Fitness Progress Report: Common Denominator - 3

It's been two months back on the bike, so I took stock of my current fitness and performance compared to my fitness baseline of 2010. Right now, I'm putting in numbers on my daily workout routes just at the bottom of my top 33 percentile of times. I'm averaging times in the top 1/3. That one-third number is going to be important for the rest of this post.

Things to note: I'm only riding about 100 miles a week right now. Compared to a typical week at my peak fitness in 2010, I'm doing only 2/3 of the work. Yet, already my performance compares to numbers that took me 6 months of hard work doing 150 miles or so a week.

In 1/3 the time (2 months versus 6 months), doing only 2/3 as much work, I'm in the top 1/3 of performance results. Common denominator: 3.

One other thing I noticed this week: on climbs and false flats, my cruising speed is already the same as it was after 9 months of training in 2010, yet my average speed is still barely in the top 1/3 of results. The difference is my cruising speed on descents and flats is still much lower than at my peak. I believe changing my pedal cadence to a much higher rpm last year to avoid tendonitis in my right knee accounts for this, and while my neuro-muscular rhythms have adjusted to the effort on the hills and ascents (read: I got used to the pain), my rhythm on the flats and descents with the higher cadence is not maximizing my effort (read: need to feel more pain). Also, I'm 12 pounds lighter than I was in 2010, so that messes with my terminal velocity on the longer descents. Boo.