Watt's Occurring?

Powering through the cold snap!

There's nothing like a touch of proper wintry weather to focus the mind! Just a couple of weeks ago, in the run up to Christmas I was muttering that it would be nice if the weather was more festive i.e. cold and/or snowy... now I'm longing for sunnier and warmer days. However, it has snapped me out of 'base mode', where I realise I was starting to become far too comfortable (well other than my perpetually cold - and often wet - feet given the amount of rain we've had) riding around the country lanes being a dream boat for a few hours at a time.

Flooded or frozen - the most common options on the roads lately.

 

Turbo time has reared its ugly head! The laser-like focus has once again returned to the single most important data point for me as a time triallist and indeed any serious cyclist - functional threshold power (FTP). Your FTP represents the flat-out aerobic power than you can sustain for an hour. (Any sports science lab will be able to carry out a controlled FTP test for you, or otherwise, as long as you have a power meter it's 'just' a case of riding a time trial effort for 20 minutes on uninterrupted road and multiplying the average power by 0.95).

The importance of knowing your FTP? It enables the accurate setting of your training zones, from the lowest level of active recovery through to maximal sprint power. Anyway, with the 'sciency' bit out of the way, it's safe to say that the FTP has taken a bit of a dip, nay a full on nose-dive and there is plenty of work to be done! The input (heart rate) and output (power) are not quite dove-tailing together yet... in other words there are plenty of high heart rates for a relatively low power output.

Follow the blue line!

In other news, I've also plucked up the courage to take to the track at the recently built Derby Arena. I have to say this took me completely outside my comfort zone to begin with! For someone who trains solo for the majority of the time (it's difficult to do structured sessions within a group), riding a fixed wheel track bike (don't stop pedalling, ever...), sharing a banked space with other riders in close proximity and learning new skills was definitely information overload. Whilst I certainly wouldn't call myself proficient - yet, I do think that my pedalling efficiency and bike handling skills have improved and of course the constant 28 degrees inside the velodrome make it all the more attractive. Perhaps Track league will be an addition to the racing calendar at some point in the future...

And on that note, when the turbo is feeling torturous, I'll leave you with the following thought -