Ol' Faithful

There it is folks - The Clunker. The Clunker was built-up 6 years ago as my "winter" bike and has served it's purpose like no other machine. It resides on the trainer in the super-cold months here in the Northeast. It pushes to the front of the line to be the first bike outside in the late winter, willingly subjecting itself to the sand and the salt on the road while my race bikes stay nice and cozy inside. Yes, there have been times where I've cursed The Clunker; like the time the bottom bracket started seizing up mid-ride making every pedal revolution about as smooth as one of W's speeches. Or the time when the right STI froze-up and locked me in my 25t, giving me the options of running 2 gear combos over a 40 mile ride... N may remember that one. But every year I painstakingly measure and double-measure to replicate the geometry of my road racing bike so that the transition in the Spring from The Clunker to the real machine is as painless as possible. And in the summer months, The Clunker comes out from hiding when the rain is pouring and there are miles to get in.

Today The Clunker and I spent some quality time together while we put the legs through another LT test. That's right bloggers. I'm in the middle of a recovery week so that must mean it's time to baseline the power levels again! One of my season goals was to break the 300W mark for power at LT by the end of base training. Well, if you've been following along the Grind Chronicles, you'll know that I just wrapped up Base 1, so I'm roughly 1/3 of the way through base training... And I was hungry for expediting the realization of that goal of breaking the 300 mark tonight. Indeed, all day I was simply fixed on busting right on through that 300W barrier.

Well, fast forward, and I'll spare you the little, itsy, bitsy details and just jump to the chase: After downloading the data tonight, I learned that I tested at 295W for power at LT. Argh! 5W! Come on!!!

Okay, seriously, there's plenty of reason to be pleased with these results. That's still a good jump from my last test (+6%), and a huge jump from my first test this off-season (+34%). So upwards and onwards with the power. But next time, people, let me just tell you right now that I have a date with the 300s.