37 Watts and a Couple Inches

Those of you who've been reading along know that this spring has brought a change for me. Usually, I'd be frantically getting in the miles, ramping up the intensity, and carefully planning my spring campaign with thoughts towards the big summer races.

Instead, I've spent time at the local gym lifting heavy objects and playing volleyball. I rediscovered my love for volleyball late last fall, and I also discovered that many years of cycling had made me strong on the bike but weak off it. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting some feeling of muscular balance back with some running, lifting, jumping, etc. all while still getting on the bike once or twice a week for some long rides to try to stay in touch. Combine my lack of racing fitness with the few kilos I've put on, and my bike rides have felt slow and heavy.

I had an interesting and encouraging surprise on a leisurely ride in beautiful but breezy conditions on Friday. I took off early from work and hit the roads with Sue and friends for a hilly 55 miles at a conversational pace. Part of the fun of a ride like this is watching carefully for town lines and then playing cat and mouse games sprinting for them.

The first town line came into sight and Sue jumped for it. She and I had rolled off the front of our little group after a red light and had quite a gap on the two behind. I sprinted up along side Sue trying to taunt/encourage her into going faster when suddenly our friend Jeff came rocketing by to take the sprint. The game was on.

Just a couple miles later, the second town line appeared on a long, flat, straight road. I slowly rolled off the front and looked back. Jeff jumped from behind to close the gap and I stood and cranked up to speed and got away for the line. Just for kicks, I checked my max wattage on the PowerTap. It read 1259. 1259?

I raced and trained all last year with the PowerTap and the maximum wattage I'd ever seen was 1222 during the Syracuse downtown street sprints. Now, out of shape, leisurely riding with friends, I'd casually jumped for a town line sprint and bested my max wattage ever recorded by 37 watts. Maybe there's something to this muscle balance thing besides just feeling good.

Related to the sprint, I've also gained a couple inches on my vertical leap. It's been over fifteen years since the last time I was able to touch a basketball rim, but it's getting tantalizingly close now and I think it'll come soon. In my younger days before cycling, I always seemed to do better at the fast twitch sports than the endurance ones, and I think I might be getting some of that back. My lightweight hill climbing days in long road races might be passing me by, but maybe there's hope for a future of some success in a few crits now and again.

See you on the road... or in the gym... or on the court...