The holidays are always a challenging time for me. Over eating and cold weather tend to ruin my form on the bike. This year (like most cyclists) I vowed not to let it happen!
So, with my trainer set up, and a little motivation I began my new indoor training program. While I found the actual video and music content of the series quite lame, the workouts were challenging and I enjoyed them. On off days I've been riding the rollers for 1-2 hours and really working on improving my spin to eleminate dead spots.
So what were the results? I saw my 8 minute power test go from 251NP to 289NP. That's a 13% increase. 13 is 1 better than 12 (insert SpinalTap theme). During this time I've also dropped about 10lbs of holiday goodness from my gut. Another 10 and I'll be at my race weight.
I took 1 week off the bike after completing the series. I plan to run through it again with my new power zones configured. We'll see if another 12-13% is obtainable.One of my goals for 2009 is to raise my TSS/d score to 60+. As of today, I'm sitting at 36.3. A 60 would be higher than I've ever achieved in the 4 years I've been training with a power meter. Can I raise it that high? We'll find out. Keep an eye on my progress with a shared spreadsheet at: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p_wA1kH7HvjhdS_0pS29Ncw
2 comments:
Hi!
I took a look at your spreadsheet, lots of interesting numbers that I don't know how to read.
One of the more interesting numbers that is missing is the Normalized Power/Total Weight ratio. (Watts/KG) then you can compare yourself to a power range table like the one shown here http://www.saris.com/wattscalculator.aspx
Good point Paul - my weight has been pretty consistent this season at 165lbs. I'll try to add that to the spreadsheet. I've fallen off the wagon a little bit with testing and keeping my numbers up to date.
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