HTFUP! Training Update: I feel the power!

Power is the most objective measure you can find for the bike. It is like lifting weights. Either you can do leg press with 1000 lbs or you can’t. Although it is not free from the effects of other training variables (because nothing is), it is the most accurate measure of your current state of performance. For years, the most popular method of measuring exertion levels on the bike, and in other events, has been heart rate. Heart rate is better than nothing, but it is constantly being affected by your state of recovery, but a 100 watts today is the same as 100 watts tomorrow, whereas what heart rate represent from day-to-day is not always as clear. That is, your response to one training load might be different at different times depending on a number of other variables. When used in conjunction with heart rate, and a little bit of exercise physiology, power it is a pretty awesome tool.

The question then is if power is an effective measure of exertion levels, how does one incorporating it into the ultimate training plan to make you a better cyclist? Well I will save that for another day.

What I wanted to blog was… I have been using power as a measure lately, and I just noticed a jump in performance (as measured by watts), for both my peak values, and average output for a 60-minute threshold effort (the gold standard). I am not sure if I can actually finish a 125 km ‘off road’ cross-ish race yet, but I am sure as hell gonna try! No more pizza for this bad boy ;)

I hope your training is coming along too.

Still-fat-but-slowly-getting-fit-Coach Dave.