Good solid training
In keeping with my previous post about building muscle memory, today's training session was simply an exercise in concentration. I wanted to put in a little more intensity but I also did not want to all the old patterns to take over and undo the good progress, uh, in progress.
As I focused on good pedaling form and posture I found I was constantly and ever so slightly increasing the pressure on the pedals with each passing minute. Before too long I had a nice searing hurt going on; but I figured as long as my mechanics were good all would be well. When I reached the point where I could tell the muscle firing sequence was about to break down I shut it down.
The I restarted the sequence. The end result was kind of interesting - a sort of sawtooth shaped wattage profile. Maybe I should call this my buzz saw workout.
One thing I noticed... See how the wattage (green) line goes up faster than the speed (pink) line? It takes progressively more and more watts to go faster. Seems awfully harsh, but that's the way it is.
Smooth Ramp
From your post I inferred that you did these on the road ("watts increasing faster thhn speed"). This ramp looks so smooth that I would think that it was done on a trainer and therefore speed would more closely match the ramp of wattage. Are you just gifted with excellent training terraine?
Good Catch
I wish I had a road like that. I really do. If I had a road where I could get 8-10 minutes' of good flat riding I'd be there all the time.
You made a good catch there.
I realized when I posted that it might be misleading a bit. My trainer is a Kurt Kinetic
fluid trainer with a heavy flywheel. When they built it for me they filled it with the correct amount of fluid for my weight, which believe it or not makes that trainer mimic flat, no-wind road conditions really well.
That's why I blurred the lines, though probably too much, between road and trainer.
Mark Ewers
I may not be fast, but I'm 2 old 2 go slow