miles. Choosing to do a 10 mile TT wasn’t by chance. In about four weeks the road season will kick off with a 10 mile TT, the Ice Breaker TT. Due to demand the team ran a few extra testing sessions, it was very cool to see the computrainer facility packed with team members, warming up, testing, and cooling down.
We warmed up on the bike for about a half an hour before starting the time trial and recalibrated the bikes right before the start. Then we were off.
I quickly was out in front of the other seven riders, and ended up logging what I think was fastest time for the night. I think I could have done a little better if I hadn’t gone quite so hard right at the beginning. I basically pegged my heart rate at 180 bpm for the duration of the test. I think it would have been better to say do the first half at 175-178 BPM and then ramp up, any way something to try next time. My power over the first half was definitely much stronger. For the first two miles I was pushing near 400 watts, but by the end I was down to around 310 watts.
In the end I average over 25 miles an hour, finishing in a little less than 24 minutes and averaging 337 watts. Not too shabby especially since I was on my power cranks. A couple of months ago, I average 333 watts with normal cranks and 303 watts with the power cranks for this same test.
The one big mistake I made besides pacing was to eat two bananas an hour before the virtual TT. Throughout the TT I pushed so hard that I ended up feeling quite sick, and felt like I might loose my snack at any moment.
Post TT, I spun a little on the bike and did some stretching and took some Hammer TR. On getting back to my apartment I did some easy spinning for another hour on the rollers to help my legs recover and then spent some time on the foam roller.
We warmed up on the bike for about a half an hour before starting the time trial and recalibrated the bikes right before the start. Then we were off.
I quickly was out in front of the other seven riders, and ended up logging what I think was fastest time for the night. I think I could have done a little better if I hadn’t gone quite so hard right at the beginning. I basically pegged my heart rate at 180 bpm for the duration of the test. I think it would have been better to say do the first half at 175-178 BPM and then ramp up, any way something to try next time. My power over the first half was definitely much stronger. For the first two miles I was pushing near 400 watts, but by the end I was down to around 310 watts.
In the end I average over 25 miles an hour, finishing in a little less than 24 minutes and averaging 337 watts. Not too shabby especially since I was on my power cranks. A couple of months ago, I average 333 watts with normal cranks and 303 watts with the power cranks for this same test.
The one big mistake I made besides pacing was to eat two bananas an hour before the virtual TT. Throughout the TT I pushed so hard that I ended up feeling quite sick, and felt like I might loose my snack at any moment.
Post TT, I spun a little on the bike and did some stretching and took some Hammer TR. On getting back to my apartment I did some easy spinning for another hour on the rollers to help my legs recover and then spent some time on the foam roller.
Labels: Training
1 Comments:
> I average ... 337 watts. ... couple of months ago,
> 303 watts with the power cranks for this same test.
An impressive 11% gain. When did you start using the Power Cranks? Can you guesstimate how much of this boost is from using the Power Cranks?
> On getting back to my apartment I did some easy
> spinning for another hour on the rollers
Why am I not surprised :+)
-Bernie H.
By
Bernie Hayden, at 9:13 AM
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