Unfortunately, there will be a temporary interruption in the updates on this page. Jesper had an accident with his bike 28/02-2007. He got a concussion of the brain. I can not tell when he will be back, but I promise he will. Cheers, Anna (his girlfriend)
Jesper has got a concussion due to crashing with a bike. Read More »
Joe Friel has an interesting article about optimization of aerodynamics for time trialists. He has been doing some testing with differents setups of head position (aero helmet, head position etc.) and saved 77seconds. I can strongly recommend time trialists to have a closer look at that article and notice Joe Friel’s final comments: “I’m afraid many helmets on the market that are marketed as “aerodynamic” are actually less aerodynamic than a standard road helmet. And even wearing a decent helmet with the front down close to the eyebrows, while it may look good, is actually slower than with the helmet’s leading edge worn closer to the hairline in front.”
I found this link via PowerTap Geek that publishes a lot of interesting articles for PowerTap freaks.
Helmet position for time trialists Read More »
Marc Moeller has a season goal of moving to cycling race Category 2. Moving up one category per season seems fair for serious cyclists like Marc, but doing it with only 8 hours per week is a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, he has worked hard for the last 6 weeks to improve his already good fitness. And with great success! Here are the results from the critical power tests Marc has performed with his PowerTap:
| Critical Power Tests | 5sec | 1min | 5min | 20min | Body Weight |
| Week 1 (Watt) | 1110W | 600W | 395W | 337W | 82.6kg/182lbs |
| Week 1 (Watt/kg) | 13.4W/kg | 7.3W/kg | 4.8W/kg | 4.1W/kg | |
| Week 6 (Watt) | 1184W | 649W | 417W | 351W | 80.4kg/177.2lbs |
| Week 6 (Watt/kg) | 14.7W/kg | 8.1W/kg | 5.2W/kg | 4.4W/kg |
Week 7 to 12
I know that Marc is getting close to a plateau where additional improvement requires a bigger training amount. But by giving his high intensity training program some periodization, there is a chance that he can continue his progress. I am really satisfied with the results I have seen from him so far, and predict that he will deliver even more watts next time. It is though pretty clear that he will have to work very hard for every single watt from now on. But as I told Marc in an email: “Every single watt counts at your level”.
Every single watt counts at high level cycling Read More »
I have often been asked the question ”˜What does 3 x (3+3) minutes VO2 max mean?´ so I thought it would be a good idea to spent a short post on it. 3x(3×3)min VO2 max means 3 times 3 minutes maximal effort with recovery periods of 3 minutes between each interval. (3min hard work, 3min recovery, 3min hard work etc.) VO2 max refers to the intensity you shall try to maintain through the intervals. It’s clear that you don’t know what your actual VO2 is, but when you have tried these intervals a couple of times you will know how to pace yourself. The important thing to remember is that you are supposed to ride as fast as you can for a period of 3 minutes (but not faster than you can repeat it a couple of times). It is not possible to use a heart rate monitor for pacing because of the delay of the heart rate but can be a good indicator of your performance afterwards. A power meter like SRM or PowerTap is very useful for such pacing. Yeah, they are expensive, but strongly recommended if you are a serious cyclist. In the recovery periods it is a good idea to do some light pedalling to remove metabolites. That will make it easier for you to make the following interval at the right intensity.
What does 3x(3+3) minutes VO2 max mean? Read More »
Gonzalo Vilaseca has done the first six weeks of the power meter project, thus he has now entered the final six weeks of the project. This part of the training is considered as race preparation.
Competing in a cycling race is one of the best ways to prepare you for your main goal. The reason is that you train exactly what you are going to compete in. I have previously discussed races as preparation for cycling races in an earlier post here. Gonzalo will use Sundays for races where the race itself doesn’t have high priority, but the training he gets from it has a high priority since it is one of the three weekly intensive training sessions.
Evaluation of Gonzalo’s critical power tests performed in week 6
Evaluation of critical power tests performed in Week 6 Read More »