Early April: Petaluma riding, the truth hurts, etc.

in cycling •  7 years ago 

I'm typing this from gorgeous Petaluma:

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A friend is living here in an Airbnb for a month, and I have customer meetings up this way, so I made it a combo fun / work trip. Did a fabulous ride today, only 31 miles but just what I needed on the bike, very steady, not too hard, with a stop for coffee in the middle. Any coffee stop with a carved bear holding an ice cream cone is good with me.

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On the training front, rehab is going up and down, I'm increasingly concerned surgery will be needed, which is not out of the ordinary (actually, rehab'ing out of the injury is out of the ordinary). Nevertheless my strength work in the gym is progressing and several lifts are getting stronger each week.

Put a power meter on my bike, this is the one I scored on ebay for a reasonable $800:

Unfortunately, the truth hurts and my power numbers are much lower than the Strava estimates gave me. My FTP is sitting around 185 W and my VO2 around 51-53 ml/min/kg. At least I know where I'm at, and I am already improving my ride pacing and focus. Plus my lifting is not helping and I usually ride in a fasted state, so not ideal for turning out the watts.

Other than that I was at IHRSA in San Diego for a conference, so was busy there but it was quite productive.

It's Holy Week in cycling, which means Tour of Flanders (last week) and Paris Roubaix this Sunday. Here's a handy link for finding live video feeds. Last week I got excellent coverage of Flanders on the Dutch channel. I always did like the Dutch.

http://cyclingfans.com/

Next post I'll share some of the analytics from my Garmin and the power meter. In the meantime, Louie the llama says hello.

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How much of a difference to training does a power meter make? Is it a worthwhile investment for a leisure cyclist?

Power meters are really useful for a few things:
#1 - adding a level of precision to training that heart rate cannot give you. Especially for short intervals, HR responds too slowly.
#2 - benchmarking against others and yourself over time and over varying conditions (flat/hilly, windy/calm, different bikes, etc.).
#3 - learning how to pace yourself - a PM will show you really quickly how much your output varies in a ride, and how you might be "burning matches" where you did not intend to.
There's a reason virtually every pro today trains with power - if you are serious about performance, you can't beat it.

For a leisure cyclist, while you would get something out of a PM, there are probably other places for bigger gains. From what I've seen (and I used to run a high end bike studio, so I've worked with many cyclists) most recreational riders need to:

  • get a really good bike fit
  • hire a good coach for at least 3-6 months to teach you the basics (including strength training and nutrition)
  • invest in better accessories: shoes and bib shorts being most important

One other thought - Strava has a power estimator that might give you a taste of power metering, at least in the post ride analysis, I think it's included in their free service but you might have to pay for the premium to try it out.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Strava power numbers are way off the mark from what i have been told.