I racked up another good week on the bike this week, topped off by a 4hr ride yesterday. After failing to climb the Waterfall climb without stopping last week, I resolved this week to ride to Waterfall, descend the climb, turn around and ride home. I also wanted to try eating more on the ride and to see if I could keep the power down in the latter stages of the ride as well.

With this in mind, I made up a concentrated solution from carb/protein powder to take occasional swigs out of as I rode, and this worked out pretty well. I also stopped at two petrol stations along the ride to buy a muesli bar and some jellies, and also to refill my water bottles. In truth I may have overdone it, as while I had no problem maintaining the power all the way home, I was close to getting a stitch, which probably means I was eating more than my stomach could absorb under effort.

The other good news is that I made it up the Waterfall climb without too much pain. The top section was still tough, but I’d made a point of noting the exact distance on the way down, so this time I knew exactly how much suffering was left before the top. It definitely wasn’t as hard as last week, partly due to the fact that I’d eaten properly this week and partly due to the fact that I’d ridden 4h50 when I started the climb last week, rather than 2h00 when I started yesterday.

While reading up on the features of the power meter software I use, I discovered the Performance Management Chart above, which shows how much work I am absorbing. The most important line is the blue one which is an indication of my fitness level and it’s increasing slowly but surely. The pink line indicates the average amount of work I’ve done over the last few days, and the yellow line indicates how much of a hole I’ve dug for myself in doing the work - basically how knackered I am. The yellow line is basically the pink line mirrored about the blue line, e.g: when the pink line peaks at approx. 72 (right axis) my fitness level was 38 (right-axis) and my cumulative fatigue was 34. This makes sense as the fitter you are, the less of a toll a given work load takes on me.

Over the last three weeks my weight has dropped from 89.3 to 86.2 this morning as well, so, so far so good, things are moving in the right direction.