wattage in the cottage...

Saturday morning:

So I went over to my friends, Vince's bike shop early-morning for my "Functional Threshold Power Assessment - FTP" for my bike wattaged assessment for my next round of cycling classes on Tuesday evening known as "@threshold" and night classes that start-up this tuesday...shop info: http://villagecyclesport.com/ I knew once again it was gonna be an all out 30 minute Time Trial on the 8 person CompuTrainer set-up for which I understood alot more this time around compared to my first FTP test on January 5th 2008 for which my training wattage number was at 253...

We spun about an easy 12 minute warm-up then went into a 30 minute repeat session that had several repeat blasts with the last one being at 100% effort...I was properly warmed up after this as I covered 11 miles during this warm-up cycle. Aster a 5 minute break to drink, take in some nutrition then onto the bikes again for a 30 minute all out time trial blast...I once again mentally was prepared to ride on the slight conservative side for the first 15 minutes then let it have it for the last 15 minutes...it's always easier said than done so below are my numbers for each 15 minute portion of the total 30 minute:

First 15 minutes:

Average HR ~147bpm
Max HR ???
Average cadence ~94rpm
Average wattage 267

Second 15 minutes:

Average HR 154bpm
Max HR 162bpm
Average cadence 94rpm
Average wattage 282

First thing you will notice my first 15 minutes are approximate values and that has to do with my problems I have been having with my Polar s720i HR watch. I noticed at about just after the 14 minute into the session it stopped at 4 seconds into the ride so it actually only recorded the last 15:17 of the 30 minute time trial FTP test. Also during the last 15 minutes I was comfortably able to ride in the 300 to 320 wattage zone to help bring up my overall wattage average...

It was a really great effort I could give the CompuTrainer that day...I covered 11.5 miles at a 23mph (max 27.4mph) pace with an average HR of ~154bpm and average cadence at 94rpm. My distance and speed were recorded by my VDO wireless bike computer...

So now my baseline wattage of 282 (up by 29 watts from previous 253 - big numbers in cycling terms) is now know for my personalized training based on my current level of cycling wattage fitness...that sure was workout as always as I was able to control my pacing very much so during this 30 minute Time Trial FTP test.

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