Tuesday, June 8, 2010

New Favorite Workout

I have a new favorite ride plan. Here's the plan...


Set power meter for interval average display. Ride for 2min at 100%FTP then "coast" until average watts drop to 95%FTP. Then SPRINT! the watts back up until FTP returns to average. Coast down. repeat for 10min. The rest 5min. And repeat the 10min bout two more times.

Two great aspects to this plan. First, the pedal like hell, then coast closely mimics mountain biking.

Second, I can see this really helping me with pacing. Unlike a time trial, mountain biking requires many efforts above and beyond FTP. You can't simply aim to ride at your FTP, which would be the theoretical ideal pace. Yet I always seem to end up way below my FTP on MTB rides even during races.

I learned a bit today about how to go hard on the hard parts, and easy on the easy parts. Does the learning ever stop with this sport?

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