It’s that time of year -reflect on what you did, and consider what you want to do. Bikeage had a busy year balancing work, play, and riding. 5,561 km in 206 hours of riding. After a long, cold winter, the solo Highwood Triangle ride on June 22 was accomplished after 7 weeks of outdoor riding. The rest of the season consisted of enjoyable rides exploring the Foothills of southern Alberta with some notable new roads explored – even after 15 years of plowing this territory.
In 2012, the Triangle (HT) will be a group event, aiming for a ride time of less than 10 hours. We’re recruiting some local hotshots to make it possible. What else will it take? If we assume the same work (6773 kJ) and less time, then power has to go up. For 9:45, it will be 193W. Of course, if the group rides effectively, we can do less work for the same or greater speed. 193W of endurance power is a suitable target – we will double that power to establish a target Maximum Aerobic Power of ~385W.
Well, first we’ll try to double our preparation time, from 100 to 200 hours. Considering all the empty weeks from Jan-Mar in 2011, it looks doable. The HT always happens around the summer solstice, so that gives us 25 weeks, 4 hours a week of training to get there.
Second we’ll plan our training mix – 70% endurance (<50% MAP) and 30% specific training. The final 30% will be time spent in the 20 minute power range, the 4 minute power range, and the 30 second power range. Intervals on the SRM indoor trainer are in order, laying the foundation for the rest of the season. Once we hit the road, the schedule will be the Banff Bike Fest Stage Race. The HT will go off in the weeks following, and finally the Gran Fondo Axel Merckx will end the first half of the season.
The second half of the season is up in the air – if you have any recommendations for an event, let us know! Contact us or Twitter @thebikeage.
Other news for the season will be a cross-promotion with a bicycle manufacturer – stay tuned! In addition, we finally have an Android Telemetry option available for Sony Xperia phone users – details to follow in another post.
