291 Watts

291 Watts. OH SO CLOSE!

I’m sorry that it’s taken me a few weeks to write up this post. The TL:DR is that I hit 291 watts at Xert Functional Threshold, which is the highest value I have seen in well over a decade. At the same time, I dropped down to 147lbs, or 67kg, giving me a w/kg Threshold of 4.36. My Xert HIE (High Intensity Energy) went above 25 kJ, and my Xert Lower Threshold went above 225.

Here is a screen shot showing the 291 watts and the rest of my Xert Signature.

How Xert Training Got me to 291 Watts of Threshold.

First, let’s remember – I’ve been a coach since 1993, and I was an early adopter of Training With Technology and CyberCoaching. For reference, look up the September, 1995 Bicycling Magazine article, in which I was coached by Skip Hamilton. It failed, and I was determined that I could do better as a coach and as an athlete. The goal for this project was 300 watts of Threshold Power, and I still believe that that is possible. But events did conspire against me, and I also know exactly where I went wrong on my own training. Let’s break that down.

Look at the circled columns. You’ll see that for two weeks in the middle of this bloc, I basically went into a detraining/maintenance mode, riding less than four hours a week. My Threshold Power Watts, HIE, LTP Watts and PP Watts declined as well.

Then, the week of September 21st, I jumped from 2.7 hours to 9.1 hours of cycling. XSS/Day jumped, as did Ramp Rate. The Weekly XSS climbed. But look carefully at the columns in the middle of the chart, “Weekly Focus” and “Suggested Focus”. That’s where my efforts both succeeded, and failed.

FAILURE IS NOT A BAD WORD. 291 Watts felt great!

Watch the next chart, and compare those two columns, as I migrate through October and Into November.

Xert continued to give me a Suggested Focus in the 10 Minute Range (“Climber”), but I continued to push that Weekly Focus into a “Higher” bracket, in the 7:27 to 8:54 range. My Threshold Power DID rise, as did my 10 Minute Mean Max Power. It finally settled at 290 watts for the week of October 26th, but on October 31st, I did see a 291 after this long ride. Furthermore, I was VERY satisfied with the higher LTP, or “Lower Threshold Power”, which is where I honestly think most of my gains need to come from in the future.

In theory, I DID fail at my effort to achieve an FTP of 300 watts. But 291 watts is 97% of that goal. 227 watts is 78% of 291 watts, which is also a nice aerobic value. I think next time I try this, though, I will spend more time at lower intensities, and will “Focus” on longer intervals to try and pull that LTP back up to 300 watts.

THE RIDE

Now, I need to reveal the reason why this blog post took so long. The trauma from the ride on October 31st took me off my bike, and shook my faith in cycling. I’ve kind of been suffering a bit of PTSD, and that’s why I have not blogged until now.

We began the ride in the morning from my UPS Store parking lot in South Reno. The weather was nice, but there was tension in the air as the election loomed. The world did not seem right. There were protesters at the intersection near our store. We rolled out, and almost immediately, things began to go wrong.

First, my power meter quit working. We had to turn around and get a fresh battery from the local gas station. Then, at almost the same spot where we stopped to fiddle with the power meter, my wife’s rear tire got a nail in it. I could go on and on about why cycling on the shoulder is neither safe nor legal, but I’ve given up trying to break and change cyclist and motorist behavior, so we ride on the edge and hope for the best. However, that’s where the glass, staples, nails, and other debris present their own hazards.

Now an hour late and down to one tube and one co2 cartridge, we continued.

About an hour later, we rolled into Carson City, NV. Carson City is the State Capital. About halfway through town, this time in a bike lane, my wife suffered ANOTHER nail in her rear tire.

I felt very uncomfortable about continuing without another tube, boot, and co2 cartridges, so I took her wheel, and headed off to find an open bike shop.

The first shop was closed. It was two minutes from where we had flatted.

The second shop, located closer to downtown, was also closed. But here, well, I ran into some trouble.

It was “Nevada Day“, a day to celebrate Nevada’s Statehood. If you’ve ever studied American History, well, Nevada’s state motto is “Battle Born“. However, thanks to the Covid Crisis, all Nevada Day celebrations had been canceled.

Instead, several thousand President Trump Supporters overwhelmed the local Police effort, and staged their own protest parade. I was caught in the middle of it, with a bike wheel in my left hand, wearing cycling kit. I didn’t exactly fit in to local attire or attitude.

MY TWO ANGELS

About the time I was pondering returning to my wife’s side and calling for a ride back to Reno, a woman rolled up on her own bike, and mentioned that a new bike shop had just opened up, about nine blocks away. We would have to travel through the parade, but she was sure it was open. I followed her through the throng of unmasked, angry, drunk people. There were no masks. There was no social distancing. I got Coal-Rolled. We got Right-Hooked and Left-Crossed. We were honked at, yelled at, and harassed every pedal stroke. People jumped in our way. It was miserable.

BUT, she got me to the store, and sure enough, it was open. I never got her name, but I certainly appreciate the crowd-parting and trailbreaking she provided to get me to a repair and safety.

My second angel ended up being the actual shop owner himself. He was not in the store originally, but drove up as I was getting a new tube, extra boots, patches, and tire tools at the counter. He said he’d actually met my wife out on the road, and offered to drive the wheel back to her. He then gave me directions to get back to her without going back through the parade, and that was a proverbial lifesaver.

We met up on the north side of town, got the wheel back on, thanked him profusely, and headed back out on our ride.

We were now TWO HOURS behind schedule.

VIRGINIA CITY

One would think that we had gone through all of our challenges on this ride. However, that was not the case.

On the climb up to Virginia City, which is a small tourist town that was famous back in the days of mining in the state, we thought that the road ahead would be light in traffic and volume. However, once we got up to Virginia City itself, it was a complete repeat of what had happened to me in Carson City. There was a President Trump Parade/Party, and the entire town was full of motorcyclists and 4-wheelers who were unmasked, many of whom were smoking, and there was zero social distancing. We were once again slowed by general traffic, but there really are not many alternative routes to travel in a town with one main road and maybe one more that runs parallel. So it was kind of surreal and honestly, intimidating.

We finally made it through town, made the final climb up to Geiger Grade, and then descended back down to Reno and the store. There were more protesters at the intersection, but we mostly avoided them, since the roads there are about six lanes wide each. We were tired, hungry, shaken, and we both realized how we had dodged proverbial bullets and warnings from our equipment failures and the social heat and frustration that this most recent election has wrought.

In hindsight, we really should not have continued, and instead, we should have realized that the odds were against us, and a ride indoors or out on the mountain bikes would be more appropriate. That said – I DID get my 291 watts and 228 watts of Thresholds, and I concluded this six-week experiment of working as an athlete within the Xert Adaptive Training Advisor and Xert Training Pacer recommendations.

CONCLUSION – 291 Watts of Threshold and UP!?!

291 Watts at Threshold is just a number. But it’s a number that gives me a psychological boost. It also caps what has to have been my most successful cycling training season since at least 2017. I’m older, but I’m wiser. There is less stress up here than there was in Dallas. Cycling is no longer my end-all, be-all. In many ways, 291 watts feels like the performances of the famous mime, Marcel Marceau. You can push against a wall, and it will just push back. But when you LEAN against the wall to relax and think, the wall itself will fall over.

I’m going to restart this venture with a 9-week Xert Plan. Some of the workouts I will do on the Xert Player. Some I will do on PerfPro Studio. SOME of them I want to do on my rollers. But I’ll FOCUS on a FIVE MINUTE BREAKAWAY SPECIALIST performance, and we’ll work on this journey together.

Thanks again for reading, and stay tuned for more script and videos this winter.