A Few Computrainer Tips & Testing Dates

We're into our second full week of computrainer classes and classes are going great.  Everyone seems to be motivated and is putting in some solid base work.  Since we have started up again here are a few tips and things you might want to remember as we go through the classes:

• The power numbers you were putting out last year are probably higher than where you are right now.  This is totally fine, we typically expect about a 10% decrease in power right now from where you were when you stopped riding computrainer in the spring.  With that said, everyone is different, so please don't get discouraged if you're not hitting numbers that used to be easy.  Your numbers will come back, and we hope improve!
• It's October!  We are working on "base building" right now.  These base training miles are critical to your training for a couple of reasons.  If you don't have a base to build off of, you can risk injuries later in the season when we are putting forth some more difficult efforts.  We know people don't like to do "easier" types of workouts, and we're trying to mix things up so that we can make this base training fun.  If you are a triathlete who is training for a longer distance (half ironman to ironman)  odds are you're "racing pace" will be around the percentages that we're putting out right now.  If you think you're going to be pushing many more watts you might want to think twice...remember you have a long run to do too!
• EFFICIENCY.  I can't stress that enough, now is the time to work on your pedal stroke, to improve your cadence, maybe even to get refit on your bike.  If you become a more efficient rider that will pay off huge come race season.  I have seen a lot of people bouncing around on their bike looking for power at times.  You DON'T need to do that, all you're doing is wasting energy that could be used to go faster.  Really try to focus on your efficiency throughout classes, if you have questions about it, ask your coaches.  When you watch them ride they aren't swaying side to side and moving all over the bike (even when they stand they are in a comfortable rhythm which is efficient).
• Cadence is extremely important as well.  We all have a natural cadence, something we feel comfortable with.  If that cadence is below 90 (especially for triathletes) we should really work on improving that.  Elite coaches and athletest have shared that the "ideal" run cadence is around 90...and they also shared that if you're riding at a cadence which is similar, running will come more naturally.

We have fielded many questions about the threshold testing dates.  So instead of just springing it upon you here is our tentative plan:

November 14-18
February 6-10
April 23-27

Like I said those are tentative dates, and we just wanted to make sure everyone knew ahead of time what that schedule looked like.  We have a few people signed up for our November Bike Challenge...but we're always looking for more, so if you want to join us on what is sure to be a fun time email us at endureitclub@gmail.com

I mean do you really want to miss out on all of this fun??

Byers and Gibson dropping the hammer on those guys...

The infamous Richier Bro's...Dave Jansen and is that Glen Marino rockin out there?

That just looks painful...but in a fun way I suppose