What I learned last week

Well I got pretty good response about the high cadence and one leg drills. Seems like most people think they are a pretty good idea. It looks like I will have to continue suffering through those things. I did get some pretty good advice with the responses though.

I have been spinning too fast. I shouldn't be bouncing all over the saddle out of control when I do my high cadence drills. If I am bouncing I am not using the proper form. Proper form is essential for improving my spin at normal cadence. I bet if I stop bouncing my saddle sores won't be so bad. Slowing my cadence is a win win for me.

My power question on the wattage list was not as successful. Seems like the consensus was that the charts will look different due to the relative slowness with which heart rate responds to changes in actual exercise intensity. I got this response from one of the authors of the power training bible which was pretty cool.

The reason I created those two graphs was to try and find a way to estimate TSS for days I don't have a power meter. Many of the rides I do are mountain bike rides, and I don't have a power meter on my mountain bike.

I was hoping to keep my performance manager chart up to date with TSS scores for every ride to try and help me learn how to predict when I am training too much. I have had a problem with over training in the last two seasons.

My plan for estimating TSS on my mountain bike was to record how long I spent in each heart rate zone. Then guess an intensity factor for each zone and use that IF to calculate TSS using this formula.

TSS = IF^2 x duration (hours) x 100

After calculating a TSS value for each zone, I would sum them up to calculate a TSS score for the entire ride.

I assumed it would be better to estimate an IF value for each zone that it would be to estimate an IF for the entire ride. My reasoning was if it would be better to estimate an IF for a single ride than estimating an IF for an entire week or for an entire month, it should be more accurate to break a ride up into many parts and estimate an IF for each part.

To try and test the accuracy of this assumption I created the graph for a ride where I had both heart rate and power data. What I found though is that the graphs are entirely different. I don't think the heart rate graph is very useful for predicting the duration I spent in each power zone.

I tried posting these comments back to the Wattage list, but I didn't get any responses. I did start a new debate on over training versus over reaching. I have no idea which category I fell into last year.

It would be so much easier to just buy a power meter for my mountain bike though. I wish there was a good option out there.