Saturday 28 February 2009

Torture at Torq

I'm new to physiological testing and now I know why....it hurts! I visited Matt Hart at Torq to find out what my lactate and anaerobic thresholds are. I need this information so that I can start training effectively; something I have not done up until now. From now on my training is going to be completely different!



The session started off on the turbo indoors. I started off riding really easy at 50watts and then I had to increase the power by 25watts every 5 minutes while Matt measured the lactate levels in my blood. Once there was an increase in my lactate the session was stopped and resumed later outside.


The outdoor session comprised of riding up a 7 mile road climb. The only instructions I had were to ride as fast as I could and as though my life depended on it! I had a Powertap in the back wheel of my bike which measured watts and heart rate. Dave and Matt followed behind in the car and Dave shouted what he described as 'words of encouragement' - however I wouldn't exactly consider "come on fatso" encouraging......I can't wait until it's his turn. The hill took about 30minutes and I was glad to see the top! I now know what all of my training zones are and all of my rides will be based on them. I will repeat the testing in a few months time to see how I've progressed.

No comments:

Post a Comment