Feel the burn

of the cold air in the lungs, and the biting air through the thin old navy cargo pants. Jeans are much better winter commuting clothing than these pants i picked out today. My quads and shins have finally warmed up a bit.

These hybrid commutes are nice, but not good as base miles. But riding sure beats driving and parking, then moving the car and fretting about a parking ticket. The bike path is still under major construction and it has gotten worse. The section just before it passes under the bridge by the treatment plant is torn up and blocked with heavy equipment. It might be possible to sneak a single bike through there but from the drive by I don't see a clear path to drag a trailer through. Hybrid commutes it will be for a bit of time I guess.

I have been cogitating a bit on the whole power/base/training stuff. Yes I will admit to needing to pull my head out of the sand and start looking at a laying out a training program with defined goals and specificity targeted at getting better next season in cyclocross. Personally I do not believe someone needs a powermeter to get faster. Maybe I am wrong about that. Maybe I am incorrect in thinking that a human, given the cognitive power of our brain, can rightly measure out dosage of energy. One great invalidation of the whole system happened on a ride that I did not want to get dropped on. Climbing some steep power sections I was gapped, left in no mans land, everyone I knew was up the road and I didn't want to get dropped. I was out of my gourd in terms of average wattage. It was pretty insane. Uncharacteristic. Why? Well at that point I wasn't paying attention to the meter, I had a goal. I cannot motivate, generate enough intensity just doing a test, any FT I would have done would be sub-optimal. For me, I just need to find the right trigger, the right combination of mental strength to get me to hit the "numbers." I've raced a few cross events with the powertap running. I have a pretty clear idea of what the demands are for power, at least in relative terms. Much of the pro-power arguments are very salient for racers who compete primarily on the road, cyclocross is a different type of discipline, at least in my mind. Yes, you still have to be fast on the bike to be fast in cyclocross and there is good correlation between being fast on the road and being fast in cross. But, if you look at the type of intervals skinnywhity does, they are time based and generally as hard as you can go for x number of minutes.

It is somewhat dismaying to have such a preponderance of pro-powermeter chatter out there. There seems, in some respect, a prejudice, a negative stereo type of those who believe you can get just as fast without using a power meter as with one. Maybe one of these days I will actually buy and read Friel's book. To counter that, I have run across more than one or two instances of individuals who claim that the book is worthless. That said, I still probably should take a look.

Bottom line though. Riding is fun. No way in hell do I want to let go of the pleasure and the fun of going out with some friends on Saturday. In pure competition in our sport there is nothing as down right fun and rewarding as Cyclocross. I have very solid concrete areas I know I can target to get faster, and that is reassuring to me, and these areas do NOT require a recording meter.

Palate cleanser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoLKvWf4Fd0
i saw it first over here this morning.

That and I'm thinking a good trip out to Otis the weekend of the 16/17th of Feb is in order for some killer MTB riding. Maybe I can twist a few arms into joining me for some singletrack shenanigans. No powermeters allowed!

Heddwch,
G