Success!

After a disappointing session yesterday I thought I'd repeat it with exactly the same set up.

Black line = power. Red line = HR.

 

As you can see, I managed to compete it and quite easily too. My heart rate was significantly lower than yesterday, with a peak HR of 167 compared to 175 which I think has something to do with my lower cadence (around 14 rpm lower than yesterday). I even managed a 480W blast at the end, just for fun.

 

So what have I learned? From day to day my performance varies a lot for no apparent reason. I just wish I knew why.

 



2x20 at FTP+

Tonight's Turbo Trainer session was a 2 x 20 min at FTP (target 306W) with 10 mins warm-up and 10 mins between the intervals. I felt OK for the first one (average 307W achieved) and had enough on the second to surge at the end (average 313W achieved). Again, it was a horrible hard and sweaty session and one I was pleased to get off the turbo at the end of. The 66 minutes went very quickly though.

Here's the trace showing a poor start to the first session (bike faff) and then a lot of power to try to get back to a 306W average. As I was above target towards the end of the first session I backed-off. The second session shows a big increase in power output from around 17 minutes. Black line = power. Red line = HR.

Power-to-weight

Fresh off the scales this morning I weighed in at 75.9kgs (3.9kgs above my target weight). Obviously a single snap-shot figure means little but it is the start of a more regular weigh-in so I can track my performance towards my target weight.

Using my 20 min power figure and 75.9kgs gives me a 20 min power-to-weight (PWR) of 4.24W/kg. My target figure is 4.79 so I need to generate a 13% improvement in 6 months (half of which will be weight reduction and half will be power increase).

Using an estimate of my 60 min power (95% of 20 min power) gives me a 60 min PWR of 4.03W/kg with a target of 4.55.

Considering I made no improvements in power in the last year and put on a couple of kgs despite regular training and frequent racing, this might be a bit more of a challenge that I originally thought!