The Power Meter

I bought a bicycle power meter a couple of weeks ago.

If you've already got one, tell me where you think I'm wrong or could use some advice.  But for those that haven't ridden with one:

• Prepare to be humbled.  At least I was.  Nothing like cold, hard, wattage numbers to put a reality check on how things are going.
• When you aren't humbled the first time, be prepared to be humbled when you don't believe the first numbers you're getting.  Think you're going to hold 20-30 more watts than your test shows for even a 20 minute interval?  Good luck with that one.  
• The power meter IS very satisfying for rides in varying conditions.  One of my recent rides was in a 30 mph (+ gusts) wind at a slight diagonal, relative to my squarish route.  As they say, a watt is a watt is a watt, regardless of wind and hills.  And it turned out to be interesting that I could achieve a bit more than I thought into the wind, just by holding the watts.
• I have sure learned what I am or am not doing on downhills.  I'm not sure I want to pedal hard when I'm already going 40 mph because of gravity, but it is interesting to see what's happening in less drastic conditions, like a 1-2% downhill grade.
• At least when fatigued, I was interested to learn that I don't put a heck of a lot more force on the pedals by standing up (unless of course, you yank on the bars).  It's different, and "easier" in a way because the muscles are different, and more adapted to slower rpms, but I'm surprised it's not a lot more torque.  Will keep an eye on this one.
• Intervals feel different.  I tended previously to use even HR, and (presumably) somewhat falling speed/watts.  Now trying to do them appropriately so that my power is constant.  Sometimes that means the HR goes up when it's pretty aggressive.  But that darn meter lets you know what you're doing.
  

 More to come...

Nose to the ground

The weather was really nice yesterday here, for the first time in ages.  I went out for a real, live outdoor ride on my Cervelo.

So, the title of the post is what I meant - felt like my nose was on the ground!  Anyone else feel this?

I think it's just a combination of having lowered the front end 5 mm toward the end of the season last year, and all those hours of indoor riding, where you're up higher on the trainer.  But whatever it was, it sure seemed like I was a little short shrimp out there!

(But, not so bad...over 20 mph average over 90 min, mostly in Zone 2, despite 20-25 mph wind!)

Cycling Cadence

Indoors this winter I'm working a bit on pushing harder gears at lower cadence to build up some leg strength.  But even when I'm not, I find it tough to get anywhere near 100 rpm on the bike.  I use a fluid trainer, so maybe it's the steepness of the resistance curve.  Maybe I just have to start at a really wimpy gear and then speed up, and it will get to the right level of difficulty.  Maybe I'm just not reading how to use the trainer just right.

One semi-warm day a week ago, I took an hour outdoor ride.  110 rpm no problem.  95 minumum.

Got up on rollers for a few minutes for the first time yesterday.  A bit wobbly and scary, but pretty cool.