Hi Guys,

I am fairly new to cycling, been on and off for over the past few years, mainly only been a summer sport for me as I played serious standard football over the winter ( 8 months of the year ) but have now seriously fallen in love with cycling and had my first taste of racing over the summer here and getting in some good km's every week, so now going to give away footy and cycle all year round.

I am a bit of a tech junky but also when i do something I go at it 110%, so will be purchasing a Quarq or SRM PM for my bike in next week or so and want to know how to start planning to use its full benefits for training and racing.

Obviously now in Australia we are slowly getting close to end of summer so after some thoughts now about how to start planning for next years summer racing and also plan to do some road races over winter here.

At the moment my week generally consists of

Mon - gym work, mainly legs
Tues - 60km ride, half the ride at close to limit
Wed - 1 Hour Watt bike session
Thurs - 40km ride, mostly done at mid to high tempo
Fri - rest
Saturday - 100km long mid tempo ride
Sunday - 1 hour crit race (B grade ) + 30km cool down.

I have just purchased the book " Training and Racing with Power Edt 2 ", I am a 6ft rider weighing in at 81kg, slowly trying to loose some of the footy muscle bulk, really feel that this year have come a long way on the bike but really looking to take it to the next level, I am racing B grade crit level and more than holding my own.

I see some tech terms used like FTP, VO2 max etc, I have never been tested, at the moment generally use heart rate and just general feel.

Any help with training and building up to next season would be great.

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Gloss Black Special Order Colnago C59 with SR and Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLR
Giant TCR Advanced SL Rabobank
Go Cadel

Check out the "Wattage" group on Google groups. There is a ton of extremely valuable info on just about any type of training specific question you can imagine.

Also think about picking up the book "Training and racing with a powermeter". I hear it is an excellent read for a new power meter user.

Thanks as in my post I have purchased that book

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Gloss Black Special Order Colnago C59 with SR and Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLR
Giant TCR Advanced SL Rabobank
Go Cadel

Sorry, I completely spaced over that

Give Sweet Spot Training a look, there are some good articles online and it is a great bang for the buck effort.

I have found doing long rides on the trainer with my power meter has been an excellent way to lose weigh and increase power. Having as much food and water as you need at all times makes for excellent high kilojoule burning days. I know riding the trainer isn't much but if you are willing to put in the time you can get some big payback for your effort.

I am almost in the same situation as you. After training by HR for 30 years I finally changed my training style to power based for this winter. I have found the TrainerRoad service to be an invaluable tool for planning my training. Although I had read the "Training and racing..." book already when the first edition was published, it is still much easier to plan your training if you have some ready-made workouts and training plans that you can use as the basis.

I am absolutely sure there is at least one forum member who will shoot down the idea of using the service for training, but nevertheless I think you should take a look at it here:
http://www.trainerroad.com
http://www.facebook.com/TrainerRd

1) Define "gym work, mainly legs" - which exercises, number of reps etc.
2) Once you have read the book, re-read it. Then ask questions if there are any points that need clarification.
3) If you are just getting started then following the same training plan week to week is a good idea. Linear progression will occur for a long while. Test your power regularly and when you stop progressing then look at changing things. Random training yields random results.
4) Because you live in Australia you have little excuse not to train outside all year long. Unless you live in the Australian Alps any complaint of the weather will have you branded a pussy.
5) Remember at all time the paradox of training, that is, training makes you weak. It's the rest and recovery that will yield the improvement. Skip on eating properly and sleeping properly and it will delay adaptation and improvement. Ignore all "diets" like the paleo diet, no carb diet, all carb diet, all fruit, the fasting diet, high protein, blah blah blah. Fresh food, mostly plants, minimal processing, don't skimp on fats (exception being trans-fats).
6) Aim for better power, skills, handling etc, not the "look" of a cyclist. If you apply yourself to training the cyclist "look" will come of its own accord. Forcing this by stupid diets or training practices will hamper true progression.
7) If you want to waste your money on a month subscription fee for an unessecary service then the above post has some good links for you.

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"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG

Point 1 - do all single leg workouts, step up, one leg squats etc, mainly mid weight with 10 - 12 reps, noticed from Watt classes my left leg needs to be built up and generally my pedal stroke shows 48% left 52% right but a nice sausage shape on the axis.

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Gloss Black Special Order Colnago C59 with SR and Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLR
Giant TCR Advanced SL Rabobank
Go Cadel

Unless there is something else funky going on that amount of asymmetry of pedal power distribution is inconsequential.

Nothing wrong with those exercises per se but 1) weight training will not improve an aerobic based power imbalance 2) asymmetrical training will not "cure" the asymmetry in question regardless of power production.

_________________
"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG

not saying it will but need to build up more strength in my legs, i agree have been told that that distribution is fine but i am bit of a perfectionist

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Gloss Black Special Order Colnago C59 with SR and Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLR
Giant TCR Advanced SL Rabobank
Go Cadel

And if you are bored - read through 6 pages of Tapeworm arguing this...

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http://climbinglama.blogspot.com.au

This.



And this.

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Snacking on carrot sticks - Where did it all go so wrong?
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Finsbury Park CC

I second this, the wattage google group is an excellent place to look for information. Also power files from pro tour riders get posted from races like the ToC and others that are really cool to look at. And kinda demoralizing.