Sharing my data - A New Beginning

During my build towards the 2013 Tour of the Battenkill, I shared my thoughts and personal training data to provide some insight that may help you in your own training. I received great feedback from many of you. Believe it or not, the time has come for me to begin again. One of you asked recently when I was going to begin training for Battenkill again. My response was, "About a month ago."

What have I been doing? I enjoyed my off-season. Yes, Summer is my off-season. It is when I focus my attention on all of you. I do your workouts with you, instructional skills sessions, and provide support at events. I made an effort to improve my poor spine and back condition which continues to be a problem for me. That is why you are not seeing me racing my CX bike this year or last.

Additionally, I was enjoying my kids as one was leaving for prep-school. Helping my friends at Halter's Cycles during their busy season. I attended coaching seminars. I was on my bike but not really training. After decades of riding, I can ride all day at any point. I do lose the sharpness, race-preparedness, or my "top end speed".

I did an FTP test with clients at the end of July. It resulted in a concerning 9% drop in Functional Threshold Power (FTP) power since April. I spent the next six weeks hosting Cyclocross skills clinics with most of you. One huge clinic for the public. I also spent two long weekends at clinics hosted by other coaches. Some additional family time didn't allow much opportunity to train. I did another FTP test a month ago. Another 2% drop in FTP power. "Okay, that is enough! Time to get back on the horse!"

I have spent the time since increasing the duration and intensity on the bike. Simply riding with more purpose. When legs feel good, do something with them. Not much structure required. I simply followed the old Eddy Merckx recommendation, "Ride Lots!"

Feel free to take a look at my test data. You may notice that I do not put out impressive numbers. You won't hear me bragging about my huge engine. I picked the wrong parents. I like to think I extract every bit of power from myself with excellent coordination and efficiency. Coupled knowledge and experience, I can still surprise a few people.

In the future, I hope to share my thoughts and data from key workouts. I began introducing some structured intervals last week and will share one of those workouts in the coming days. In the future, I hope to share about one workout per week. We'll see how things go.

The intent is to help you in your own training. I do many of the same workouts you do. I practice what I preach. I always enjoy your feedback and questions and look forward to hearing from you. 

Thanks for reading.