Weight program: Core Exercises only
Monday: Core Exercises
Tuesday: 1:15h Z2 Indoor Z2 ride
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: 1:15h Z2 indoor ride
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 3:10h Z2 ride (SRM didn’t want to pair up…)
Total Bikescore/TSS: 245
Total Training Time: 5:35h bike+20min Core Strength
Weekly Summary
Increasing Volume
I am slowly starting to increase my training volume. I added 15min to my indoor workouts and ~30min to my long endurance weekend ride. I plan on starting to lift weights, starting next week and also riding both days on the weekends. I will keep intensity low to keep building my endurance.
During my trainer workouts I decided to re-watch some movies I really like – Sur mes levres (Read My Lips) and Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long). I find that having subtitles to read makes me concentrate more and forget about the monotonous training.
The positive thing is that the movies are longer than my current workouts so jsut as the plot gets very interesting I have to finish my training. I am quite looking forward to having to train longer so I can watch a full 1:30-1:45min movie while on the trainer!
Moody SRM
For a second time in the last month or so my SRM paired to my Garmin Edge 500 no problem on startup. It zeroed perfectly…
After leaning the bike for a couple of minutes, while I was putting on my gloves, etc, the SRM lost the connection and I was unable to pair it up again no matter how many times I restarted the Garmin. This was a very common bug with the older firmware (version 2.6), that Garmin resolved in version 3.0. Also the zero offset value has been very stable for the last 2-3months, and I changed the batteries 9ish months ago, so definitely not an issue. The day after it paired up no problem….
The analytic mind that I am I got thinking….the only common things between the two times when the SRM behaved the same way was that when I went to my parents for the weekend and I left the bike in the garden and maybe, I emphasize maybe, the chilly nights might have an effect on the batteries. I have no other explanation other than the prolonged exposure to cold temperatures…. In any case I will figure out what is causing it since losing power data on the few outdoor rides I’ll do until next spring is really not optimal. I’ll open up the unit to make sure there is no water and will measure the batteries. I will post what I find (or don’t find) here, since a quick Google search showed I am not the only one having this moody SRM issue.
No Power?!?! So Now What???
I have gotten so used to looking at watts/HR and time on my bike computer screen that I have forgotten that other metrics also exist… Who needs speed anyway????. Granted that I wasn’t going to let my moody SRM ruin my planned Sunday ride, I decided to go by feel. My experience is that feel is veeeerrry subjective, especially at the later stages of a training when I start to get tired and not pedaling seems like a very feasible option!
So what did I do? In my case I am on my very familiar training route that climbs and rolls gently for 50km (30mi) with a moderate climb in the middle and after I turn around, it is going fast on the now slight downhill. The Garmin Edge has an Auto Lap feature. (VERY useful in time trial pacing and not slacking as time progresses). So every 2km my bike computer beeps and shows what time it took me to ride each 2km (or whatever you set it to) segment. Up to now I have mostly ignored it but I do pay attention to the times…that’s why it beeps right?
So on the way out, when my power is at my current Z2, my 2km times are in the 3:45-4:10 range. The climb in the middle is conveniently 2km long and I do it for 7:20-7:45. Going back my pace rarely gets slower than 3:20-3:40. Of course it is not a flat terrain and wind etc. vary so it is a ballpark range.
It worked out better than expected. Of course it is far from ideal and not a substitute for having a (working) powermeter. My HR and perceived effort almost reflected last weeks ride. My pace was in the ranges I am used to seeing (it a pretty windless route overall). On the negative side, my legs cramped after my training, just as I was rolling home. I think this was a dehydration issue rather than me pushing it too hard, since I VERY rarely get muscle cramps. So overall I did the best I could, even if I pushed it a touch harder. For the millionth time I realized what an invaluable training tool a powermeter is!
You can find explanations of the terms here together with explanations of the Training Zones.
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