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YOY Power File Comparison: Riding is no substitute for having ridden

Benchmarking is a lot easier to do when you train with power. I can pretty easily see how I'm progressing week to week and month to month. And since I've been doing it for a long time, I can also compare my fitness this year to the same time last year. To wit: Free online guitar tuner.

Here's a ride I did a few days ago - a short workout with a couple of 10-minute LT efforts:

My trainer rides are normally short and intense, but this was short even by my standards. My intent was to do 3x10 but I just couldn't pull it out. It was part physical discomfort (still struggling with back pain after car vs bike this summer), but most of it was mental fortitude. Body weakness nothwithstanding, I just don't have enough intervals in my system right now to have any sort of conditioning to suffer. The going gets tough and my synapses shut down. With me, training my psyche is at least half of the effort.

The efforts here were at 275 watts each, and the NP of the entire 40-minute ride was 239 watts.

By contrast, here's me from 1-9-10:

3 10-minute efforts instead of 2; coming in at 300, 312 and 316 watts instead of 275; and totaling a 50-minute workout at a NP of 278. This entire ride was at a greater intensity than my best 10 minutes this year. No small part of it is physiological, of course. I started doing structured interval work in early November last year. But you see also some evidence of an increased ability to suffer last year. Pink at the bottom of both files is Heart Rate. This year, when I start nosing 170 the wheels come off - cadence drops and my speed gets all choppy. Last year I was able to do most of the third interval averaging 172, getting up to 180 with speed to spare. The toughness, it alludes me this year.

It's 2 months before the season starts, and 4 months before any of the races where I normally like to perform well, so this benchmarking exercise may mean absolutely nothing. And it may also delay my first peak, which could prove to be a blessing. Don't know yet. What I do know is that I don't like being slower than last year, and I'm hella motivated to improve. Last year I got through the spring on momentum. It will be interesting to see how that compares to this year's speed-by-hunger.

Power File 12.15.10: The downhill climb

Normally this is a pretty easy training period. Most years I train into September and then carry fitness straight through October, on account of that's the best month of the year for riding around here. I spend the fall doing unstructured rides and then get regimented in early November. By mid December, I'm snapping out LT intervals with good sensations, and have to exercise discipline not to work in intensity.

This year, not so much. Summer and fall have been an entirely different routine, compromised both by scheduling demands and some post-bike vs. car misalignment (which contributes to the scheduling  demands - I'm still in PT 2x/week. If you ever need to go, go here). Also this fall I've caught 8 live mice in my home and released them into the wild, discovered Chevy Chase Liquors, started planning my wedding, and started a bike company. So these days, instead of having training momentum my legs feel creaky and impeded, like I'm trying to train in a robot costume. I remember a mountain bike race I did once where a sign next to the trail read "Downhill Climb." The trail pointed down, but because it was so muddy and raw you had to really work just to keep from falling over. That's what this season feels like so far - I should be speeding along, but instead it's more work that it usually is.

But I'm back. Fat, slow and tired - but back. The good news for you is that November Bicycles is a dealer of three different kinds of power meters (so far), so there will be data-a-plenty here. It will be anemic and embarassing for a while, but abundant.

Better than a Power File

Looking at my power files is instructive for me because they tell me definitively when I'm fast. If my numbers are a little anemic it doesn't necessarily mean I'm not fast - only that I wasn't fast today. Maybe I was fast yesterday or will be fast tomorrow. Fast is like believing in God - just because you don't see it, you can't disprove its existence.

Looking at my power files is instructive for you because you can see when you're faster than me. All those weak numbers that tell me nothing still prove to you that you could lay down some serious hurt on my ass. It's very efficient, really. Because of this blog, otherwise useless power data suddenly has value.

I think that's why most people come to this blog - not to see how well I'm going, but to see how much faster you are than I am. Boy have I got a treat for you. It's a file that's even better for your self-confidence than one of my power files. If you want to feel faster than me, this will do the trick:

A rest week followed by an unexpected week of no riding for work reasons, then getting smashed by a car. Throw in a week of vacation and the return of pumpkin scones at Starbucks and you have one chubby Cat 3. And I have some motivation. I know I've said that training for next season starts in November, but mine starts today. Immediately. Now. I'll be petitioning to make Trade Zone the Crit Champs next year. I'll be ready early.

 

Power File from the last time I raced - Hagerstown Cat 3 Champs

The last time I raced Hagerstown was three years ago. I remember distinctly because the week after the race my daughter was born, but in the hospital all the doctors and nurses were more concerned with my oozing skinless leg than my wife's 18 hours of labor. She's still pretty mad about it, actually.

It was turn 2 that did me in - the off-camber left-hander at the top of the hill. I was on the front and unweighted on the wrong line, losing all traction. All my fault, perfectly avoidable. Fortunately (for the rest of you) I was all by myself and didn't do damage to anyone else.

So this year at Hagerstown the turn had me spooked. I took a few practice laps through it and was puckered up so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up my ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond. I asked my teammate Larry to lead me through it so I could find a line I was comfortable with but it didn't work. I knew I'd have to limp through it wussy-paced the whole race, and that I'd pay for it on the back stretch every time. That's exactly what happened, which is maddening because I'm a pretty fearless cornerer otherwise. This is the only turn in North America that has my number.

My role for the race was to be not stupid and hook up with Larry and Kyle near the end. Kyle was our designated dude for the finish and my job was to stay behind him and remain vigilant against a final K flyer, or look for an opportunistic wheel to follow in the sprint. I got a preme earlier in the race and then chased a Coppi guy for one later on but didn't get it. Both times I used my momentum to roll off the front and see if I could get away. And both times I learned within a lap that I'm pretty good at 22mph, really good at 35mph, but positively suck at 26mph. Rouling I don't do so much.

With a few to go I found Larry and Kyle and we got into formation near the front. Then that damn turn 2 on the last lap shows up and I lose Larry's wheel and about 5 lengths. Kyle was off his wheel then too, but at least Larry was on the outside where I could get to him. I burned a match with my nose in the wind on the back stretch to catch back onto Larry's wheel. When I got there I told him, "I'm here," unfortunately too out of breath to finish the sentence with "but wait a sec - I've got to catch my breath." Larry opened it up around the sweeper and gapped me again. But he was on the front now with about 300M to go so I closed it up and waited for my chance. The whole time Brigham was on my left, his nose in the wind for a good 200M before the sprint started. Dude is on another planet. Brigham jumped and I followed, moving into his slipstream. No way was I going to come around him. Flexman shot past me on the other side, followed by a couple others. I ended up 5th off a perfect leadout, mostly because of my fear of that damn turn (and in part because I'm older and slower than I used to be).

In the power file it's pretty easy to see where the premes / flyers were. My HR goes up (pink), power (green) and up my nose is in the wind (the blue bars are the above the Communities white line). Look also at the white line at the end - that's my speed, averaging 33mph for the final minute. Man can Larry give a leadout.

That was a month ago, and I haven't turned a pedal in anger since. Gears are turning, but not the pedals.