A slow week

Last week was pretty slow, cycling-wise, as I had a lot of catching up to do at work. However the past three days have been pretty intense.

On tuesday after I got home from work I immediately headed out to Prospect Park for some lactate threshold training. I did a 20 minute sub-threshold interval, followed by a 20 minute recovery interval, then another sub-threshold interval. On the second interval my heartrate monitor kept saying "Check strap fit" so I based my workout mostly on RPE (rate of percieved excertion - how hard you think you are working). Not terribly scientific but still very useful.

Speaking of scientific training, I'm really looking forward to the Minoura eFlex computer/power-meter. It uses an insole to measure the amount of pressure you are putting on the pedals and converts that to power. It's probably not as accurate as torque based power-meters but it seems like it would be very easy/quick to switch between multiple bikes and would require no modifications in order for it to work with a track bike. Unfortunately the computer is not yet out and the power meter is an add-on that won't be out until next year. In the mean time I heard that a friend of a friend is trying to sell a PowerTap so I might try and get that.

Back to the riding - on Wednesday evening the Twilight series at Kissena continued. On the schedule was: an 8 lap scratch, a tempo and a Miss-and-Out. The scratch race was pretty uneventful and I finished with the pack. Right at the start of the Tempo race (a points race with the first two people to finish each lap getting 2 and 1 points respectively) there was a break of two riders. As far as I know they took most if not all of the laps. The Miss-and-Out was next and ended up being a huge disappointment. The fields for the scratch race and the tempo were pretty large, and I assumed that the field for the Miss-and-Out was large as well (I started the race towards the front of the pack and didn't really get a good look at it). After about 3 laps there were several people in front of me, but given the field size for the previous races I thought I was fine. Then I hear my number being called. For whatever reason a bunch of people decided not to do the Miss-and-Out. Lesson learned - make no assumptions.

Finally we come to this morning - a continuation of the thursday morning group rides! Once again I met up with some friends at 5am for a pre-work ride. This time we only went to Piermont so that the people who needed to be at work earlier could make it out. David and Gui didn't show up this time, which meant that Andrew and I were pushing the pace for most of the ride. I was a bit tired from all the riding I did Tuesday and Wednesday so overall it was a more moderate ride than last week. I hope that we can continue riding every week before work.

Next week I'll probably try to start training twice a day.