An Hour OF Power!

Ade Merckx

Yesterday afternoon's KK session started off quite innocently. Can I have one set of 3 x 20's, each interval averaging between 280-300watts please sir! Yes sure, away you go mate.

After 13mins I had this crazy idea. Seeing as I hadn't ridden for 48 hours why not go for a bonafide FT test. Yikes! thats crazy man territory. Who's that dude with the really cool name?...Bill Black, yeah him I thought - doesn't he do that kind of 60min effort on the regular. Mmm.. no way dude, I won't bother.

22mins

Ooo shall I stop for a break. The KK power computer says 289watt. Nah keep going ya wimp I thought. My old school hiphop favs - De La Soul and Tribe Called quest were doing their thing on my I pod and as the late great James Brown would say 'I feel good'

31mins

mmm ok this is getting a little tough now! Its getting quite hard to concentrate and all sorts of Cycling Forum celebities are joining me for the ride. Dave, Whoa Whoa, Ric, Alex and Wired with his long ass KK power ouput reading posts.

37mins

Shit this is bloody tough! Ice Cube, Public Enemy, BDP productions have come and gone. Bulldog is urging me to keep going and Dr Andy C and Dave are describing all the physiological gains I might be possibly make.

40mins

Jesus christ I'm struggling mentally, my breathing is fine, but I'm bang on my metabolic limit - the av watts are 294. Somebody mentioned calibration but fortunatley Frenchgy has come to my rescue. Muscher keeps yelling "ride hard" but I can't ride any harder. The cadence has slipped down to 90rpms but fortunately up ahead I can see Rap Daddy O with some cadence formula construct thing he can help me with. Mmm maybe not.
49mins

The towel has slipped off the bike frame. I'm mashing it big style in 53/15 and Bulldog keeps yelling "spin mate". Rap Daddy O says "you've done really well why not call it a day" but I can't coz Musher won't let me. Massive Attack are pumping melow notes through my ears. I can see a Cycling Peaks charts dancing in front of my eyes, Help!

52mins
I've changed down to 53/17 and the cadence is up to 94rpms. Timan is arguing with Ric and the other Rick is breaking down AWC but I can't understand the concept. Whoa whoa is less than half my age and I briefly remember like me he has a low AWC, I think, so that keeps me focussed for a while. More encouragement from Alex gets me through the next two minutes

55mins
Public Enemy's Rebel Without a Pause is screaming into my earlobes. Tyson Pulls alongside me and smiles. Barstard! he's cruising along like it ain't no thing. One VO2max effort and I can put this baby to bed

58mins
I'm deeply anaerobic, and absolutly killing it in 53/15 - the KK computer reads 299watts. I'm desperate to be in the 300watt club but Dr Andy C keeps laughing at me and won't open the door

60mins...Yah Average Power 301watt. Cheers Andy - your 20min x .95 was spot on.

Stats
Average guy, never been a school team player
Weight 72kg, Age 42, Weekly hrs, 6-9
November 15th winter training began and a, 20min power test revealed 280watts
Approximately 10 3hour outdoor rides, and 30-40 indoor sessions later
FT Power - 301watt

ctgt

Congratulations. I'm just having a 6:00 A.M. coffee before getting on the computrainer myself. I'm almost tempted to do what you describe and find my own FTP (I'm now estimating it at 270), but I've never been a huge fan of hallucinations

root

Congratulations on getting into the 300 Watt club. I know exactly how it feels. I do 1 hr FTP tests weekly . I learned a long time ago to enjoy the pain.

I still have 25 Watts to go before I'm in the 300 Watt club myself.

frenchyge

HA! Nice job and great post. Just think about how your power output will be 5% higher when you get back outdoors.

wiredued

That's awsome Ade thanks for posting I haven't done a 1 hour KKR test since August at 20.3mph=267w I can't wait to do 21.4mph=300w but I am still doing 3x20s at between 19.8 and 20.2mph. So I will live my 300w life through you and other forum members till then.

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daveryanwyoming

Fantastic work! Nice job and great dedication. Thanks for sharing.

-Dave
P.S. Don't think I've ever been part of someone's hallucinations before, kinda spooky....

Yojimbo_

Enjoyed your post, and congrats at hitting the big milestone.

Alex Simmons

Nice work!

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NJK

At 59-60kgs the 300 watt club seems along way off.

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Piotr

At 54/55kgs the 300 W club is beyond the horizon , so I resigned myself to trying for the 5W/kg club instead .

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NJK

Who wants to put out 300w for an hr anyway

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Jono L

Awesome post.. off to ride in the nice Aussy weather.. none of this indoors crap

bigbadwoulfe

nice post! unfortunately I too is still in the 275 range and 300 is still at least 2 months away but just in time for my first ever MTB race Baseline testing gave me 245 two months ago before I started this power training thing. Glad I saw this forum and it helped me a lot. The "It's killing me.. " thread inspired me a lot thanks to SLY and the other folks who made that thread happen (Sorry for the bad english)

Ade Merckx

Thanks for the heads up guys Dave special efforts require special motivation. If necessary I can draw upon Halle Berry walking out of the sea in that James Bond movie, or more specifically sitting on the wheel of our very own track queen Victoria Pendleton. However a lots of the good words from you peeps on this forum do the job perfectly. I just like to be creative with them in my own quirky way. Thanks again dudeHey a 30w gain is pretty good, keep going bro!