I'm in Geek Heaven - numbers, numbers, numbers. :) Dropped by
Walk Run Ride in Bolton to pick up our new
Tacx Flow Ergotrainer. WRR uses these trainers in their spin studio where they do an 8-week progressive training program using DVDs from Carmichael. Participants are tested before and after the 8 weeks.
I train at home so I'd arranged to take the test to set some power (wattage) and heartrate zones. The test included some warm-up, cooldown and lighter spinning but the hard core stuff was:
1 min top intensity X 2 with 1 min rest (to "open you up" and tire you out)
8 min top intensity X2 with 10 min rest (the test)
Cadence for all of this should average around 90.
It's March Break and there were a few teenaged boys on adjacent trainers offering friendly encouragement which was nice. The Walk Run Ride guys did a good imitation of Coach Troy to push me a little harder, especially in the last few minutes of each interval.
Power and HR were measured and averaged over each of the 8-minute intervals, then it was fed into a program that provides individual power/HR ranges for Endurance Miles, Tempo, Steady State, Climbing Repeats and Power Intervals (the 5 training ranges in order of low to high power/HR).
Although the goal is to produce all the same numbers over both 8-minute intervals, it is rare for a first timer to succeed - and I certainly didn't. I did manage to have the same average HR (161), max HR (171), average cadence (90) and max power (242) over both intervals but my average power dropped by 6% in the 2nd interval.
Now I can use these zones in training. Carbon also provided me with a spreadsheet where I can do a slightly different test and compare the zones, then design custom workouts to increase power. So cool! :) I will definitely not be doing that 2nd test anytime soon though, as I can't believe how totally wasted I am after a 50-minute workout.
P.S. Carbon, I won't be reading your e-mails anymore because you cost me too much money. First there was this trainer, then I caved yesterday and ordered a new treadmill to replace the one that died. And Urthbuoy, I have to stop talking to you too because you've got me checking out whitewater kayak websites until the wee hours. Still looking for the right boat to match my helmet! ;)