Day 283

Just over a week to go before I fly out.  Decided it would be a good plan to adjust my power training zones.  I've found that the most useful way to do this is the 30min power test, where I ride at the highest power I can for 30min.  This can be a little tricky in traffic, so I try my best to avoid it.  One option is UBC-SW Marine, because there are only a couple of lights, but the undulating terrain makes it hard to maintain a steady effort.  Also, once power reaches about 250W, the 30min test requires a full turn around as well, as the road runs into Granville!  The other option is to climb one of the North Shore mountains.  I've found that Cypress is the easiest to get to, but Seymour works too.  This allows for an uninterrupted 30min ride.  Today I had a friend's car, so I could drive there (the hour ride over is the only problem with testing in the mountains).  As for the test, things went fine.  I was pretty bagged at 20min but held on for the full 30.  It felt like that was pretty much as hard as I could go for 30min.  Ended up doing 7.96km in 30:01 for an avg speed of 15.9km/h and avg power of 256W (257W normalized).  This is about the best example of when normalized power isn't really an issue, as there were no big accelerations.  My last test in May had me at 244W and 15km/h, so I'm improving despite my playoff benders.