Two Wheel Blogs

I love it when a plan comes together. In this case my "no plan" training plan. I do wish my lack of plans this year had come together a little faster, but I'll take what I can get as it comes along. It's been two seasons in a row, but it looks like I finally have my Functional Threshold Power back to where I left off so many months ago when my back problems knocked the wind out of my cycling training program.

Six of us went out this morning to pre-ride Le Tour de Sainte Genevieve road race course. The guys turned the pre-ride into something more like a pre-race. They really put the hurt on me. Spotting them at least 10 pounds and 10 years... OK that's just an excuse.

When I got home I downloaded my SRM power file and the numbers surprised me. Delighted is a better choice of words. The ride had lasted nearly two hours including the parking lot circuits before the start and after the finish. I wasn't so surprised to see a fairly normal looking Average Power for the ride. After all it was a group ride in hilly terrain - no shortage of drafting and light pedaling. I was surprised, however, to see Normalized Power for the entire ride only 15 watts below my Functional Threshold Power.

I did a quick consult on Determining Functional Threshold Power. You know, Andy's Seven Deadly Sins. I remembered one of them had to do with Normalized Power. Number 4:

based on Normalized Power from a hard ~1 h race

OK so this was neither a ~1 hour effort, nor was it a race. But it was hard. My NP from the peak 60 minutes today surpassed my current FTP setting by a whole 2 watts. Hey you gotta take your victories where you can.

It's a small victory, but it also might not be as small as 2 watts. I was out late last night at my neighborhood's block party. Not enough sleep and a lot of time on my feet had my back hurting quite a bit early on in the ride. I'm thinking had I been more fresh, my performance today might have been even better than it was. Maybe another watt or two? Who knows?

So the word for today is "stoked". I'm stoked to have my Functional Threshold Power right about where it was before; and I'm stoked at the thought of getting to work raising it even higher from here.