Nothing But Numbers

Im going on my forth week here in Tucson and I have very few complaints. The weather has been nothing but perfect and the riding is just as impressive. Moving to Tucson was a very smart decision for a couple of reasons, beyond simply the better weather and roads. I am more focused here. My life was occupied by far to many other things when I was in the south east that I often lost sight of the reasons that brought me there in the first place. Being away from home already taxes my relationships heavily, how was I so foolish to go to a place where I would be distracted from my training.

Dont get me wrong, I love everyone that I have met along the way and I would not change that now even if I could. I am just happy that I made the decision, and that I had the resources this season, to make it out here. (Yee yee Winson-Salem, see you in April when I'm east bound and north)

BJ Basham (my coach) and I have been working full time on bringing my threshold up to a more competitive range and it has taken a lot of work. In the past, with my previous coach, we never did much threshold training, and as a result I have never really tuned my aerobic engine. When I started working with BJ, I could do a mere 320 watts for 20 minutes in a sustained threshold test. Putting my function threshold at about 290, or 4.0 watts/kg. This is hardly what is considered competitive for a professional athlete, but I got by because of my high anaerobic engine and my sprint. It also helps that crits are so stop and go, it really catered to my training history. However, whenever the road started to go uphill, I was doomed. You have no idea how embarrassing it is to get dropped in a local race while flying the colors of a professional team.

Without any real extended periods without racing last season, I was unable to do much threshold work after I began working with BJ in April. We decided that it was going to have to wait until this winter. Now, fast forward 9 months, a USA Crits Overall Victory, signing with Kenda, 8 weeks of base training (4 solidly spent in AZ), and now A TOUR OF CALIFORNIA INVITE!!!!! and here we are.

Tides are turning my friends, white boy can go uphill! Well, sorta. Tomorrow I am testing for my 3rd time this season and I will find out just how much progress I have made. The magical number to be a pro is 5 watts/kg for threshold power, which would put me at 353 watts.... assuming that I can't lose any weight. I have a lot of work to do because at the beginning of this block I was only doing 331 for 20 minutes. Bike nerds obsess to much over numbers (flip'in MIT kids, stupid watts) and in my opinion all to often confuse FTP (functional threshold power) and 20 minutes power when they talk power. FTP is the amount of power you can hold for an hour, not 20 minutes (you can predict FTP by multiplying your 20 minute power by 95%).

The point of all that is to say that I have to get skinnier and I have to get faster. After my last test, I am currently working with 315 watts at FTP which is about 12% less power than I need to be doing to meet the 5 watts/kg minimum that people consider mandatory for any pro. I made 331 watts for 20 minutes in my first test in town (January 12th). I am confident that I will blow past this number tomorrow during my test. I probably wont reach the 370 watts for 20 minutes, which is the amount that I need to reach to break 5 watts/kg at FTP, but it will come soon.

I expect that at this rate I will reach 5 watts/kg by the time Redlands and San Dimas roll around, based off my progress thus far. During my first test in early December, I made only 312 watts for 20 minutes (granted it was 26 degrees out and I was freezing but w.e). That means that I made a 6% gain in threshold power in one month, not to mention that this was during the holidays!!.... and I wont lie, I was drinking like a fish the whole time.

Tomorrow I am shooting to break 350 for twenty minutes. I don't think that is to lofty of a goal, but it is right along my best 20 minutes from last season. Last year at the Mayors cup I did 347 watts (374 norm watts) for the first 35 minutes of the race. It is pretty exciting to already be knocking at the door of my best power numbers from last season and its only February. This year is going to be awesome, and those guys in California have got another thing coming if I can manage to drag my ass to the finish line of a road race... lol.

I'm not much of a numbers guy but I am not racing right now and by setting these goals it is helping me work toward something. My measly 5 watts/kg cannot compete with Andy Schleck's 6.5 watts/kg at threshold, but I'd like to see him break 24 watt/kg in a sprint. That is my next goal to reach before the season starts. Happy training everyone, remember, Mr. Groundhog saw no shadow, spring should be just around the corner.


GET MONEY!