A Private Lesson

I was the only "student" at Velo SF noon class today, so throughout the class Alex, the instructor, and I engaged in a running discussion of training methods and their benefits, such as why every class we pedal at 5 mph over base when we hardly ever pedal that fast when we ride outdoors (base is cruising speed/cadence and mine is 25.5 mph and ~93 rpm).  Alex posits that we do this to create neurological adaptations and for muscle memory, making slightly faster than base cadence more efficient.

The conversation was a good distractions and the 60-minute class flew by in 65.  Most of the hard work wasn't too hard or terribly memorable, except for the last set, during which we pedaled at 7 below base with resistance set at zone 4-5 border.  We did seven of these.  After the first four, which weren't that hard (RPE of 6.5-7), I asked Alex where his zone 4-5 border is and he said 375, so I bumped my resistance 100 watts just to see what it feels like for him.  It wasn't so awful.  The way Computrainers are designed it takes the resistance a bit to catch up, so the first 8 seconds were almost easy.  Next 10-15 seconds were hard, but not bad, and the final 7-12 were on the painful side, but RPE did not exceed 8.5.  I did three of those and we were done, as was ride number 158.

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