Thursday, June 19, 2008

Faster, Higher, Stronger

“People think cycling is an endurance event, but really races are won or lost more because of power,” Mr. Vaughters said. Read more here.

I can see myself buying a power meter in a few years, but right now I am still enjoying the idea of getting on my bike and just riding.

Some good advice for training rides on the road bike: Then set about increasing your average wattage. Mr. Vande Velde does this by punctuating rides with five minute “power bursts,” dropping into a low gear, pushing his pedals as hard as he can, his wheels turning at his top sustainable watts and barely 50 revolutions per minute. In the next five minutes, he’ll click up into an easier gear, pedals whirring at low watts and about 90 r.p.m. (which any recreational rider should be able to maintain). Then he’ll repeat.

2 comments:

Dave said...

SS riding is like power training, but is more akin to fartlek training than acutal systematic intervals.

I did a bit of that this year, and when in the future I decide to get better (faster) at this, I'll need to do a lot more.

Not easy discipline.

Dave Harris said...

It's a difficult trade-off. To be fast requires a lot of focus in training (for most, anyway). That is decidedly counter to what most enduro heads want to do. Pin it for 5 min intervals or go ride such and such trail today? Hmmm, tough choice!

As for power meters, yea that's old news. That article (which is very good I thought) makes them sound new. I've got 4 in the garage. Want one?

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