Power On

It has been a busy week of training, daddy-day-care, and new technology to learn. Coach Kurt is up to date with the latest training techniques and one of them is power-based training. I have been reliant on reading my heart rate to determine at what level I should be pushing myself. Fortunately, I think I was pretty accurate and had a good season. Now, because many factors can effect one's heart rate and give false readings, I will be basing my different levels of intensity on watts.

With that, come's the need for a new toy: a power meter. After much debate, I settled on the Cycleops PowerTap SL 2.4 wireless system. I ordered it through KB&S and had the hub built up as a complete rear wheel. I can now easily transfer the wheel from bike to bike whether I'm training or racing. It has taken some learning and I hope to write more later, but having just finished a 20min TT effort yesterday to determine my Functional Threshold Power which will be used as a mark for basing my effort zones, I'm coming to appreciate its value.

Here's the cockpit. Need my watch because its annoying to scroll through many menus to get to the timer. Also nestled in an old-school cell phone holder is my Sirius radio. "Alt. Nation" got me through the TT!