@threshold...

Last week I signed up round number two of winter class with my friends local bike shop where they are having CompuTrainer coached 6 week workouts at various times and abilities/goals that meet your cycling training needs. The class I signed up for this time on Tuesday night hour and a/half session know is known as "@Threshold"...description is in the pdf link below that I provided:

http://www.psyclepower.com/Descriptions.pdf

Tomorrow I head over to the bike shop to ride a "Functional Threshold Power Assessment - FTP" test via the CompuTrainer which is based on watts used during this test and it will tell us if I have gained any power wattage after this last 6 week sessions. This will give the coach (and me) the baseline personal cycling start values to customize my next six week training session. The goal is once again after six weeks to re-take the FTP test to see how I have hopefully developed after this cycling training time period...all this info is within the pdf link I attached if your techy interested.

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Below is a re-print of my results from my first FTP test on January 5th 2008:

So I headed over to my friends, Vince's bike shop mid-morning for my "Functional Threshold Power Assessment - FTP" for my bike wattaged assessment for my Weds night classes that start-up this week...shop info: http://villagecyclesport.com/ I knew it was gonna be an all out 30 minute Time Trail on the 8 person CompuTrainer set-up but little did I know 6 of the 8 people were serious hardcore junkie roadies...even these things turn into race events for them as I heard them talk about all session...

We spun about an easy 15 minute warm-up then went into a 20 minute repeat session that had 4 repeat blasts with the last one being at 95 to 105% effort...I was exhausted after this! 15 minute break to drink, take in some nutrition then onto the bikes again for a 30 minute all out time trial blast...Vince told be to air on the slight conservative side for the first 15 minutes then let it have it for the last 15 minutes...yeah, easier said than done so below are my numbers for each 15 minute portion of the total 30 minute:

First 15 minutes:
Average HR 145bpm
Max HR 151bpm
Average cadence 91rpm
Average wattage 252

Second 15 minutes:
Average HR 153bpm
Max HR 155bpm
Average cadence 89rpm
Average wattage 253

First thing you will notice is my average wattage bumped up slightly and I was consistent there but my effort in the last 15 minutes was much stronger yet it netted me minimal results and my average cadence dipped below 90rpm as I attempted to push bigger gears...it was the best effort I could give the CompuTrainer that day plus I finished 6 out of 8 people (non-competitive assessment, right!)...I covered 10 miles at a 22mph pace with an average HR of 149bpm and average cadence spot-on at 90rpm.

After the 30 minute Time Trail was a very slow paced 10 minute cool-down...after that I was pretty well spent, drank my recovery drink and went home to eat like a horse!!!
So now my baseline wattage of 253 is know for my personalized training based on my current level of cycling wattage fitness...that was sure some workout indeed.