Learning to climb again

... like a mountain goat! 

So after 6+ months of training, the big "test" will come this weekend at Balmoral Club's Metropolitan Road Champs. 

For the first time in many years, we will have over ten girls on the start line for Women's A.  Historically the "Metro's" race (as it is affectionately known) at Mt Alford has been a very tough race of attrition; often with less than half a dozen girls showing up.  In previous editions of this race, we have often been combined with the Masters A men to make a larger field, which leads to an incredibly daunting and demanding race.

With my thyroid condition finally all sorted, there will be no excuses!  Random muscle cramps will be another issue to contend with, but hopefully the weather will be cool (or even cold), and the previous weeks of salt and magnesium loading (thanks Rob R, Rob D, and nutritionist Angie for the suggestion of SaltStick capsules) will avoid any problems there (at least it wasn't Addison's after all).  Even more encouraging will be the fact that we have almost our entire team racing (with Jane, Claire, Maddi, Jemma and myself).  And as Craig B often reminds me, we just gotta chew some more bar tape!

Quadrant analysis... what the?

Since acquiring my power meter a few months ago, I think I am only just scratching the surface of its usefullness.  Something I have recently come across is the "QA" graphs on Training Peaks.
Basically it is a graph of pedal velocity and pedalling force, and helps to show you where you were at with a particular workout.
It can help determine whether you are training correctly for different types of cycling events, and then further improve upon your neuromuscular power and your cardiovascular fitness.

There are 4 areas on the graph:

QI: High Force and High Cadence- An example of this would be sprinting.
QII: High Force and Low Cadence- An example would be steep hill repeats, big gear intervals and a lot of Mt. Biking resides in QII as well.
QIII: Low Force and Low Cadence- An example would be a recovery ride or just an easy ride around town.
QIV: Low Force and High Cadence- An example would be a Criterium or fast pedaling drills.

As an example, if you, or your coach, set you a particular training program for the day, once you have downloaded your data, you can review the QA graph for that workout and see if you targeted the correct QA "zone".  Was your recovery ride really all in QIII?  Was the workout that was designed to help improve your criterium racing mainly in QIV?  Was the workout that was designed to help improve your climbing in road races mainly in QII?  Retrospectively via QA on Training Peaks, I can now see that with my workouts from Nick's training program over the last few months (http://www.cadencecycling.com.au/), they are putting me spot-on within the zones I need to improve upon.  Maybe I will be ready for that race early next year after all!