Paralysis by Analysis

Today is Day 3 of the Spinervals 32-Day Challenge. I've been rearranging the workouts this week because I have two more nights of a professional development class. I have a full day's work tomorrow, plus a three and a half hour class tomorrow night. Tomorrow's workout was supposed to be a threshold test, but I just couldn't see myself getting up at 4:15 a.m., and being able to put forth my best effort. So, I moved things around and did the threshold test (Spinervals 27.0) today after work. Last night, I checked Joe Friel's blog to see if I could get some insight as to what the "typical" FTP might be for a woman my age (53). He had a quick-and-dirty formula (Estimating your FTP) that I used, and came up with 215 watts. There's a reason I teach Kindergarten. More about that later. So, I came into the test with a pre-conceived notion of what my FTP should be, and with an attitude a little too focused on power, and not all the data I would be getting. Now, I've done many 10 mile TT's. We have a local time trial series. I didn't do any this past season; hip still healing and thought it might be counter-productive. But, I've done enough to know that my average heart rate for the effort should be around 165 bpm. (Here's the last TT that I have data for: Time Trial) I get my bottle of Electrolyte Brew, I get my towel, put the heart rate monitor on, start the DVD--no cadence. Are you kidding?! This is a new computer!! I get off the bike, check everything out, replace the magnet with the one that came with the computer. (I had left the magnet on from my Garmin and it worked yesterday. A magnet is a magnet, right?) Nothing. Figured I may as well get the workout done. I just won't have cadence. Well, the only part of this computer that has a wire, is the cadence sensor to the mount. Started fiddling with the computer; sure enough, I didn't have it seated in the mount securely. Yea! Cadence back. Did the warmup, stopped and recorded my numbers, then reset the computer. Started the test. I left the computer on the power screen. My Spinerval Challenge friend, Rick Sobona, told me how to set the computer to show HR on every screen. Would've been helpful if I actually looked at it. I got so focused on wanting to keep my watts over 215. On the DVD, Coach Troy is saying that cadence should be in your "sweet spot", which for me is around 85-90. I'm typically a spinner, not a masher. But, when I shifted to a gear to get my cadence up, my power dropped. Can't have that! I will say that I gave it a pretty hard effort. As I sit here almost four hours later, my legs feel pretty fatigued. (Note to self: compression tights after the shower would've been a good idea, duh!) I formed a nice, little pond under my bike. When the test was over and I checked my stats, I was, um, surprised and a little disappointed. My average HR was only 150, my average cadence was 70, and my average watts was 219. At one point--sometime after Coach said to not worry, that I'd pass out before I die, and before the end of the test--it suddenly occurred to me that I had done the math on the estimated FTP wrong. Checked it as soon as I finished the cool-down, and sure enough, it should have been 202.5. Then, plugged in my 20 minute average power into Coach Troy's calculator and came up with...204. Oh, well. Looks like I'm typical. What I really have is a pretty good number to use for my training. And a take-away lesson: it's the whole picture, dummy! Next time, I will get my cadence to where I know it should be, push hard to get my HR where I know it can be, and let the power take care of itself.