I was chatting with a friend/team mate about Power Taps and heart rate monitors and all sorts of other doo-dads to collect cycling metrics. I have been mildly tempted by Power Taps, but thankfully their cost will serve as a serious deterrent. I still, sometimes, feel the need to quantify things and track things. It’s a hold-over from climbing, really–when I was seriously training, I would do things like enumerate the number and quality of moves I did during a given bouldering session or carefully create problems in the gym tailored to my workouts. As time progressed, I moved away from those sorts of workouts, instead focusing on simply the quality of the climbing I was doing, especially when I was climbing outdoors. While I probably wasn’t at my strongest during this period, I managed some goals that I honestly didn’t think I could attain.

So, I came across this article on using Perceived Exertion as a guide for training–essentially relying on your body for feedback rather than little gizmos. I feel like I’ve been an “athlete” for long enough that I can listen to my body and gauge my efforts. Sounds good. And simple. And cheap. In fact, I think it’s unlikely that my regular ol’ cyclocomputer will even make it back on the bike, unless I do a brevet again where it could be useful to know mileage. Whether it will be effective is another question, but at least it’ll be more fun than pouring over wattage numbers, right?

As for goals for this season? Well, umm, how about not sucking? I’m not sure what’s reasonable, besides shooting for pack finishes at early season road races, and maybe a MAR or two at the Oval (assuming I stay in the C race or move up to Bs and re-live last spring’s experiences of getting shelled week after week). Outside of that? Who knows.

Posted on 10 February 2009