Garmin Vector Power Meter Release Delayed Again

What a pain - I was hoping to pre-order the Garmin Vector from the guy's at Cycle Powermeters so that I could use my nice climbing wheels for the Raid Corsica rather the PowerTap combined with Mavic Open Pro I have been using.

Garmin Vector

However, rather than seeing my glass as being half empty, I decided to upgrade my PowerTap rental from Cycle Powermeters to a gorgeous FSA K-Force Light Pro SRM system. 


This way I can can now use a matching set of climbing wheels, and the K-Force system allows me to change the chain rings from standard 53/42 to a compact 50/34 when I head out to the mountains of Corsica in May. Result.


Mavic R-Sys Wheels

You can read an update on the Garmin Vector delay via the link below. 
Come on Garmin, no more delays please!

Garmin Vector Power Meter Release Delayed Again - BikeRadar:


'via Blog this'

Back in Blighty

After an eight hour flight I managed to get straight out on the road for a quick sweet spot session. When I left the UK last week it was -3 degrees, but riding today made it My Powertap needs a service, so I headed out with just my Garmin 800 and heart rate monitor, the plan was to blast an hour in my sweet spot - or between 150 and 160 bpm. 

Hitting the Numbers

My recent FTP test, which put my power at threshold at a pleasing 261W, also predicted my threshold heart rate at 156 bpm - sometimes called lactate threshold heart rate or LTHR. This number provides a rather helpful insight for when I am not using a power meter for measuring the intensity of each interval or session, as it is a much better guide than using training zones based on maximum heart rate.

So I was pleased to average 155 bpm for the session and 160 bpm for the 1 hour sweet spot effort. Getting a puncture just as I was warming up was a bit frustrating thought!  


I am starting to look forward to the Raid Corsica now. Bring it on!

The details of the training ride are on STRAVA:

Dropped on Alpe d'Huez

If you haven't yet tried it, give The Sufferfest a go - in conjunction with your power meter and Trainer Road it is an awesome training tool.


Today I went for the Angels session - this is what the guy's at The Sufferfest dished up in a tasty hours session*:

• 6:30 warm-up, featuring footage from track racing in San Diego
• 10:00 of over/under intervals, with 1:00 just above your threshold, and 1:00 just below threshold, repeated 5x. Featuring footage from the 2009 Paris-Nice when Alberto Contador got, gasp, dropped by just about everyone!
• 3:00 rest, featuring some beautiful descending footage from cyclefilm.com, effort level 4/10.
• 8:00 climbing, while you try to stay with Andy Schleck in the 2009 Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Effort level starts at about 7/10, attacks take you up near 9/10, until setting down to 7/10 for most of the rest.
• 4:00 rest with more descending, effort level 4/10.
• 8:00 climbing, with a gradually increasing pace up the famous Col d’Eze in the 2010 Paris-Nice, featuring Vockler, Contador, Sanchez…yeah, all the big boys. You do the first two minutes at 6/10, next two at 7/10, next two at 8/10 and the last two at 8.5/10. There are a few accelerations in the group that ask you to increase cadence without increasing effort….which can be a little tricky, as you’ll find out.
• 4:00 rest with more descending, effort 4/10.
• 8:00 climbing, with the freaking mother of all climbs: Alpe d’Huez…can you stay with Contador in the 2010 Dauphine-Libere? You start the climb bridging up to the break with an effort level of 8/10. Then you pretty much do 8/10 the whole way up. Oh, wait, I forgot about the bajillion attacks that push you so far into the red that you’d swear your eyes are bleeding.
• 4:00 warm down featuring a sort of motley arrangement of things to keep you entertained. Including the first Sufferfest xtranormal video. Oh boy.

Here's a little taster:

* Cribbed from their website (hope you don't mind guy's?)

Having been dropped on the final climb of the session - Alpe d'Huez - where there are lots of accelerations at the top end of my VO2max and anaerobic capacity power zones it looks like this might be an area for me to focus on during March and April. 


You can see the training file from today's session online at STRAVA or Trainer Road.

Trainer Road - Angels 01.02.12

New FTP test PB with Trainer Road

This evening I completed a functional threshold power (FTP) test using the 2 x 8 minutes test session on TrainerRoad which links my laptop in real time via ANT+ broadcasting the data from my heart rate monitor and powertap power meter - very scientific and very motivational. I highly recommend it. 
The data file can be seen on TrainerRoad here. 
Below is the data file on STRAVA.