First Test of Fitness for 2009 Season

Here it is. My first E-wang chart of the 2009 season. I did this ride yesterday. These tests will pop up every three weeks on my training schedule. This one was a Sub-Threshold 3 mile TT. Not much, I know, but interesting to me none the less. For periodic 3 mile TT testing I use the flattest stretch of road I know in AA County, near my home in Crownsville. It's a stretch of Paxtuent and Conway Roads between Piney Orchard and Crofton. I was surprised to see in my results, viewed using WKO, my avg. speed and avg. watts were as high as what was recorded. The whole test only rated about a 6 to 7 on the perceived exertion scale. I guess that's why they have you do these things on rest and reco weeks. I was pretty fresh to say the least. I've also got a solid 6 weeks of base in right now too. There in I think lies the key. My HR max is 194 and my last tested value for FTP is 265, but that was back in April. I suspect it's higher now. My avg HR for the interval was 4 beats lower than my lowest zone 5a number. The interval called for it to run at 10 beats below, but believe me when I tell you i was not as miserable as if I were doing a 30 min all out test. That's the next test, 3 weeks from now. So in this test I'm only cranking out 85% of max HR. I'm thinking that when I do that next all out test I will find my FTP being closer to 300 watts.

My weight is down another pound to about 205. It's slow going, but it's going.

(Edit 12/15/08) Correction. Weight down to 203 as of this mornings weigh in.

Cheers,

FGR

The Story So Far...

In order to kick this blog off let me dive into the 2008 season so far. Like most things in my life, I am late to the party. I didn't start my base training until mid-February. Why? I've got no idea. Lazy I guess. It could be that my target A event is a time trial in August. Because of a late goal, I didn't see the need to get started early. So I've pretty much cut my nose off to spite my face. My goal is to get back to the same form or better that I had in the 2000 season just before I quit racing after 6 seasons. Back then I was 30-35 pounds lighter, I could hammer out a sub hour 40K and I could ride crits and short circuit races well. I still sucked at hilly road races though. Now in 2008 I'm gonna suck at all the early season races.

Moving forward...

This 2008 season sees me trying again to lose 40 pounds. I was hoping to be done with weight loss by now. I didn't ride at all in November, December and not enough in January. So from 200lbs in October 2007, I've gained 20+ instead of losing 20+. So there it is; the 40 lbs. Again.

I have all the tools available to me to keep going in the winter including a great team/club to ride with, ABRT-Latitude. However, until Christmas 2007 I was missing the one tool that I thought might save me from myself. Rollers. And bless my darling bride, she got me a set of Performance technique rollers for Jesus' birthday. Yeah Jesus, and yeah me! I was right. Rollers are the shit! In the last 6 weeks, I've only had 3 days off the bike and only 6 days on the road. The rest of my training has been on rollers. Never less than 30 minutes and mostly 60 to 90 minute sessions. Some people hate them, that's fine, but they have been and will be my savior from winter sloth and crappy weather days.

But I digress...

Looking to kick off the training I went looking for a simple plan I could stick too and not have to think for myself. Enter the Lance Armstrong 7 Week Plan for advanced riders. Right out of the book! I did the first 4 weeks to the letter. And believe it or not it helped. Three weeks ago, a teammate, Ken McDowell, came through for me and sold me his Polar Power Kit. I've been using a Polar S725 hrm since 2005. The power kit was my cheap way into the power club. Now I'm working on the 16 week plan straight out of the Hunter Allen/Andrew Coggan book Training and Racing With A Power Meter. Let me tell you, it's a ass kicker. Thanks to those 4 weeks of CTS workouts I have been handling it well so far. But better yet, I don't have to think. I just do. Lucky for me my FTP is the same as the prescription watt ages in the plan. The only drawback is that I have to type them into my Trainingpeaks.com workout calender.

So here is where I am so far as of today:

Weight - 220 lbs (100 kilos)
Height - 72"
FTP - 250 watts
P/W ratio @ FTP - 2.5 watts per kilo.

Goal by August District TT:

Weight - 175lbs (79.5 kilos)
FTP - 300 watts
P/W ratio @ FTP - 3.8 watts per kilo

A pretty tall order. But one I think that is realistically obtainable. My blog will be my chronical to this goal and beyond.

Cheers!

FGR