Month #2 of PowerCrank training and time for another journal installment. I took the advice the anon poster from my last journal and filled one of my water bottles with pennies. Next month, I’ll try stones in my jersey pockets.

Week of 5/5:

This is light week for me, as I am preparing for the Somerset Circuit TT on Saturday. I’ve got 2 endurance workouts planned on my TT bike, which I haven’t ridden in several weeks – it’s important to spend time training the position. As a result, I’ll only be on the PCs for 2 days.

On Monday, I left my apartment for the first time with the PowerCranks for a 60 minute recovery ride on the West Side bike path. It was uncomfortable trying to clip in both feet at 6 o’clock and still feel balanced on the bike, but once I got rolling, I had no problem getting into a natural pedaling rhythm. Just north of Chelsea Piers, I was feeling confident, and decided to try a short sprint out of the saddle. On the first pedal stroke, I lost momentum on the upstroke and dropped straight down into the saddle. Ouch! Out-of-the-saddle riding is another skill that takes practice to master on the PCs. In order to sprint, you have to really get on top of the gear you are pushing and focus on turning over the pedals. If you don’t transition from 10 to 2 o’clock smoothly, the PCs will punch you in the taint.

On Saturday, I raced the Somerset Circuit TT and won the 4/5 category (yeh!). The course was 10 miles with a few hills and many sharp turns, which cost me some time due to bike handling and cornering (which I need to improve on), but I felt really strong on the straightaway sections, and my time of 24:00 was good enough for a win. Ken Lundgren, who is a one of the top time trialists in the area, won the 1/2/3 and overall with a time of 21:13. I know that Ken is an avid rider of the PCs and he wrote two articles on PowerCrank training for velocitynation.com. The fact that he beat the second place finisher by almost 50 seconds is motivation for me.

Week of 5/12:

I’m going to try to increase the PowerCrank frequency now – especially since I don’t have any races on the calendar for a few weeks. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were all PowerCrank workouts this week.

I began the week by taking the PCs to Central Park for the first time for a 2 hour endurance workout. My goal was to make it one lap around the park while pedaling continuously, and I ended up doing 3 consecutive laps this way. My cadence was a consistent 80 rpm too, which is an improvement from a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly, I learned that the easiest thing to do on the PCs is to climb hills. Each time up Harlem Hill, I hardly even noticed that I wasn’t riding on standard cranks. I’m not sure why this is — it must have something to do with way the effort is distributed around the cycling muscles when you normally ride uphill.

Sunday was my only day riding standard cranks, when my team did a training ride to Cold Spring. After using the PCs so much all week, my legs felt less fresh than usual, and I rode a little below my potential as a result. I’m learning that because the PC workouts are stressful on muscles that aren’t well trained, you need extra recovery. For that reason, it’s probably a good idea to stay off of the PowerCranks completely for a few days leading up to an important race.

Week of 5/19

I began the week with a rest day, a gym workout, and a TT workout on the trainer, and my hip flexors were definitely grateful for the extra recovery. By Thursday, it was time for more Powercranking, and I did a 2 hr workout in Central Park, which included a 60 minute Tempo interval. When I got home and downloaded my power numbers, I was surprised my watts weren’t higher — I averaged 238 watts during the interval, which is about 20 watts below the low end of my Tempo zone. Maybe this is to be expected, and the muscles are simply going to fatigue sooner on the PCs, but it definitely felt like I was working harder than my numbers indicated. I’m hoping that my efforts on the PCs will become more consistent with my standard cranks over time.

I finished the week with another 2 hour PC workout in the Park on Saturday, and a Tempo ride on the standard cranks to the Orchards on Sunday. So far, so good.

Week of 5/26

Monday was Memorial Day, and I decided to try my longest PC workout yet. I took them over the GWB for the first time and up to Piermont for a 4 hour endurance ride. I felt pretty good on the way up 9W, so I decided to make a quick side trip to try the River Rd climb as a TT on the cranks. I averaged 350 watts and reached the Sheriff’s station in 6:40. I’m normally about 50 seconds faster on my standard cranks, yet the effort felt about the same on the PCs. On the way back to the city, I started to tire out and had a hard time pedaling at a consistent cadence without taking short breaks to coast. The 4 hour ride might have been more than I can chew. My hip flexors and hamstrings were very fatigued.

Tuesday though Friday were comprised of recovery workouts each day, which I definitely needed. I woke up feeling sore on Tuesday and spent the whole day off the bike. I stayed off the PCs on Wednesday too, riding instead on my standard cranks. I’m now convinced that I should take extra recovery in between intense sessions on the PCs. When the for your hip flexors, calves, and hamstrings are underdeveloped, you simply can’t overstress them. In that way, it’s kind of like weightlifting. You need adequate recovery to get stronger and not injure yourself, and performance suffers by doing more than you can handle.

This weekend was made up of a CRCA race on Saturday, followed by some easy endurance riding. On Sunday, I was back on the PCs for another Piermont ride, and I felt stronger than last week. I think the recovery days helped too, since I was able to keep a much more consistent effort on 9W while riding home this time. Once again, I attempted the River Rd TT, but the results were identical to last time.