Introduction and first turbo session

Hi, This is my first entry in my new training blog that hopefully will see me entering a few 4th cat road races next spring/summer. I'm a 50 year old bloke who's been cycling about 10 years off and on, mainly just to keep fit and mostly on my own. I'm kind of keen to try my hand at a few races. I occasionally go out with The Addiscombe CC on their Saturday club runs, but often I can't make it due to family commitments and work. In general I do about 100 miles a week commuting into work from Morden into central London. I'll often try and get out at the weekends for a club run or a 3 hour jaunt into the surrey hills. For the record, I’ve got a max heart rate of 200 and I don’t know how much I weigh (probably too much....I’ve got a bit of a belly!). Recently I’ve been off the bike for about a month with a bad chest infection and it’s only in the last few days that I’ve begun to feel better. So I reckon I’m not in great shape physically at the moment. I recently bought a Kurt Kinetic (KK) trainer, since I heard these are the best and also because they have a power meter, which kind of interests me and will allow me to see any progress I might make. I’ve never used a trainer before and I was a bit loath to get one since I’ve heard so many stories about boredom etc. However, since I have a rather weak chest in the cold winter months, I thought it best to minimise the amount of time I spend gulping down icy air and just put up with the boredom. So, this afternoon, I set up my KK for it’s maiden flight. I’ve been reading a few books about training and also reading a fair bit on various forums, and it seems that the much talked about 2x20 is the way to go to build up ones aerobic engine. So, after spending most of the morning assembling the trainer and attaching the computer to my bike and doing a few test runs to make sure everything was working the way it should, I was ready for the off: towels, drinks ,fan and the radio turned up garage door closed ....I was ready. I warmed up for 10 minutes or so and got my heart rate up to about 70% of max. Then I stopped for a bit and then went for the full 20 minute session. I was cautious about overdoing it in the first 10 minutes, so I held back a bit and kept my heart rate around 80%. I don’t know why people speak about boredom with turbo trainers. It’s not boring, unless people find pain boring. It’s more like a kind of torture! The clock seems to move so slowly. Anyway, I got through my first 20 minutes ok: Average pulse was 164bpm and average power was 280 watts. I then had a few minutes off and got ready for the next 20 minutes: This 2nd set was harder than the first. I really had to dig deep to get to the end, but I was determined. Thankfully I got through it and my average pulse was 169bpm (85% ) and average wattage of 277w. I hope in the coming months that I can drop some weight and that my watts will go up a bit. I’d like to do 2 turbo sessions a week and see how things progress. Ideally I’d like to hit 300 watts if I can.

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