I felt really good about my fitness in February, having attended several power training classes with Larry Foss at The Fix Studio in downtown Minneapolis. Larry and his wife Sophie, former pro racer, operate an outstanding studio in their warehouse district apartment, with a series of power-meter equipped TacX bike trainers, a large-format projector for displaying workout data and an awesome sound system. Larry, a serious cyclist himself, served as soigneur for several domestic pro teams as well as the U.S. Olympic cycling team. He really knows his stuff in terms of nutrition, training, bike fit, massage and a host of other cycling-related topics. Prior to my first class with Larry I was expecting something like a "spinning" class for serious cyclists. It was far from it.First, Larry conducts a critical power test by having your perform a 20-minute time trial to capture average power and heart rate data. Fortunately he coaches you on how to approach the test. I'd done one indoor time trial at a local shop a few months earlier and done exactly what Larry instructed me not to do: Hammer right from the start. Instead he has you perform a structured 10-minute warm-up, during which you reach upwards of 120% of your estimate critical power wattage (i.e., the average power output you can expend for 60 minutes). After the warm-up he begins recording your data, taking a snapshot of heart rate and power levels every 5 minutes (in addition to capturing average HR and power at the end of the test.
If felt SO much better during this test than during my ill-fated virtual time trial at the shop. Instead of shooting way above my sustainable heart rate and power, suffering miserably the entire ride and watching my power steadily decline for 20 minutes, I was properly warmed up and able to peg my power output just below what I thought I could sustain. This allowed me to actually increase my power during the final quarter of the test, finishing at a wattage well above my average for the ride.
Here are the numbers Larry captured during my test:
| AVG WATTS | 315 | ||
| MAX WATTS | 372 | ||
| AVE CADENCE | 97 | ||
| MAX CADENCE | 116 |
| HeartRate at CP: | 166 | |
| CP WATTAGE : | 315 | |
| CP to Weight Ratio: | 4.2 | |
That last number (power-t0-weight ratio) is the key. At 5'9" and 160 lbs. I'm not going to be able to create the same kind of power as a rider 6' and 185 lbs. But I don't need to, because I don't have to push that extra mass mile after mile, or climb over a mountain pass with 25 extra pounds. Larry seemed quite pleased and reasonably impressed with my results, and after I checked a few sources online to see how a ratio of 4.2 stacks up, I was pretty happy, too. For example, Cozy Beehive, a blog maintained by an avid cyclist who's also a mechanical engineer, claims a power-to-weight ratio of 4.2 puts me near the top of Cat 2, and nearly up to Cat 1. That would be quite remarkable if true. I would have been happy with a solid Cat 3/4 power output. Click here for his power-to-weight chart.
Unfortunately, I got quite sick a few days after my CP test. I had a bad head cold, which turned into a sinus infection, which morphed into an ear infection (I don't think I'd had one of those for roughly 38 years). Needless to say, this bout threw me for a loop and really derailed my pre-season training. It even caused me to push back my bike camp trip by about 3 weeks. Fortunately I was able to attend the camp and use the opportunity to get back to form.
In the next post I'll tell you about my first bike race of the 2009 season -- the Minnesota and Wisconsin season-opener in Durand, WI.
