My “fighting weight” is between 160 and 165 pounds. During the race season I have little trouble maintaining that weight. The last time I stepped on the scale was late September. At that point, I was still under 170. Well, this morning the scale stared back at me with a 178.

I’m not too concerned. As I told the Beautiful Redhead, “Just getting my stored energy levels up for the training. I’ll burn this stuff into muscle by the start of the season.” Of course, I realize that “fat” doesn’t turn into muscle. At the same time, I’m glad my body has had an opportunity to “chill out” a bit. At nearly 6 foot 2 inches, 178 is not an unhealthy weight. The extra weight will help provide some stored energy and start me off training with a few pounds which I hope will make me that much faster when it is gone.

TraingingPeaks has a mobile app that makes it easy to track my metrics each day.

As for my other metrics… here are the things I am tracking / and today’s data.

• Pulse / 71 bpm (which is pretty high for a resting heart rate)
• Weight / 178 lbs (target for the season 160 – 165)
• Sleep / 6 hours (I find I need 7 – 8 hours)
• Body Composition / 18% fat (this is about 4% over what I’ve maintained in the past)

There are some other subjective metrics that I keep. I’ve never really got into this that much. The subjective nature of it makes me wonder 1) how it affected by my mood, and 2) do the numbers accurately reflect the impact these categories have on my ability to train. I guess what you have to look at is the overall trends created by the data over time. Anyway, here they are:

• Sleep Quality / 6 (I had a dream that I was teaching a class and my teammate, Paul Mills, was in the back of the class clowning around. Weird.)
• Fatigue / 1 (I’m mentally a little lethargic, but physically I have no real tiredness)
• Stress / 4 (This is the one I have the most trouble with. I mean, what is the baseline?)
• Soreness / 4 (This is due mainly to my neck issues)
• Overall / 7 – 1 being bad and 10 being great.

Now I just await my training plan from Coach Cunningham. I’m glad it didn’t come today. I wanted to get out late this afternoon and get my fixed gear bike calibrated with the iBike. I’ve asked Jim to include some fixed gear riding into my training. Having the power meter on there will help me give him data. Also, I am very curious to see how a ride on the fixed compares to power data collected on my road bike.

I know. I know. You all just say, “Hey, Jonathan, just ride your bike!” I will. I will. You just have to understand that for me all this data collection and analysis is part of what makes this fun.

The good news is, I think I’m ready to get started!

I’ve always had trouble with this workout. As I told my coach when I sent in my data, “These recovery rides are the hardest ones to execute! Seems like when I have the cadence right, the wattage is wrong. When the wattage is where it is supposed to be, the cadence is off.”

I headed out on a loop that takes me about 30 minutes to complete. The first loop I kept my eye on the computer adjusting as the cadence would slip too high… then the wattage would start climbing… then the cadence dipped below 90… then the wattage peaked above 200… It was a constant battle to try to keep in under control. That first 30 minutes had me putting out: 185 watts at 100 rpm.

Just for the fun of it, I started the second loop determined not to look at the computer. I was going to find what I thought was a good cadence and wattage be hanged! What would the numbers look like if I just went by perception? Interesting… the second 30 minutes had me coming in at: 174 watts at 95 rpm.  It appears that my perception was more in line with the workout than watching the computer.

During the last 30 minutes I kept the cadence about the same, but let the wattage drop a bit on purpose. I was told to do a “sub-180″ ride. I’m never told how low I can go. Since I wanted to come home easy, so I finished the last loop at: 158 watts and 96 rpm.

The ride finished right on the money with the overall data coming in at: 172 watts at 97 rpm. I ended up with an average heart rate of 143 bpm and never went over 156 bpm for the entire ride. Still, somehow it didn’t seem so much like a recovery ride.  I kept finding myself wanting to slip back into the comfort of a mid-80s cadence. I was glad to finish and finally stop worrying about cadence.

Then I took a look at my WKO+ Quadrant Analysis Graph for the ride. It left me with some more questions that I hope can be answered by my coach. I’m wondering if perhaps my recovery rides aren’t really focused on recovery.

Quadrant Analysis Graph (click to enlarge)

You will notice that the majority of the data points land in Quadrant IV. According to TrainingPeaks this is evidence of Low Force and High Cadence- An example would be a Criterium or fast pedaling drills. It points out that Quadrant III would be the section of the graph where you would find most data points for Low Force and Low Cadence- An example would be a recovery ride or just an easy ride around town. Only 32% of my ride fell in to the “Recovery Ride” quadrant of the graph.

The quadrants can adjust by changing the variables in the drop down boxes to the right of the graph. In this case Threshold is what it should be based on my last FTP test. The next two entries are pretty much automatic based on the first number. They represent 20 – 30% under and over Threshold. They are used for comparison.

The crank arm choice is a known constant. My crank arms are 175 mm in length, so I know that is correct. So, that leaves just one number that I can play with to make the quadrant lines redraw.  It is the Threshold Cadence. This number represents your normal self-selected cadence in which you would average when you do a threshold interval.

The default number when I opened the graph was 90 rpm. At that rate, I spent 92% of my ride in QIV.  So, I looked at my average cadence for the ride and entered a number slightly lower – 95 rpm. That is what produced the graph you see above.

So, I have to wonder… for a recovery ride, should I have ridden at a much lower wattage? Am I missing something in this graph that would cause it to come out differently? Finally, I guess it could have something to do with my execution. Perhaps I should have focused more on the “sub” portion of the “sub-180 watt recovery ride.”

I’m sure Jim will have the answers to my questions. Ain’t this fun!?

Here is the plan:

Warm up at 140-200 watts over 10 minutes. Then do: 3 sets of 5 jumps — 10-12 revs of cranks out of saddle. Do these with hands in drops like a ‘real’ sprint. Goal is to ACCELERATE CRANKARMS QUICKLY and to a final cadence of 135 rpm’s or more. 1 minute between jumps, 5 minutes between sets. Max power not a goal here; leg speed is goal!

THEN do 4 X 10 second all-out sprints choosing a target line for each one. Focus on selecting the correct gear where you are not spun out at the target line yet spinning a high cadence. 5 minutes between each of these. Cool down for balance of duration.

As I warmed up, I headed toward a long stretch of road I knew to be nice and smooth with little traffic. I figured I could get the work done by going back and forth on this road and then head home. I didn’t want to get too far out there.

The first part of the test was simple enough. On the trainer, I had been able to do these jumps and hit a max cadence over 200 rpm. As I attempted them on the road, I was not able to see the computer face during the jumps and was guessing I was hitting 140 rpms. Of course, the WKO+ report would give me the low down.

The second part of the workout was a little harder to do. It wasn’t really that it was hard physically, but it was hard to properly execute. It entailed 1) finding the proper gear, 2) pedaling for at least 10 seconds, and 3) sprinting toward a line.

I played around with 1 during the five attempts I made. 2 and 3 I just hoped I was getting it right. However, right away I knew I was messing up. The goal of the day was leg speed – not power. Being afraid that I would spin out in the sprint, I moved to the big ring. Unfortunately, this caused me to see only numbers like 115 to 130 rpms when I looked down.

WKO+ leg speed workout graph (click to enlarge)

Well, I would just wait to see the report from my coach. Here is what he said:

Jumps are excellent with max cadences of 140+-170+ rpm’s.  One is even in the 180′s; so high that I took a closer look at the ‘raw data’ file to be sure meter is reading right.  I think it is!  Mission accomplished on the jumps indeed.

That made me happy.  Looking at the numbers I see my lowest was 155 rpm and my highest was 188 rpm. The higher rpms came toward the end of the workout as I started getting comfortable doing the efforts on the road rather than the trainer.

My power efforts during this time weren’t that bad. All of them were over 1000 watts (and I wasn’t supposed to be trying for wattage). All in all, I am happy with that portion of the workout.

Now for the second part that I was more nervous about…

Sprints – #3 of the five sprints is most like what I was looking for here; that is, ‘…not spun out and spinning a high cadence’.  The other four are a lower cadence than you’re capable of.  That said, you will improve at this as you’ve never trained nuero-muscularly before.

Hindsight is key here; knowing what gear to pick.  And even the big sprinters get this wrong at times.  Let today be a learning process.  I’d like to see you sprinting at +-1300 watts and a max cadence of 150 rpm’.  Zoom in on each sprint and see max cadence as a comparison to this thought.  Mind you, your wattages are all over 1000 in these sprints where the focus is NOT on power.  Very encouraging nonetheless.  All make sense?

Yeah, that is what I figured. So, I went to compare the five attempts in WKO+. The below chart is a Mult-File/Range Analysis. At the bottom of the chart there is a listing of the various ranges where you can compare the details of each attempt.

Multi-File/Range Analysis

I see I got my max power on the first one at 1300 watts. Obviously, I was going with too big of a gear at that point. My max cadence came on the third one with an rpm of 145. Looks like this was the only successful attempt out of five! Interesting that though it was my lowest wattage output at 1099 it was my second highest max speed.

Two final graphs to look at from TrainingPeaks WKO+ 3.0. Here you can see the above attempts compared to each other according to power and cadence. You can see a dotted line going through each. That is the target for all the attempts.

Cadence Comparison

The colors of the lines correspond to the color boxes to the left of each attempt as shown in the MFRA chart above. The below chart shows the same comparison according to power output. The dotted line shows the average the five sprints.

Power Comparison

I did this little exercise to give you an idea of how my coach and I use the WKO+ software when reviewing my workouts. We are able to do this from anywhere. He is able to use the WKO+ as a teaching tool — kind of like a visual aid — to help me understand what he is telling me.

I now have something to aim for in my future attempts. I want to replicate that third sprint as much as possible. One thing this tells me is that I need to take better mental notes about things such as gearing and technique.

We’re looking now at the TrainingPeaks website while Melissa Schwartz goes through the housekeeping items. We are told that this webinar will be posted on the support site in the future. Of course, the first thing we are encouraged to do is to upgrade.

Now, for Hunter. He launches both 2.2 and 3.o. His primary point to lead with is that the change to the new site is primarily the navigation framework. Another change is the ability to have not only yourself, but your friends in the system. Basically, athletes now have access to some of the coaching options that used to be separate in the 2.2 version.

Another change I noticed when I upgraded was the ability to chose between two different ways of showing your FTP in the Power Profile.  You can now choose between building your chart using 1 hour of data or 95% of 20 minutes to build your FTP.

Now he is showing us how easy it is to create ranges within the graph of a particular ride.

Ah, he moves to the Quadrant Analysis chart. This is what I’ve been wanting to see. In each quadrant you have an amount of time and the data points within each. This gives us the ability to see how you are creating your wattage – do you create the most wattage by doing a big ring at low cadence or medium ring at high cadence? Cool, if you are a visual person (like me) you are going to love this quadrant analysis graph!

Now we are moving to the Scatter Graph. This allows the athlete to measure two sets of data across a Y and X axis. How does power relate to heart rate, for instance. The graphs really do show visually how the data interacts! You can actually see your various gears on the graph when comparing power and cadence.

Hunter shows us how to use the Multi-File Range Analysis. This allows you to compare data from “channels”. For instance, you can build Ranges from your various intervals and then split them out into the various channels that make up the overall event. You can put RPM, MPH, WATTs, etc. above each other and then compare them.

You can also do this comparing Ranges from different events.  For instance, you want to compare two different races. You can build a Multi-File Range Analysis that lays the data from the two events “side-by-side.” This would be good to do comparing a training event earlier in a training season with one later. You are able to visually see how the two sessions would compare.

Wow, for a common athlete, this could be a little much. It is fascinating and watching Hunter Allen explain it makes it an obviously powerful tool. However, you need to have some knowledge to help you interpret the graphs. I’m sure you could learn, but the software does not interpret it for you. In other words, the tool is to be used by a knowledgeable coach to help the athlete.

Lots and lots of stuff to play with! The MFRA and its interaction with the new graphs seems to be the heart of the changes in 3.0.  Now, Hunter is showing us how to interact between the WKO+ 3.0 and TrainingPeaks.com. You can also save the files outside the WKO+/TrainingPeaks.com.

It is time for the questions. The thing I am gleaning from this portion of the webinar is the fact of “garbage in, garbage out.” You’ve got to start with good data before you can effectively analyze it in WKO+. You have to structure your rides in advance with the goal of analysis in WKO+ afterward.

A final point from the webinar. WKO+ now allows you to install on more than one machine.  You can install two instances at a time. You can also turn a license on and off in order to move the software around without getting locked out.

Should you upgrade? Well, before this webinar, I would have said that it might not be worth it. After seeing it in action under than hands of an experienced coach, I can definitely see the advantages. If you are serious about training and have someone with the knowledge to train you to interpret the data, then I say upgrade.

It is going to take a while, but I hope to get to that point. I’m glad I did the upgrade. I wonder if my coach will be?

Learn more at TrainingPeaks.com. Now, I’ve got to get out there and collect some more data!

At first glance, there didn’t seem to be that much of a difference between the old version…

Trainingpeaks WKO+ 2.02

And the new one…

Trainingpeaks WKO+ 3.0

Before I could even look to see if there were many changes, I had to get my old data into the new system.  WKO+ 3.0 can read the files from the earlier version, but you cannot read files created in 3.0 in the earlier 2.2 software. It was very easy open a 2.2 file in the new software, but I couldn’t seem to get it to stay in the new version.

Thankfully, a batch converter was installed when WKO+ was installed on my machine. Once you install the new version, go to the Start Menu on Windows and follow the All Programs path to the WKO+ 3.0 folder. There you will find a batch file called Migrate Data from 2.2. Running this script gets you all converted over to the new system.

The only thing I needed to worry about now was the fact that my coach is still on the 2.2 version. When he would send me a file I could open it in 3.0, but I couldn’t get it to stay there.  I saved the file over and over again and tried to use the Device Agent to get it into the 3.0 version.  Nothing seemed to work!

Finally, it hit me. If I was opening it as a 2.2 file and saving it, it was probably saving it back as a 2.2 file. So, I opened one of the files and then chose Save As instead of Save. Voila! When I used the Save As option, it saved it as a 3.0 file.  Now I had the data I wanted in with the rest of my converted data.

Had I known this in the beginning, I would say that the transition from the earlier version to WKO+ 3.0 would have been very straightforward and simple. I imagine that many people won’t find themselves in my situation and you should find the upgrade to be very easy.

So, now that I have the data in there, what are the differences in the two applications? Well, stay tuned. It is going to be Trainingpeaks week at LowCadence.com.  I’ll be taking a look at the new WKO+ 3.0 version during this week’s postings.  Here is a sneak peek to get your interest up.

WKO+ 3.0 Quadrant Analysis

Nope, it isn’t a shotgun video game add-on.  It is the Quadrant Analysis graph – one of two new graphs for visualizing your power data. This is just one of the changes we will be looking at this week.

May your stocking be stuffed with fun cycling surprises!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7mlmhkuhi4

It is Monday and folks at Garmin told me that the software update for the Edge 500 would be coming out today. I’ve had the opportunity to try it out and it seems to be working. If when you attempt to send the data from Garmin Connect to your Edge 500, you may get an error. However, simply click the “send to” link again and you will find the data does transfer.

The goal that Jim Cunningham, my coach, had for me was to get a baseline for my FTP.  No… not my File Transfer Protocol… My Functional Threshold Power.  This is theoretically the maximum power you can maintain for 60 minutes.  Thankfully, this is not typically calculated by making you get out on the bike for an hour going all out.

Here was my plan for the evening.

1. Warm-up for 10 to 15 minutes with a little more effort in the last three minutes — going at about 70%
2. Easy spin for 5 minutes
3. Ride for 20 minutes between 218 and 230 watts
4. Easy spin for 5 minutes
5. Do a 20 minute Time Trial
6. Cool down for 10 to 15 minutes and be sure to stretch at the end

Well, as usual, I messed things up a bit.  I left from home to do my attempt in Cleveland Park.  About 8 minutes after leaving my driveway, I was entering the park.  I couldn’t get a consistent effort at 70% due to the traffic, but I tried to get close.  The problem is that threw me off my game and I forgot that I could have gone for 15 minutes to get the effort I needed.

Not only that, but I didn’t do the 5 minute easy spin after that effort.  I went right into the 20 218-230 watts segment.  Once again I was foiled by the terrain.  Cleveland Park has a couple of nice hills and what goes up has to come down.  I was afraid I was going to get pulled over by the police because I was descending so quickly trying to keep my wattage up!

Finally, I settled for just getting an average between 218 and 230 watts.  This made my power chart look more like an EKG, but at least I hit the target on the average.  I also took a moment to pull my phone out and take a look at the plan again.  That is when I realized I had goofed.  I figured I would get it right from that point on.

The 5 minute easy spin was nice, but it went by faster than I would have liked!  It was now time to give that Time Trial a go.  Hopefully, I would do better than the last time I had Jim give me an FTP test.

It was a couple of years ago that I paid Jim to do a one time evaluation of my fitness.  He had me do something very similar, but it was on a trainer.  Having never done a time trial before, I went out pretty fast!  I completely blew up after 12 minutes and Jim had to extrapolate from that.  Looking back, I see he was pretty accurate even so.

Well, I’ve learned to pace myself a bit, but I was getting pretty excited as I went past the 10 minutes mark.  My Garmin was telling me that I was averaging over 300 watts.  My highest 60 minute power reading was 275 watts and highest 20 minute was 290 watts, so that would have been awesome!

I kept it over the 300 watts average despite the downhills and stops for traffic.  Right at the very end I punched it on the flat to keep the power reading over 310+ watts. When I pushed the lap button I saw an average of 304 watts.  I’d take that as an FTP for this try any day!

Now for the bad news. When I pulled the data into TrainingPeaks, I found the power average was actually more like 286 watts.  My Norm Watts read 315, but average was the lower number.

Oh well, 286 is right there with what I have been at for this season.  That is why I’ve gotten myself a coach.  I’m not going to see improvement in the very first session!

I finished up and rode easily back home.  It took me a little while to get home because of my pace, but that helped me end up finishing the session within 11 seconds of the projected time.  At least I got that part right!

We’ll see how this goes.  Baring my soul, I have to say I am not real motivated right now.  The ride to Texas made my season very long and it seems like I haven’t had much time at all off the bike.  The first ride was fun enough, but I don’t want to burn out.

I don’t think Jim is going to let that happen.  Looking ahead I see that he has me doing a good amount of stuff off the bike in the weeks ahead.  I’ll also get to do some mountain biking.  I’m looking forward to that.

What I don’t think I am looking forward to are those times when all my pals will be out doing some fun ride and I’m going to have to discipline myself to do what I’m prescribed.  That is where the “slave” reference comes.  It would probably better if I looked at it more as boot camp than slave camp.

Being a slave in the off season will give me freedom come race season.  That is when I’ll be glad I gave up some of that freedom in the winter.  I’ve just got to see it through.

Not wanting to be the one accused of being a wimp, I sent a text message to one of the other members of our group. “Do we have designs to venture forth into the rain?” Chances are, if we did start out dry, we would end up wet before the night ended. No response as the clock neared 6PM – our scheduled departure time.

Well, I didn’t want to get a phone call, “Hey! Where are you? We’re getting ready to go!” So, I suited up, loaded my bike in the car, and then headed to the rendezvous. I wasn’t going to be ribbed for letting a little dampness keep me from the ride.

The parking lot was empty. Now what to do. I was all dressed up with no where to go. However, I really needed to ride. I needed the exercise, but more than that… I needed to work some things out of my head by turning my pedals.

I turned my car to Cleveland Park. I figured if a gully washer came I would be closer to my car doing laps in the park. As I neared the park I found the roads were pretty much dry. This might not be so bad.

As I was turning into the parking area, I saw a lone rider coming down the road. It appeared to be a red kit. As I was finding a parking place I noticed the rider was on a black Giant. Yep, it was a POA Cycling Team rider – my teammate and friend, Matt Tebbetts.

Had I been smart, I would have started riding counter-clockwise. That would have allowed me to meet Matt as he came around. However, I decided to chase him down. He would be my carrot.

As I continued I formulated my plan for the evening. I would do a solid 20 minute effort then give myself a 10 minute break in the middle. I would finish it off with another 20 minute push.

Turns out it took me about that long to catch up to Matt. It was a good 20 minute push – actually, it turned into a 30 minute one. I averaged 290 watts and over 22 mph for the period. Just about that time I came upon Matt pulling into the parking area where my car was. He had seen it and was looking for me.

Unfortunately, Matt was having to leave, so we rode on together for just a couple hundred yards. Then I was on my own again. That was okay. The exertion had gotten my mind and body loose and I was feeling really good. Yes, it was pretty humid and I was dripping sweat, but I’ve always liked feeling that way.

I pushed on for another 20 minutes and then called it a night. It was about 7:30 PM and while the clouds were not thick where I was, I could see that was about to change. Time to get home.

Don’t know if you all can get to this link or not, but here is a page in TrainingPeaks.com that shows the ride. Speaking of TrainingPeaks… today I am the featured membership profile on the TrainingPeaks blog. So, today you get two blog posts for the price of one

No wonder  I have had such a hard time finishing strong in any of these races.  So, I went out tonight determined to turn over a new leaf and work a little harder at finding the time to get on the bike.  Tonight’s ride was to be 2 hours in Cleveland Park with some tempo riding and sprints.

My Cleveland Park ride

My discouragement started to melt away as I began to turn laps in the park.  My legs felt good and the climb along Woodland Way almost seemed flat.  The first hour seemed to slip by quickly.

During that hour I did several all out sprints along the flat section from McDaniel to the Vietnam Memorial.  Yes!  I got a new personal best maximum wattage – 1300 watts.  My 5 second peak at 1245 watts was also the highest I’ve recorded since using WKO+ to track my power.  The 10 second peak was still over 1100 watts.

WKO+ Power Management Chart (Click to enlarge)

Notice the large orange line on the graph near the top.  That is the 5 second peak power line.  Also the TSB has now moved into positive territory.  If I play this smart and keep training hard and then taking some time off, I could start learning how to manage my effort and peak at just the right times.

I also have to bring out the old Power Profile.  With my new 5 second power peak, I’ve moved that category of the graph into the cat 3 level.  Of course, you can guess I sacrificed my 10 to 20 minute peak times in order to get that high reading.  I realize it is kind of meaningless, but one of my goals is to try to move all of the bars into the cat 3 section before the season ends.

The latest Power Profile

Then in my second hour my teammate Sam came out to the park.  I caught her as she was coming from the Y into the park.  I sat on her wheel for a bit waiting to see if she would notice me.  She glanced back and then did a double-take.  Then she turned to acknowledge me.

We both had iPods going and she appeared to be out doing some fast spinning as well.  So, we didn’t talk much but just traded off leading the other around the park.  After my efforts in the first hour, I have to say that there were a couple of times I thought she was going to drop me.

Then that wonderful thing happened.  I started to feel strong again.  It is as though I had gone through a wall.  My legs still felt a little tired, but it felt as though I could ride right through the tiredness.  I probably could have gone on for an hour more, but Sam peeled off and I needed to get home for supper.

My frame of mind is much more positive now.  The way I figure, I’ve been finishing just outside the top ten in every criterium I have been in – except my DNF in Spartanburg.  Those finishes came with 2 to 5 hours of riding (including the races) per week over the last couple of months.  Hmmmm, who knows what might happen if I got some more time in?

By the way, once again the average power reading on my Garmin 705 from the Quarq CinQo was about 20 watts higher than the actual readings that ended up showing up in my WKO+.  On the other hand, the maximum power reading was about 20 watts lower on the Garmin than on WKO+.  This seems to be consistent every ride I make.  Not a big deal, just interesting.

I have two applications I use most often.  There is Ascent – which I use primarily because of the really cool integration of the data from my Garmin and CinQo with mapping software.  I have found I do not use it as much as I once did.  The down side of the program is that it is not as useful as a training tool.

Enter my TrainingPeaks WKO+.  This is my program of choice for analyzing my ride data.  It has taken me a while to learn – and I’m still picking up on how to apply some of the graphs.

Today, I’ll just point out the one that is the most frustrating one – if you take it literally.  It is the Power Profile graph.  At first glance, it appears to be a graph that tells you where you fall in your ability as a racer.  The little vertical bars will show you how you would fare against the competition in the various racing categories.

My power profile... for now.

I have competed in a number of category 4 races since moving up from my category 5 season last year.  If I might say so, I have done pretty well.  So, when I was looking at the Power Profile earlier this season and seeing myself in the “Untrained” section of the graph, I was a little upset.

What exactly is the graph telling me? Basically it is telling me how I compare to myself and others at my peak power outputs.  It graphs my best 5 second, 1 minute, 5 minute, and 1 hour peak power numbers from the last 28 days.  Using my best output, it then tells me how I would do in a race with racers in the various categories – putting technique and strategy aside.

Now, this confused me at first because for several months I was showing up as an untrained racer.  I knew that wasn’t true.  I was at least a category 5 racer!

Of course, the data doesn’t lie, so what is happening here?  Well, when I was showing up as untrained it was because I was riding for base miles.  I didn’t have any high peak periods.

In the last 28 days that has begun to change.  You can see that my 5 minute graph is moving into the category 3 range.  All the other graphs are finally moving into the category 4 range.

So, wouldn’t I know this anyway?  How is this helpful?  What can I learn from it?

According to what I have been able to read about this type of method, I can consider myself to be an “All Rounder” with a little lean toward “Time Trialist.”  This basically means I probably should avoid trying to make my way in the racing world by sprinting! The advantage of this graph is that it helps you determine you strengths and weaknesses in the various aspects of racing. You can then tailor you training to hone your strengths and improve your weaknesses.

I’m pretty certain that by the time the next 28 days have cycled through, I will be in category 4 level in all of the areas.  It will be interesting to see what TrainingPeaks’ Power Profile will say about me then.  That is where the system helps — it gives me motivation to improve.