I've Got the Power

The Ergamo has arrived and is currently being installed on my bike..... hooray! Now all of this power training I have been doing on the computrainer can be brought over to the roads. It's interesting because my friend, whom I affectionately refer to as Paddie (his Irish nickname) is raring to race me on my bike.

Now I love Paddie, please don't get me wrong. He's a tremendous athlete who handidly kicks my butt to the finish line. He's damn hung up over the bike however. I pretty regularly outsplit him on wheels (but he's out run me by 20 minutes, so who really cares.....) Hey, anything can happen on race day and what really matters is the race you have within yourself. Bring it over and race someone else's race ... that's where trouble lies.

I am very excited about now racing and pacing by using wattage. The Cycling Peaks software allows you to analyze your ride, determine the wattage zones for you much like you do with zones and heart rate.

Will all this analyzation work? Who knows. One of my friends Joey went from being a 12:46 Ironman finisher to a 10:23 Ironman finisher. That was over the course of five Ironmans and I don't think he even once took his resting heart rate, much less checked it during training.

What I love about the computrainer and the Garmin, is that there is no hiding. There is no question. There is no...... was that really a half mile? It's there, black and white. Honest as honest can be. From there as I continue to evolve I can see the progress of lack thereof.

So heading towars race season, I feel sorry for people who target that one person. That one person who they want to destroy. It brings up hatred, it brings up negativity, and who wants to race like that. I have raced that way and it sucks.

I love to race with me, for me, and against me. What can I handle? What can I sustain? What can I do? If my bike split is faster or slower does it make me a better person? At my funeral will anyone care?

The person who looks to me, as being the one person they want to beat, so that they can feel good about themselves, what does that say? In a world where we are amateur triathletes with families and careers and friends...... what does that say?

The only person I ever need to answer that to, is the woman in the mirror.

And Paddie...... Curt told me to do it. He liekd to push your big red button, with love!

:-) Mary Eggers