My first test on the Computrainer
MTB Race News thought it would be interesting to use me as a guinea pig in their experiment. It goes like this: I get on a serious training plan and throughout the year I will be thrown into mountain bike races to see if I float. The ultimate question is: Can a serious training regimen make anyone fast, even someone as pathetic as me. In the name of science, I agreed.
Doing the hard part of this little experiment will be Rodney Riley of 19 Sports. 19 Sports, located at the fabulous Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah, is part bike shop and part Computrainer classroom. Rodney will assess my needs and abilities with specific goals in mind and tailor a training program to help me reach those goals.
19 Sports will be helping me along the way
Class began with a 40-minute time trial on the Computrainer to determine a baseline. Because the Computrainer allows you to replicate the exact conditions on any given day, it’s an excellent way to measure your improvement (or lack of improvement) over an 8-week course. The course programmed for me was the Coors Classic Morgal-Bismark time trial.
The hilly Morgal-Bismark started out with a lung-busting climb that instantly maxed out my heart rate. I dropped a few gears to let my HR fall back down to 190 and settled in to a hard but relatively comfortable pace. The flat screen monitor showed my progress, heart rate, watts, speed, distance, and unfortunately a clock counting the seconds. I spent the last ten minutes staring at that damn clock making the time drip by as if in slow motion. I tried to get out of the saddle and really hammer the last two minutes but instantly blew my heart rate again. Eventually, I crossed the virtual finish line satisfied that I had gone as hard as possible.
And the results are…. not great. Of all the people 19 Sports has tested I was somewhere in the 25th to 30th percentile. In other words, 70 to 75 percent of people tested were better than me. My average heart rate for the test was 189. Lactate threshold power (LTP) was a pathetic 181 watts and LPT/weight equaled 2.7. No wonder I was never any good at road bike racing. I have the power of a Toyota Camry in neutral with the gas pedal stuck halfway down.
Check back to see if I can improve my numbers and finally get in racing shape. My first race of 2010 will be the Intermountain Cup’s (www.intermountaincup.com) season opener in St George, Utah on March, 6th.