First things first. This was my first ride outside since October. October! It was cold-ish, dank, windy, and I came home with two blocks of ice for feet (even with booties on), but I did not care. I was unchained from the bike dungeon and I was very happy.
So much to report:
1. I've been riding using watts on my Computrainer (CT) all winter. The PowerTap arrived last week. There has been much friction using it on the CT (read not working right). I needed to ride it outside. The the watts I rode for the intervals today were based on the Functional Threshold tests I've done on the CT, and I would say that range is very, very close. I'll have to test on the road, but the work felt right.
2. All I could hear in my head was Endurance Nation (EN) coach Rich Strauss saying, "it's like riding in three dimensions." Man, is it ever. It is a whole new world. It's like I put on corrective lenses and can see all that I've been missing. It is amazing what I learned after just one ride outside.
3. I learned:
- I do not normally ride my bike like that outside. Whoa, baby. I work hard on the trainer, yes, because I've had the watts as a guide. Outside no way do I ride like I did today. It seems I have been in the the habit of much lolly gagging. I can completely see that now. If riding like this does not get me faster, and make me a more efficient rider, there is no hope.
- I could see exactly where I would have naturally allowed myself to let up on the power. My legs get that certain feeling (hard to describe) on a particular terrain, and I naturally want to take it down a notch. In the 2 x 20' I had to stay at 85-90% so I had to reteach my legs what to do. This is a work in progress, but I loved it. What a satisfying feeling.
- Again, there's no fooling myself. Like running with pace, this is as objective as it gets, and to quote Yoda, you either do or don't do. I will not be surprised if there I days I wish I was back in bike la-la land.
- I am a little afraid of going that fast!!!! The speed was faster than I'm used to for much of the ride, and waaaay faster on the downhills. I get kind of scared going that fast in a descent--and the hills weren't even major ones. Just rolling. I was kinda running out of gears too.
4. It has been worth every minute of time spent reading the Cycling Peaks power info, and especially doing the Endurance Nation Power Webinar. I knew what was going on and what to do when I hit the road. Yes, there will be some friction and a learning curve, but I felt prepared to execute a good ride from the get-go.
5. I cannot say enough about the Endurance Nation off-season program and this EN training overall. I have NEVER been in this kind of shape in the first ride of the season. In the past, I've had some painful early season rides feeling awful and needing a couple of weeks to get my "road legs" back. This was ride hard #2 of the weekend and I hit it just fine.
There is much to learn about how to execute the power intervals, but this ride showed me I'm off to a very good start!
