First of all, I had some errors in some of my recent posts in displaying my power distribution. Although I had edited my FTP in WKO (so Intensity Factor and related calculations were correct), the training zones did not automatically recalculate. I was using an FTP of 296 for April and May, based on some tests that I had done, and then changed my FTP to 310 on June 1, based on some efforts I put out during the Train of Pain.

The above chart shows my power distribution for the entire month of May, 2011 (FTP 296). This makes much more sense to me, since I was trying to stay out of Zone 1 (Active Recovery).

My last post was titled “Zone 3 Intervals”, but should have been titled “Zone 3-4 Intervals”. The power I reported in the table was accurate, but the power distribution (by zone) is more accurately shown below (FTP 310).

Friday I did a 1.5 hour ride with 20 second intervals. The goal was 10 repeats, with plenty of rest between. I tried using the Training features on the Garmin 800, but found it a bit cumbersome and not that useful (especially for 20 second intervals). Since my first few intervals were off a bit, I ended up doing 13 intervals. I was not that fresh, and did not get anywhere near my best 20 second interval power of 741 Watts in September 2009.

Interval #

Seconds

Watts

1

23

572

2

18

503

3

12

499

4

21

527

5

23

595

6

21

609

7

24

512

8

23

569

9

22

531

10

22

582

11

24

547

12

23

535

13

20

477

I did these intervals on fairly level ground. If I had done them surging up a 10% grade, I would likely have been able to come up with much higher power. I had considered doing that, but was more interested this time around seeing what I could do without the steep grade. I started and finished each interval with a short burst standing, hands in the drops, but spent most of the interval sitting in the drops.

Power distribution of this workout was more Zone 6 (Anaerobic Capacity) due to the intervals, but a lot of Zone 1 for full recovery: