So last night was my first cycling/trainer class with power this season with Coachie. This past fall I've been concentrating on cyclocross and doing some other outdoor riding but mostly about 3-4hrs a week max. Mostly high quality work not a lot of fluff. I really look forward to December when this class starts ( I did a similar class with Karen Smyers at Fast Splits using their computrainers and it was so much fun). There is something to be said working hard next to fellow athletes and actually having your coach with you, watching your form, looking at your numbers right there (there is no getting away with anything when he is there).
Anyway, I swam 3400yds in the morning, had a pretty eventful day with the kids and then it was off to class at 5p. The workout was:
W/u 10 minutes building from regenerative watts < 115 to intensive zone 155-189 watts
F/b single leg drills for 5-6 minutes
Build session starting at extensive zone ( 115-154) building to low range tempo 215 watts for ~ 5 minutes.
Main Set: Descending ladders, repeat ladder twice. 2 minutes in between each interval and in between the sets. Maintain Steady State Watts and build to low end tempo watts by last 1/4 of the interval. This was not supposed to be a hard effort.
6 minutes ( hold a cadence of 60-65 for 2 min, then increase cadence to 70-75 for second two minutes then increase cadence to 85-90 for last 2 minutes, bringing watts from Steady State to Tempo)
recover 2 minutes
4 minute interval ( hold cadence of 60-65 for 1 min, increase to 70-75 for 1 minute, then increase to 80-85 then 90 for last minute- again Steady State to Tempo)
recover 2 minutes
2 minute interval ( repeat above increase cadence and watt effort every 30 seconds)
recover 2 minutes
Repeat above interval
Warm down 5-10 minutes
<span style="font-weight:bold;">My Watts from last year were:
Regenerative pace ( <65% of effort) < 115
Extensive pace ( 65-70% effort) 115-154 watts
Intensive pace ( 70-75% effort) 155-189
Steady State pace ( 75-80% effort) 190-214 watts
Tempo pace ( 85-90% effort) 215-253 watts
V02 max- 86%- 254 watts
up to 100% of V02 max ( which someone can maintain up to 6 min) 280 watts
Ok, last night I felt great, I didn't work really hard and I had to really focus on keeping my watts where I was supposed to be, however, my effort was minimal at the watts I was supposed to put up so I told coach that I felt great and that I could go up a notch on my watts to reach my perceived level of exertion. Here are my numbers for my intervals.
First Interval:
6 min @ 240 AVG with final 1/4 at 280 watts
4 min @243 AVG with final 1/4 at 279 watts
2 min @257 AVG with final 1/4 at 290 watts
Second Interval
6 min @ 246 AVG with final 1/4 at 280 watts
4 min @ 250 AVG with final 1/4 at 290 watts
2 min @ 277 AVG with final 1/4 at 348 watts
My HR never went above 150, I was able to talk and hold good conversation it was so crazy. Both Coach and myself were surprised that my level of fitness was doing this well in December with not a cycling focus. What we are attributing my new found strength on the bike is my recent strength training program I've been doing 3 x a week and if my numbers are looking like this now I can't wait to see what they are when we are in the height of training.
Now cycling on the trainer and pushing good watts has never been a huge problem for me its translating those numbers to the road and performing to my abilities on the bike that I know I can do and my coach knows I can do. I am so psyched that I felt so good and hopefully with more strength work with Jeremee at BNS Fitness and coach J I'll be cycling like a machine come spring.
Heres to kicking some major ass to all you men out there this spring, watch out.
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