Last year I was looking for a ride that I would allow me to stay close to home but still get a workout.  I found it.  What I didn’t realize was that it was right there in my front yard!

I live on Batesview Drive in Greenville.  It is a state maintained road that cuts through from Wade Hampton Blvd. to East North Street.  Believe me when I say it is a cut through!  There are times during the day when traffic is quite heavy.  We have been pushing for sidewalks for years, but there always seems to be some one else in front of us.

Well, the beautiful redhead is in another play.  She is playing the Princess of France in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.  This means she is at a lot of rehearsals in the evenings.  I get to be the caregiver for the Things Three.  That means I don’t get to do much riding unless I can find a babysitter.

So, last night I remembered my Batesview Criterium.  This is a pretty cool course that is formed by four roads in my neighborhood.  It is just a tad over a kilometer in length and has a pretty tough climb with a 12% grade.

Batesview Criterium

The way it is laid out, you can make all right hand turns.  The sight lines are such that you can make the turns without even slowing down.  Depending on the time of day, you can go multiple laps without stopping.  Last night I did 27 laps and only had to stop twice.

More important to me is that fact that at least once every two minutes I ride past my house.  With the kids playing outside, I can keep an eye on them each time I pass.  If they need me, they can just come out on the porch and signal me.

So, not only do I get a good work out.  I also get to practice my cornering skills.  Believe me!  I need all the practice I can get.  I admit that I hate criteriums.  The reason is they scare me.  Maybe having the wonderful redhead in the play will turn into a good thing.

Last night’s ride was a good one.  I warmed up for about thirty minutes and then put the hammer down for twenty.  I wanted to see what type of data I could compile for that period.  Here is what I got… Max power = 1008 watts / Peak 5s = 949 watts / 30s = 547 / 1m = 415 / 5m = 322 / 10m = 311 / 20m = 299.

Now, I don’t know if that is good relative to other people.  However, for me, that is very good.  I remember last year when Jim Cunningham put me through this routine, I had a peak 20 minute wattage of 240.  The thing that makes me happy is my improvement relative to myself.

Yes, while I was doing some warm up and cool down laps, I played around with the Quarq CinQo and Garmin 705.  What I found is that there is still a lag.  However, it was hard to get a consistent measurement of exactly how long it was.  I plan to move my experiments inside onto a trainer to get a better idea of what is going on.  I’m not ready to give my thoughts quite yet.