Observations:
- Power output while drafting is REALLY LOW. Drafting makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE.
- Hill climbing in groups really spikes the watts too high
- Group rides can be great for recovery if the route is flatter and you don't pull.
I'm starting to get the hang of this PT stuff. Using my Cycling Peaks software, I can calculate how much stress this ride put on my body and analyize my actual useful ride time. A 3ish hour ride like today's produced a TSS (Training stress score) of about 104. Considering that usually around 900-1000 TSS per week is when overtraining begins to set in, today's ride was great. Also, despite the ride time, I only produced significant powr for 2 hours, 40 minutes of the ride. The rest doesn't even count!
It's obvious to me that you can better utilize training time by riding alone. However, it's too easy to go too hard by yourself. But you waste more time in a group and get less work done over the same time peroid. Ahhh---so much info, what to do?
My VO2 max power suffered today in the short Madison hills. Theseshort type of efforts are impossible to ride since the terrain is very rolling. But I haven't trained VO2 max yet. Not till April!
2 comments:
If you start training alone all the time you will turn training into a fulltime job and loose all the fun. Dont get to crazy about the numbers. Keep it fun!!
cat 1
No intention of droping the group rides. But it's an intersting revalation nonetheless. No wonder the loner guys train the hardest at the ameteaur levels!
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