Training on Rollers

After a great spell of glorious sunny weather in Taipei that was perfect for exploring on a bike, the winter has now "officially" arrived! The mornings are noticeably colder and blankets are needed. It has been raining solidly since Monday and it has made the place lot less inviting for cycling outside. I did go out training on Monday for one hour when it was drizzling but the roads were quite wet and slippery.

On the way back home, the skies opened up and it just bucketed down upon me, totally drenching me but since I was already out there I actually enjoyed the ride in the rain with the millions of scooters, raising a spray of water on me as they zoomed passed.

When the weather consistently is raining and cold, you have to figure out if you want to train in those conditions everyday or retreat to train indoors; and only venturing out for those long endurance rides decked out in your warm winter clothing. I have been training indoors on my rollers the past couple of days and still managing to get quality workouts, much more effective than dancing through the traffic for at least 20-30 minutes before you can do specific training. Because you are pedaling consistently to keep your balance, you end up with improvements in your core, pedaling stroke, smoothness and balance. The workouts I do indoor are easily controlled and when not concentrating on hard intervals, I have been watching movies on cable television. As I don't have a picture of myself training on rollers indoors - I have included pictures performing warm-ups on rollers prior the Deaflympics 35km Time-trial

The workout I performed yesterday was similiar to a lactate threshold test (LT) that athletes perform in labs, the only difference was that I had no blood lactate tests. I have the Cycleops Rollers, a fan for cooling, Cycleops SL 2.4 powermeter and my Polar HRM as the key equipment to undertake the test. The test protocol I followed was: 15minutes easy warm-up followed by 10 mins of active aerobic pedaling. I then launched into 10 mins at 200 watts after-which I increased the wattage by 25 every five minutes. After completing 325 watts, I then did 390 watts for one minute just to see what would happen to my heart rate. Ended the test with a 15minute warm-down period.

I found that my lactate threshold was slightly better than the last time I had it tested. Previously my LT was 325 watts with a 164 heart rate. This time it was right around 330watts for a slightly lower heart rate of 160bpm. This power test can serve as a solid bench-mark to take my training to the next level.

To view the graphical representation of my workout, you can click here: LT Power Test

You will see the legend on the top right of the graph to workout what each line color

represents to work out which is the cadence, heart-rate, wattage (power), speed, etc.

Training Peaks.com is a great website to use

for designing your training program and for keep track of up-loaded statistical information from your polar, power meter, etc. You can even keep track of your nutritional in-take and workout your calorie in-take and expenditure. Check it out, a basic account is free for every one.