Much Better

After fighting a cold for nearly three weeks, it's nice to feel back to normal.

Of course, sitting around and eating for a few weeks, plus the Thanksgiving holiday, I've managed to climb back to 189.6 pounds. Not good.

On the plus side, I've just begun to train a little more aggressively. Yesterday, I did a test on the computrainer to see how long I could hold various power levels. Shelli was kind enough to help out, adjusting the power levels and recording when I couldn't maintain the effort anymore.

• 300 watts - 3:02
  
• 350 watts - 1:52
  
• 400 watts - 1:12
  
• 450 watts - 0:59
  
• 500 watts - 0:43
  
• 550 watts - 0:33
  

I'm not judging these numbers at all. They are just a starting point for me. I didn't push to failure and I didn't watch the recovery to make sure I was fully recovered between each effort. I just did it as a starting point to see how I progress over the next few months.

Today, I went out for a two hour and forty minute ride, covering about 46 miles. It was cold, about 31 degrees when I started, so I was not expecting any record speeds. My power levels were right where I wanted: I recorded an average of 203 watts for two hours (215 normalized). Granted, it's not the best ever, but considering that I haven't been on the bike much for the last month, I'm more than happy with it!

Almost back to normal

I've spent the last two weeks fighting a bad cold. Well, "fighting" makes it sound more active. Really, I just sat on the couch as much as I could while eating constantly. I barely rode the bike or the trainer at all.

Today was my first attempt at a real ride. I did pretty well.

I rode about 30 miles. For the entire time, my heart rate was about 10 to 15 beats per minute higher than normal for any given power level, so I knew I was not quite back to full power.

I did two harder efforts: one of 7:30 at 250 watts and one of 2:30 at 330 watts. Both of them were pretty rough, but at least I could do them.

Of course, sitting around and eating for two weeks, I gained a pound and a half, and am up to 187.6. At least I'm starting to feel better enough to ride again!

Even colder

When I left for today's ride, it was 31 degrees, probably the coldest weather I've ridden in for a really long time. I went out for a relatively easy ride for about two hours. My legs were a bit stiff from the hard week and I just wanted to spin them out a little bit.

I was a little alarmed to spot a frozen puddle on the road. It made me pay just a little more attention to make sure I don't hit any ice!

Better than I expected

Today was my first RPM ride of the season. I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

For the last two weeks, I've been riding around 9 hours a week, up from 7. I've been spending some of those additional hours riding with the guys from work at lunch, and they like to attack and sprint a lot, so I'm working a lot harder than I would normally. Add in a night at the gym each week, and my legs have been a bit stiff. I wasn't expecting to do too well today.

It was a small group today, with just Todd and I. We did a course that I was not familiar with, that turned out to have a few pretty steep climbs in it (up to 8.9%).

I pushed pretty hard the first hour and averaged 243 watts. After that, I backed off a bit, and averaged 232 watts for 1:30. I forgot to look up my numbers from last year before I left this morning, so I didn't know if that was good or not.

It turned out to be very good. My numbers from the first few RPM classes last fall were in the 204 to 208 range. I'm a full 15% above that.

On the downside, my weight is still hovering around 186 :-(