I set up my trainer on my new balcony and commenced the benchmark procedure. After warmup, I started at 285 watts and maintained that for 3-4 minutes. I was amazed at how good I felt, so I ramped it up further. 300 watts... no problem... so up further. 310-315watts. My HR was up where it typically is for Threshold work, and I was feeling great. At first I was a little skeptical as to whether my PT was off, but suspicions were erased as the speed of the wheel corresponded with the increase in speed. Historically when I was pushing 280 watts, the speed would read 35-36km/h. At 305'ish watts it was reading 38-39. All was well.
(The speed numbers are entirely arbitrary and do not correlate to any real world representation, but still serve as a general metric by which to see if the power reading is correct.)
After the test, I promptly downloaded the data to see what I averaged over the 20 mins...
303watts..not bad at all.. plus, I feel as if I could have started harder. This marks the first time I have cracked the 300mark and essentially means that my LT is higher than its EVER been. Sweet.
...
...Of course, this is offset by the 10 or so extra pounds I have compared to last year, but im not worried. The weight has been melting off quickly.Plus some of the weight can be attested to the boredom routine of doing pullups 5 days a week.. ive packed on some muscle weight on my shoulders and back as a result.
More firsts...
I did my first MTB ride yesterday. God I miss mtb'ing. Theres nothing like the adrenaline rush of pinning some high speed curves feeling your tires on the cusp of washing out. You're teetering a fine line between 'yard sale' and 'cool calm and collected'
I also got to give my new Easton XC-One wheels a test run. They did their job seamlessly. Stiff and responsive.
My new kicks also got their maiden ride. Yep they're white. And generally white is not a good idea for a sport that goes hand in hand with mud. But what can i say, vanity is my weakness.
However, I was definitely a little rusty, i wasn't maintaining momentum as well as I remember, and I had a few 'crotch, meet stem' moments. Granted, it has been five months since I have been MTB'ing. The plan is to log in 3hours of steady tempo/endurance trail riding on Saturday. That should get me up to par.
Woodnewton is in less than 10 days and is probably the perfect entrance for me. The roadie'esque course suits my ride style of 'tires planted to the ground' and 'railing fast corners.'
Next week will be an easy ride week with lots of easy miles to melt off the fat. I want to weigh in at 160lbs for the start of the race. Im currently 163.5 as of yesterday.
