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Weight Up, Power Up Still = New Personal Best on Old La Honda Road
My weight is up ~4 pounds over that prior to the Everest Challenge but a good part of that seems to be more leg muscle, as I’ve been seeing higher power figures from my SRM watt meter.
Today I set a new personal best up Old La Honda Rd (Portola Valley, CA):
Time: 18:05
Watts: 387.2
Speed: 10.95 mph
Heart: 163 bpm
This time, I did remove my bike light and seat pack, for about a 1.4 pound weight savings.
A goal for this year is to break 18:00, so being a bit leaner might get me there by itself, as would getting some sleep and taking a rest day (4 hours sleep last night, and no rest day).
My graph shows that I was not able to sustain the ~400 watts (green line) or so that I started with; I had to back off just a little bit. Still, I finished strong, and there is probably a bit more grunt in there to deliver. And a bit more training and rest and recovery might fix that.
Weight vs power when climbing
I discuss the relationship between weight and power in Faster Ascents By Reducing TOTAL Riding Weight, and Predicting Ascent Times From Total Riding Weight. Losing 2-3 pounds of fat would drop my time into the 17:xx range.
Recovery
Recovery — legs
After a maximal effort, my legs can be somewhat tight and achy. I find that using a foam roller on muscles is very helpful in calming all that down, and producing a relaxing feel in the afflicted muscles, while also forcing out latent by-products of hard exertion. Use it right after the workout, then again an hour or two later, then again before bed. It helps— big time.
Recovery — food
I also have found that Hammer Nutrition Recoverite and Hammer Whey are working extremely well for me and I do believe they are helping my recovery better than any other product I’ve tried. Both products have a mild flavor, is only slightly sweet, and has no artificial colorings or useless ingredients as in some other sports drinks.
I also believe that the Hammer Whey (protein isolate fortified with glutamine) is a major factor in the gains in muscle. I now strongly suspect that regular whey protein is less effective. I say this based on muscle gains and recovery over the past 6 months.
