After yesterday’s long 101 miles, I didn’t want to put in another long ride. Since I can’t ride tomorrow, I thought this was a good time to another speed workout. I did the same 20 mile course and after a warm up I did 7 minutes hard, then 3-4 minutes easy. I made a slight adjustment to the easy segments so the 7 minutes would be all without any need to turn a corner or come to a stop.

I clearly have improved. This is a mostly circular course so the effect of the wind should balance out when looking at all the legs.

Averaging the four legs, today I went 22.4 mph compared with 21.3 mph last month. Both times my average heart rate during the intervals was 153. It may not sound like a lot but 1.1 mph improvement at that speed is a lot considering the increase in average speed was only a 5% improvement. But with cycling the effort, as measured in watts, is not linear. Using a formula to calculate, last month I was averaging 170 watts to get that speed while today I had to put out 193 watts, a 14% increase, while keeping the heart rate the same. In any sport a 14% improvement when you are basically pushing towards your limits, as a big deal.

Here are the splits for today, April 4th, 2008 and from my prior interval workout on March 13th.

Categories: Cycling, Speed Workout