Training with Power

The bike was my strongest discipline this past season, but I know there's lots of room for improvement. My training last season certainly wasn't haphazard - I planned out a periodized approach to the season with a base phase, build phase, and then a race-specific phase. I used videos from Sufferfest and CTXC to structure my workouts and used RPE for my intervals and heart rate training for my easy rides.

It all worked pretty well, and I put down some pretty good bike splits in my races. The only time I ever doubted my biking was in my last race, the Thousand Islands Olympic Tri. Specifically, I was unsure of how hard to go - I didn't want to leave any minutes or seconds on the table but didn't want to overbike and pay for it on the run. I still second-guessed my efforts long after that race was over.

I had planned for a while that this offseason I would train with a power meter, and it's now installed and operating. I went with a Power2Max unit - by all accounts they are reliable, accurate, and are relatively affordable. I didn't have the tool to do the bottom bracket swap so called in Adam from Velofix to do the installation (and take a look at my rear derailleur issue).

I'm using Trainerroad for my workouts and training plans and have a dual screen setup in my pain cave with trainerroad on one screen and whatever I'm watching on the other. Immediately apparent is that there is a significant difference between pacing a Time Trial based on RPE and using power. Keeping a steady, sustainable RPE over the course of a TT for my first FTP test resulted in steadily declining power. It took a couple tries to get the hang of properly pacing the tests, and I can already tell that having this tool is going to help immensely both in training and in pacing a race. It's great to have the power data to both guide my training sessions, and to look at afterwards.

I took some time off at the end of the season to let my saddle sores heal up, and then biked somewhat sporadically in an unstructured manner. I know my bike fitness has suffered a little, but I'm also confident it'll come back and I'll be able to make some gains and hit next season better than ever. The base phase for next season begins this week.