Too Cold, Time to put the analysis to work.

As I understand it, the critical power for a given time interval is the absolute greatest average power that can be sustained for that period. That would be the academic definition. I don't know if it's that easy to determine in real life. I guess I would figure that I could always give just that little bit more. But, who knows.

Here's what I've learned so far. Future tests will be more reliable. The profile I gave in the previous blog had two actual CP wattages and the others were calculated. I can tell you that I started both tests way too hard and went into O2 debt.

Here's how the CP3 test went. I started hard and maintained 475 watts for the first minute. It was then that I realized that I was in trouble. I had to back off to 310 watts to recover. In the end, I finished the last minute at 330 watts. My average ended up at 375. Here's the good news, on my next test, I will start at 375 watts and try to increase my power throughout the 3 minute test. I did the same thing with the CP20 test and I'll know more next time.

But, for now, I'll use the data that exists.

It was freezing this morning. What better time to implement the training strategy. Here's the goal of power training. You want to increase your time at a given wattage level. For this session, I picked the CP12 wattage as my target(239 watts). To train for increasing your time at given wattages, you plan for short breaks to recover a bit. I'm still working on the specific ratio of work to rest. I've sent some questions in to one of our Exercise Physiologists at the hospital. Hopefully, he will have more info for me in the next couple days. For now, here's my workout for this morning.

150 watts for 10min warmup
239 watts for 9 min
150 watts for 2 min
239 watts for 9 min
150 watts for 2 min
239 watts for 9 min
150 -->100 watt cool down

Total workout time 50 min
Total time at CP12 wattage - 27minutes

It was a great workout. It felt like it was just enough. I wouldn't have wanted another set.
Here's my take away. I think my CP 12 wattage is a bit higher than 239. I don't think I should have been able to go that long, even with the rest intervals. I'm going to perform a CP12 test soon. For that test, I'll start at 239 and work up the watts from there.

So, there's the basic protocol. You can do the same thing with any CP time.

If you need help, let me know. We can go through all the tests.

Also remember, the efficiency side. You may be able to burn mega watts but unless you can use them effectively, you are still going to struggle.