The lone cyclist

Something I came to terms with a few years ago was making a decision between training and riding, and when it comes down to it, it's a decision I've continued to have to make on a very frequent basis.  When I started working with my coach, Joanna Zeiger (racereadycoaching.com), the way I approached cycling workouts didn't just change--it was upended, torn apart, and put back together again all over the course of that first year that she coached me.  I got a power meter, and I struggled with it.  At first, I struggled to even grasp what I was supposed to be accomplishing with the numbers that seemed to be only tangentially related to what I thought was going on with me on the bike.

Joanna was very patient with me, and took me through several of my power files over time, and explained what the issues were.  In retrospect, it really wasn't surprising.  Cycling, in general, does not lend itself to encourage you to do what you should actually do to get better.  When you ride in a group, you really have no control of what kind of effort level you're putting into the pedals, and more than likely, you wind up riding too hard on uphills, and way too easy when sitting in the draft zone of even a single cyclist.  Your workout tends to look like a mess of random garbage that doesn't really train your muscles or the energy systems that supply them in order to make you go faster. Over the course of years, I've discovered that most cyclists tend to double, if not triple, their power output when going up a small hill.  As an example--you're pedaling along at something close to your long distance aerobic pace--let's say 150 watts, and when you reach a hill, you feel the need to maintain your speed, and testosterone kicks in, because who wants to be the one to slow up the pack going up a hill?  It's not uncommon for me to sit in the back of the pack when this occurs and watch how I have to break 300 watts and approach 400 watts or even more just to stay on someone's wheel. So, you've gone from something you can probably maintain for 5 or 6 hours, to something you wouldn't be able to maintain for 5 or 6 minutes, all based on the randomness of the road.  There simply isn't another sport that this happens in.

An example of a pretty decent power file, with a 20 minute long interval in the middle of it

I don't crank through workouts that way anymore--if I ride with a group, which is rare, I tend to hang in the back, and drop off the pack going up a hill.  I'll catch them on the downhill or a flat that follows.  When I do ride with a group, it's usually for a workout that I'm not trying to accomplish something specific, or it's for a portion of the workout that my effort level can change--the warm-up is usually an ok place/time for me to do that.  The simple fact of the matter is that I watched myself take an hour and a half off of my ironman bike split when I trained correctly, and that's what I was after all along.  I've found that most people in triathlon don't actually want to ride like that--they're there for the group ride--and to have fun, which is perfectly ok.  I just decided a long time ago that triathlon was about setting and achieving goals for me, and doing what I need to do to make that happen.  So I wind up riding alone--a lot.  Occasionally, someone rides with me, and does one of my workouts with me, but it never seems to stick--while I can guess as to the reasons why, I don't actually know in a lot of cases, because we're all out there for a different reason.

So, it's time for me to get out of my head and get on my bike, for a long ride with some long intervals at half-iron pace.  Ride on and be safe everyone!