January Training

The last 6-8 weeks have been heavy on Tempo efforts. We've been doing three consecutive days per week of 3x20 minute efforts holding around 300-310 watts average. While they always go by faster outside the power inside vs outside was always about the same.

Last Sunday was the third out of the four Indoor Time Trials. All of the Tempo efforts paid off as I was only 2 seconds off my best time on that course. While its a short course at only 10k it is a great way to get in 14 to 15 minutes at 95% of max HR and push HR to 100% on the last climb. I run my Powertap just to compare it to their Computrainer. Power is always higher on the Computrainer by about 15-20 watts. My Powertap showed average power at 361 and the Computrainer showed 376. I've actually held greater power, as high as the upper 380's, and ridden slower. I was hammering the uphills too hard and not keeping steady power on the downhills. Average cadence is around 100-105.

From that data my coach set a new goal for my field test (2x8 minutes, all out) at 370. I did that yesterday and held 365 and 370. These are well above what I held last September by over 15 watts. This just means all of my training zones will go up.

We're also doing a lot of strength training. At least three times per week we're working on lunges in every direction (forward, back, side to side, back to the side, etc), squats with free weights, pushups, pull ups, chin ups, plyometrics (a variety of jumps), plenty of single leg balance exercises, planks up to 4 minutes, and foundation training for all of those muscles from the neck to the hamstrings. This is pretty similar to the exercises I use with my personal training clients. Many of them are tri-athletes and cyclists. The first few sessions are usually pretty painful but after that they start to see the benefits of improved efficiency and great power in their training.

The winter months should be your most intense training. This is a good time to ask what is your competition doing right now? Are they training as hard as you are?