Bike power

What most people fail to recognize is the appropriate use of power, especially when climbing. Yes, in the end it's about power to weight ratio, but if you just hammer up the hills, you will have a crappy run, I promise you.

Learn to relax your quads when you climb and engage your core as well.

Find out what your 5' and 20' power are and use those numbers to guide your training.

My personal opinion: HogPen does nothing for your training. It's a useless gap in regards to fitness. But that's just my personal opinion.

I agree about the core helping power. I added daily pushups to my workouts this winter to keep my core strong while I was not swimming and was pleased to note that it seems to have helped on the bike too.

Also, my bike power (and endurance) have improved with a lot of trainer workouts. I found that the convenient spin classes were compromised by high heat in the room so I was overcooking before my legs got a good workout and also, I was phoning it in on my road rides. Some good trainer workouts are the "unpleasant" interval workouts on Trainerroad, Sufferfest, or the Endurance Nation plan. And, adding as many hills as possible on my outdoor rides (Mountain Park loops!).

thanks guys. Dan you make me very happy saying Hogpen is useless. I feel that way each time. I do try to stay in a hr range when i ride the gaps now. In the past i blew up trying to ride the hills like we do in south georgia on a hill - power through it. However, I just feel like my power to wt ratio needs to be up more. I have been on a vacation from training but back in the swing of things now. I quess my main question was looking at types of interval workouts that people had the most success with. I love the gym and have gotten back in more this block of training. Looking at the profile of my ultimate goal race it looks like the first 30 miles ish has a 4500ft+ elevation gain that is steady. I will need to be stronger than I am now to be realistic about racing that. 2014 due to many reasons may be the year i throw my name in the hat if I feel like it is a realistic goal after the Great Floridian in October.

I've had success increasing power and lowering weight at the same time. Intervals are your friend. 2x20 @ 95-100% FTP and 3x15 @ 95-100% FTP will do wonders.

I only get 3-4 rides a week so I don't ride easy. Even my long rides (3 hrs) are at least 80% FTP

I've gone from 230W FTP to 270 and lost 15 lbs in the process. Needless to say quite the increase in speed