PowerCranks—Failed Bid at Riding 20 Minutes Straight Through.

It has been 3-4 weeks since I started riding the PC’s. I have been making progress in all areas concerning the cranks themselves, but it is still unclear whether this progress is going to translate to increases in power output on a regularly outfitted bicycle.

Due to inclement weather, I have not had the opportunity to ride my PC equipped bicycle on the road since my last PC post.

It is getting easier to pedal the PC’s. It is no longer mentally taxing to keep my rhythm.

I have continued my strategy of steadily increasing the length of time that I pedal the PC’s for. As you may remember, when I started, I could only keep them moving for 1-2 minutes at a time with rests in between. At the end of every PC workout, I set a “breakthrough” goal, where I attempt to complete a pedaling interval that is significantly longer than I have been doing during the body of my PC workout.
My current interval length is 10 minutes of straight pedaling. Generally, in the last minute of each pedaling interval I increase my power output and cadence. I have continued with the 30-60 second rests.

I have felt that I could pedal for longer than 10 minutes at the end of many intervals, but have not attempted it since my plan is to steadily increase my pedaling intervals in such a way that I won’t ruin the rest of my workout or make myself too sore to have a quality workout the next day.

As one of my weekly training goals, I wanted to complete a 20 minute work interval on the PC’s. Since Sunday is the end of my training week and Monday is a rest day, I attempted the 20 minutes yesterday. I failed. I went out too hard, with too high a cadence and after 14 minutes, I was unable to pedal anymore. My heart rate was approaching race levels and I was breathing very hard. I probably could have continued for another minute or two, but it seemed that my goal of pedaling for 20 minutes was going to interfere with my greater goal of getting faster on the bike.

I am sore today. My legs are dead feeling. Luckily, this is a rest day.