Friday, January 16, 2009

Trainer

One thing I am trying to do this year is "ride to failure" - keep pushing the pace (normally TT or just below) and ride until I cannot push the pedal anymore. It is actually harder than I thought. The body is complaining. It is uncomfortable but I can actually go on. So far I have been doing these SST (90% of TT power) drills and it was only last night when my calf cramped up so bad I have to stop.
If I do these same drills on the road I have to save some effort so I can ride home. Going on a trainer gives me more leeway to "dig deeper".

1 comment:

Ryan said...

Well, the problem with "riding to failure" on the road is you're taking yourself to a pretty messed-up place, too.

As for doing it on the trainer, well, I did a VO2 ramp test last year, and the "to failure" part is a matter of "cannot maintain set wattage above 60rpm", so the "failure" is never complete failure (even a few minutes later I could have started riding, though not at my VO2 max).

You're not trying to ride into the limits of physical injury in most cases; you're trying to ride until you can no longer maintain a certain level of effort.

Try riding at 110% of TT power and see how long you last. 10 minutes is about the most you can hope for.

 
Listed on BlogShares