Sunday, November 18, 2012

Defining My Best

My recent record-breaking rides have me wondering: how do I define "the best shape ever"?

Going by weight, I'm not even close. I'm at 178 pounds and 19.4% body fat right now. My best there was 161 pounds and 13%.

Going by sprint power, that was 1300 watts for 5 seconds. I'm barely hitting 1100 these days (though I sprint maybe once every 2 weeks in the winter).

Beyond that, the numbers have gotten more interesting.

Below are a few numbers: The best I had ever done until July 2012 (when I started my current training program, which is focused on FTP and VO2 intensities) and the test numbers from the last
week:


Pre-July 2012 Nov 2012 Wattage Percent
Best 5:00 320 watts 341 watts 21 watts 6.6%
Best 8:00  295 watts 324 watts 29 watts 9.8%
Best 20:00 268 watts 282 watts 14 watts 5.2%

So... am I in the best shape of my life? Maybe.

If nothing else, I can definitely say that my new training program is working very well.

PS: That might be the last table I ever post. That was a major pain in the ass to get it to format right!