I am struggling with power. Not of the Machiavellian sort, but of the athletic variety. I know I can put out pretty high power for a long time - 285 watts for an hour I'd bet - but I don't seem to have the ability to turn it up for short periods of time. I have a flat power curve it seems. I'm sure this is the result of the past 3 years of training I've done, which has been focused on long, constant efforts preparing for events like the Tour of the California Alps, aka the Death Ride. 129 miles, 15,000 feet of climbing at altitude was tough, and required many training miles at a constant pace. I'm having a hard time breaking out of that mold.
Presumably the only way to change this is by doing very anaerobic, sprint-based workouts or lifting weights. I'm doing the sprint workouts for now. Tonight's workout was very short - only 35 minutes - but it was very intense. 8 40s full sprints w/ 20s rest intervals. It was hard, and humbling. I can only average 400w for the last intervals. I feel like this should be higher, but I don't know how high, and I don't really know how to find out how high it should be. So for the time, I'm just working on doing as much as I can and hoping that I become stronger. I have noticed additional strength on longer rides (such as the Saturday rides I've described).
I've been a little sick lately, as our whole family (including Jack) have a slight cold. Until tonight I just didn't feel like training. I guess rest is good sometimes, and you have to listen to what the body is saying.
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