Start the experiment...

I have decided to record my attempts to improve my power over the next 5-ish months. While I have taken cycling and training semi-seriously over the last year I don't seem to have improved much so I think I need to be a bit more methodical about it.

After 5 weeks off the bike I went on a training ride yesterday and was very disappointed at my performance on the White Horse Climb (aka Low Town Bank climb on Strava) , which I usually love. For some reason I was struggling up in the granny gear and on each of my 3 climbs I got slower and felt weaker. At the top on the last climb I could barely breathe and my throat felt very constricted so I'm hoping it's not fatal.

Anyway, here's a section of the power and HR trace from the 3 climbs. Black line = power. Red line = HR.

When I got home I analysed the data (on the fantastic Golden Cheetah 3 software) and noticed that on each attempt my power was lower than the last and my HR was lower too, even though I felt like I was trying as hard on each climb. While my best time on the climb is 7mins 10 secs, my fastest on this day was a terrible 8:57 and my slowest an embarrassing 10:04!

So, time to do things properly and train with a method and a plan. While I've had the excellent Training and Racing with a Power Meter for a while, I haven't taken it too seriously, but now I think it's time to as well as inputs from other sources to develop a plan aimed at improving my power.

The first step was to complete a 20 minute power test. Having done several before I knew the importance of pacing myself and not going too hard too soon. I was hoping I could achieve 320W for the 20 mins so I started off just below this and let my power build through the test. With 1 minute to go I dug hard to use every last ounce of energy but quickly went into deficit and had to back off, then managed to surge for the last 30 seconds to achieve 322W. Incidentally, this is exactly the same result as a 20 min test I completed last November so I hadn't lost anything, which is good. By the end of the test I had given it my all, I was unable to speak and just slumped over the bike. I don't like doing these all-out tests because they are painful and relentless and on the very limit of what your body can achieve (at least they should be to be an accurate test).

So here's the power and HR trace from today's 20 min power test. Black line = power. Red line = HR.

Note how the power trace is quite smooth for the first 12 minutes or so, then starts to wobble a lot, before going manic for the last 2 minutes. In the last 2 minutes I go from feeling exhausted to OK and back again as my body loses then finds new reserves of energy.