Performance Manager

(click image to enlarge)

What is nice about training with the power meter is the ability to track your training efforts over a long period of time. You can see that the dark blue CTL line correlates to my training efforts indicated by the light blue TSS bars, which also correlated to actual on the road performances. From January to the first weeks of March of this year I was able to get in consistent training efforts and the reality of performance in my group rides on the road were also noticed. I was not struggling in the group rides and often I would be at the front doing longer pulls with little effort.

But from the middle of March to present day life events (work, family, traveling and vacation) had to take precedence over the training. As Alan Ezzell would say, "I don't get paid to ride a bike" and these things had to be put at the top of priorities and the training dropped as indicated in the chart. The reality also played out on the road and I was unable to hang with the group as their saddle time increased and mine decreased. The big holes in the chart gives me a nice perspective of my frustrations for not being able to hang on the group rides, but it will give me a historical view for 2009.

At present day you can see that I am now starting to get in a little more short duration interval work and my CTL line has increased a little more. I can also feel this out on the road as I have finished the road rides feeling a little less exhausted. I also want to start back in the group rides with a little different perspective and to be more consistent and more intentional with how I ride even if I get dropped from the group or move ahead of the group. Yesterday was a good example of this style of riding as I had an opportunity to ride with Paul Deshane and Alan Ezzell, both who have been training with power meters for a few years. They had a goal for a pre-selected intensity factor and they hit it right on the nail for their goal.

I suppose in a simplistic view group rides can often become a sprint and coast effort or at least it seems to become that. For instance if you are sitting in the middle of the pack a lot of a 60 mile ride could be more like a 40 mile ride with the loss of effort from drafting or from the riding style of the group, whereas, they may put a hard effort for a mile or two and then ride easy for a few miles. I would kind of like to have a nice consistent torque put on the pedals through out the ride, but it is nice once in a while to just get out and hammer with the group with the impromptu racing.

If I am able to continue putting in consistent weekly indoor training efforts I will be ramping up my intensity factor. Since I just started back I am shooting for .75 for now and in a few weeks I will bump up to .85 for the short duration high intensity efforts. I feel it is still too soon for me to be going into the L4 zone (Coogan's zones) as my body is once again adapting to the increased training load, but as the dark blue CTL line begins to move upward so does the ability to finish well out on the road.