Saturday, January 15, 2011

Humble BTO



Got humble?

Lost my standing as the fastest TT'er at the BAC this morning. Paul smoked the 15 miles in 39:37 averaging 259 watts to best my time by almost three minutes. His 2.9 power to Kg ratio also bested mine by .03. I should be drowning my sorrows with copious amounts of barley pop, right?

Wrong.

Paul now knows, as do those that have TT'ed before him, that there is work left to be done. Drills, sessions, rides, maximal efforts, recoveries. That this is just the start. We go about our training routines armed with additional numbers with which to assist in the never-ending battle. Eat better, train smarter, recover cleaner. I am happy to have played a part in his fitness enhancement and cycling improvements. Taking training out of the realm of the RPE and into the sometimes scary world of training with power, can be humbling. And sometimes the truth hurts a little. As I am fond of saying, and to quote BTO, Ya'll ain't seen nothing' yet.

To illustrate this, please refer to the above pictures of World Champions Julie Dibens and Tim O'Donnell. Anything immediately strike you as 'interesting'?

That they might include a little play in their work? Folks, these are world-class athletes, training at home on their CompuTrainers, the same tool and set up Paul used this morning. They, as many that have gone before THEM, recognize the need for balance. Go hard (real hard) recover, repeat.

During the recovery phase you can play fetch with your dog (Julie) or hammer out a few tasty BTO licks on faux-Fender (Tim). Photo credits: Tim Carlson at Slowtwitch.com

All fine by me. Just make sure that when it's time to go, that you do.

Or you might get used to the taste of humble pie.

4 comments:

FW said...

What does that average MPH work out to?

KML5 said...

Oooops, should be 259, NOT 159 avg watts. My bad. I will have to look at his report on the laptop to get the avg speed if that is what you are after.

FW said...

Yes, the average speed would be very interesting, for Paul as well as for the others if that's ok to post.

Thanks!

KML5 said...

I have been trying to devise a format for this. All TTs to date are posted at the club on the wall (in red). Overall time, avg watts and power/Kg are they only data listed so far. I think I am going to make another run at it Thursday.