In April of this year I visited the Endurance Coach people to get some insight into what was going on with me on the bike – you may have read my post about it here. They gave me a training plan that was essentially about riding nearer to my threshold to avoid gradually getting slower over time. I was already losing weight at that point in an attempt to make our trip to the Alps in May a bit easier, and since then I have continued to eat carefully and ride harder. With that in mind I returned this week to take the tests again – to monitor my progression – and to talk about a training plan for the next few months ready for next year. Here’s the raw data – the figures in brackets are results from the previous test
- Max HR – 191bpm (197 bpm)
- Threshold HR – 185bpm (187 bpm)
- Threshold Power – 350watts (310 watts)
- RQ1 HR – 183bpm (172 bpm)
- RQ1 Power – 350 watts (250 watts)
- VO2 max – 62.33 ml/min/kg (45.2 ml/min/kg)
- Max Aerobic Power – 390 watts (370 watts)
- Aerobic Power/Weight Ratio – 5.65 watts/kg (4.93 watts/kg)
- Max Sprint Power – 1037 watts (1077 watts)
- Anaerobic Power/Weight Ratio – 15.03 watts/kg (14.34 watts/kg)
- Average 10 sec power – 906 watts (862 watts)
- Power/Weight Ratio – 12.49 (12.06 watts/kg)
In reality what has happened is that I have lost around 6kg and managed to pretty much maintain my power output – which means my power-to-weight ratio has increased. This is very noticeable going up hills! In addition my RQ1 figure is now 100watts higher – which essentially means that around threshold I am now putting out more power than I used to – which either means I can go faster or be more economical and go further. Interestingly, whilst I went further from a power perspective on the test, and Jacqui made me do an extra minute, I had to bail at a lower maximum heart-rate.
So the plan for the next 4 months is to improve technique, aerobic base and strength/force. I’ve started down the technique route by having my bikes fitted properly by Richard at PedalPrecision. I’ll write about that in a future post when I’ve tried out his changes.
So I now have a some very specific targets in mind , a structured training plan, some new equipment and NO EXCUSES.
Sounds interesting. I’ve never thought about these types of stats before but I imagine it makes a huge difference to your performance. Thanks for sharing.
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