Today was the first outing of 2010 for the little chain gang we have going, this is a session that it is hard to say I enjoy because it is hard work but it is a session which I have always found to be very beneficial, when it is done regularly. The plan was to ride at least 2 circuits of our 27 mile training loop at our training pace and then maybe to add a much slower loop at the end just to make the route a good ride in length and time terms too. This was going to be an opportunity to see where I am in terms of form following my winter of almost exclusively training indoors.
The ride went really well. We completed the 2 training pace laps (54 miles) at a average speed of around 22mph. Those of us who also rode the conversation pace lap had, by the time we returned to the parking place, averaged well over 20mph for the entire ride of 86 miles.
This ride has answered a fundamental question for me which I thought I knew the answer to last year but which is now confirmed for me. I have proved, to my own satisfaction, that training indoors over the winter can get me to the position where in the early spring I can ride long hard rides, without all the wet, cold, mucky riding that winter riding in the UK involves. My plan for future winters is to train exclusively indoors for the months of November, December, January, and February and then use March as an indoor->road transition month.
This approach may not suit many people but for me it delivers the goods on many fronts and if I manage to establish a regular indoor training group next winter should be even better. My TSS for this ride was 261, IF 0.776, and NP of 237W. The good thing is that I know I can ride this far with a NP higher than this as it was lower due to the much reduced pace of circuit 3, so all looking very +ve.
To review the data: click here: click here.
ATL: 88.8 CTL: 75.9 TSB: 4.1
No comments:
Post a Comment