NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Saturday, 16 January 2010

That's More Like it!

Saturday means its time for the 40km Turbo TT, and after the disappointing figures from last week I wasn't holding out for a significant imptovement. But there was hope. I undoubtedly started off too fast last week and so today I set off just above my FTP from last week. After 40 minutes I felt good and so knocked it up a gear and, despite the pain, held this to the end.

The result was a 57:46 at an average power of 291 Tacx watts, a massive improvement of 3:48 and an increase in average power of 14 watts. As a training point, this is a clear indicator of how going too hard too soon can affect your overall performance, as there is no way that one week of base orientated training is going to show that sort of improvement. Interestingly (well I think so), today's results are virtually the same as the figures I recorded in Nov 09.

Sags mentioned Reverse Periodisation in his comment to my last post; I might do an article on that in the future. I've also been doing some research into cadence for long distance cyclists/triathletes and will post something on that soon; this is very interesting. Don't let me forget. Just remember that I am not a coach and have no qualifications to speak with any authority whatsoever on these matters; these are just my thoughts; nay, ramblings!

3 comments:

Mark "Frank" Whittle said...

Oh, I can't wait for TurboMan's Training Bible featuring chapters on Periodisation and Cadence! ;-)

Turbo Man said...

LOL! :-) I believe its important to consider alternative training methods. Reverse Periodisation works for me because I hate riding in the cold and wet, my A race is late in the year, and I hate riding in the cold and wet. Enough said for the time being.

Mark "Frank" Whittle said...

It was a joke, of course, but as it happens I'm doing a bit of reverse periodisation on the bike this year, so I'll be in the turbo dungeon alot more than in previous years. Can't wait for your article!