Coach Troy's Power File and Training Log, Oct. 8, 2009
Hello and thanks for checking in on my training log reports.Today is Thursday, Oct. 8th. On Tuesday, I did another aerobic endurance ride, focused on building my muscular endurance especially. The route took me from my home 'uphill', climbing Oracle Road to Saddle Brook, a retirement community nestled at the foot of the Catalina mountains. Really a great ride of just over 30 miles with some nice steady climbs that enable you to work on pedaling stroke technique.
I felt pretty good after taking Monday as an off day. I knew I needed an off day after feeling like 'death warmed over' on Sunday, struggling to get my HR up on the bike, even into my aerobic range, and holding power over 200 watts was a chore. I even cut that ride short... knowing that gains are little if at all when the legs are too tired to elicit a heart rate high enough to get a training effect. One of the most notable things to me, in regard to training as a masters athlete, is the need for extra rest ... especially after 'quality' training days. You don't realize how fast you recover when you're in your 20's and even early 30's until you're not there any longer, eh?! I'm sure when I'm in my 50's, I'll be thinking to myself... 'geez, if only I could recover from hard training as quickly as I did when I was 40...". Ha!
I've included my power file from Tuesday. As you can see (the yellow line indicates power in watts), I maintained a fairly steady output after a brief warm up. Drops in power are from rolling up to stop signs and intersections, when you're no longer pedaling. And spikes are due to standing up suddenly or putting in a little 'surge' to shake things up a bit.
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My effort on this day was moderate and the 'suffer factor' was fairly low. I felt comfortable throughout the ride, sometimes allowing the power to drift over 350 watts on some climbs, but generally keeping it steady in that 300 watt range. Overall, with warm up, coasting and cooldown, my avg. power for the ride was at 274 watts with an avg. cadence of 88 rpms and avg. speed of 22.04 mph. I produced 1470 kj of work over 32.86 miles in 01:29:28 minutes, or burned roughly 1470 calories during the effort. At a present body weight of 170 lbs., my avg. power measured in Watts/kg. was 3.51. I was very hungry after this ride!
On Wednesday, I planned for a short recovery day due both to the 'aerobic endurance' ride I did on Tuesday and due to time restraints. On the bike, I did a 40 min easy spin (no power meter even used), or what I like to call 'noodling', to keep the legs loose followed by a 4 mile aerobic run. You'll notice that swimming is absent from my training log. That's because I'm not a huge fan of swimming and I try to avoid it for as long as possible! Even back in my 'pro' days, a 1500 meter swim workout was a 'big' day in the pool for me. Perhaps that lack of swimming focus was why I was always several minutes behind out of the water, eh? I intend to start getting wet soon, so stay tuned for the gory details. :)
That's my story! Thanks for checking in.
Train smart,
Coach Troy
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Body Works MD
