Although summer seems a long way away I have begun to earnestly train for France and the Etape. The key to success in climbing is power to weight. As I told a friend I can put on the weight, that's biking humor- loosing weight is the key, its the power that is the problem. I am trying to get down into the low 140s. The only issue is that I love to eat and drink wine. A bad combination when weight is a goal.
Power is measured in watts. I have 2 ways of getting my average watts for any given ride. The first is from a training device called a CompuTrainer. The CompuTrainer lists the power I am working at and also allows me to ride different courses that have been programmed on the machine. Riding a course really helps to fight boredom on the bike and makes training easier. The second method is from a device on my bike called an SRM. This is a strain gage in my crank that shows how much power I am producing.
The only way to improve power is to ride and ride in all different ways like hard, harder hardest making sure I get plenty of recovery time. This has been a real hard week of training. Last Sunday I did a 3 hour ride inside, too cold to be outside, Monday & Wednesday I did killer ab work for over an hour and Tuesday I did a 40mn Supermax test. A Supermax test is where you ride as hard as you can for 40 minutes to get the highest average watts possible.
Getting to 200 watts on a Supermax test was 1 big macho goal for me. 200 does and does not matter. I realize I am not going to win the Tour but it is an indicator of my overall fitness and does allow some bragging rites in the club. Plus my 2 training buddies have been creeping over the 200 number and I want to keep up. Now I have to keep working and watching my weight. Wow being an athlete is hard. Well back on the bike.
