It is nice to go on a ride where my eyes are not glued to that little Garmin device. I noticed a lot of things today on my ride that I had never noticed before. Like, what trees those are that grow along the road of my most trafficked route. Yes, those are peach trees. And, since I am reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand I also noticed all the houses with awful architecture scattered through the outskirts of Stockton. But, I digress.
The Garmin is a wonderful little device chock full of data from your rides. It is especially useful when paired with a power tap. Which is exactly why I was glancing down at my Garmin midway through my ride. Normally, my eyes stay glued to this device for the entirety of my ride as I hold my threshold for an inordinate amount of time or as I practice my sprints trying to beat my PR for max power (which I can proudly say is more than Andy Schleck, but a measly half of what sprinter Mark Cavendish can put out which is 1600 watts).
The Garmin is a wonderful little device chock full of data from your rides. It is especially useful when paired with a power tap. Which is exactly why I was glancing down at my Garmin midway through my ride. Normally, my eyes stay glued to this device for the entirety of my ride as I hold my threshold for an inordinate amount of time or as I practice my sprints trying to beat my PR for max power (which I can proudly say is more than Andy Schleck, but a measly half of what sprinter Mark Cavendish can put out which is 1600 watts).
But, today was an easy tempo ride since it is rest week. So, my eyes were not chained to the Garmin as they normally are. However, I did notice halfway through my spin that my average speed for the ride was 17 mph, even though I had gone through many stop signs/lights. I laughed out loud because 2 years ago when I was first getting into cycling I planned carefully to get my high average of 18mph. I would go on "long" 15 mile rides where I planned routes carefully to avoid stop signs and then labored, panting over my pedals to pull out a grand 18 mph average. It is funny to see how hard I worked to achieve what I now achieve without trying. Which brings me to my next point...
Intervals are the key. In the beginning my training style was to ride 3 times a week and try to go as fast as I could for as long as I could. This will never increase your ability. It is the carefully planned intervals at your max, with rest intervals sprinkled throughout that will increase your cycling ability quickly. And, you should go so hard during your intervals that when you get to your rest interval you literally cannot pedal for several seconds as you recover from your effort. It is these efforts that will bring results in races and in your group rides.
I learned this during my first race of this year at Knights Ferry Road Race. I got to the finish line panting and grunting in pain as I finished at the top of a climb. I didn't win, and barely eked out third place. But, what I realized was that none of my workouts simulated a race. And, none of them caused me to be in as much pain nor to go as deep as that race had pushed me to dig. From then on, I vowed to push myself so deep into that place of pain during training that digging deep in races would become a breeze. Has it worked? With the right training plan, definitely. I podiumed 3 times in the last month.
Intervals are the key. In the beginning my training style was to ride 3 times a week and try to go as fast as I could for as long as I could. This will never increase your ability. It is the carefully planned intervals at your max, with rest intervals sprinkled throughout that will increase your cycling ability quickly. And, you should go so hard during your intervals that when you get to your rest interval you literally cannot pedal for several seconds as you recover from your effort. It is these efforts that will bring results in races and in your group rides.
I learned this during my first race of this year at Knights Ferry Road Race. I got to the finish line panting and grunting in pain as I finished at the top of a climb. I didn't win, and barely eked out third place. But, what I realized was that none of my workouts simulated a race. And, none of them caused me to be in as much pain nor to go as deep as that race had pushed me to dig. From then on, I vowed to push myself so deep into that place of pain during training that digging deep in races would become a breeze. Has it worked? With the right training plan, definitely. I podiumed 3 times in the last month.