Being a Power Training fanatic that I am, I also regularly monitor the forums and various blogs about power on the internet. I came across a fantastic thread of conversations on the Google Wattage forum (a place where serious cyclists, with serious money, talk about serious power). If you don’t ride outside, you might not be aware that there is a general disdain from cyclists about indoor cycling, and especially Spinning®. They lump all indoor riding into the same bucket and consider it a last resort for getting their ride on.

Well, it’s midway through February, and there’s good news and bad news – the good news is that we are almost half way through the winter, the bad news is that if you haven’t started your Winter Training yet, you better get started or you will miss the best “Base Building” time of the year. if you haven’t started preparing for the Spring season, it’s not too late. There is plenty of crappy winter weather left (if you don’t enjoy winter sports that is), and so Indoor training should be your staple this time of year.

In a previous post (Formulas Don’t Work), I bemoaned the continual use of “220-age” as the basis for CVT (Cardio Vascular Training).  In a first here at the Fanatics blog, I’ve invited the real expert to “splain” it to us – why this thing just doesn’t work.  You can also download the original white paper by Sally Edwards from her website, complete with detailed scientific references if you want to share it with others that need to know.  Here is the body of that paper:

Nothing frustrates me more than small thinking.  In fact, if I can point to one factor that has compelled me to virtually every entrepreneurial endeavor I’ve ever done (of which there are many) it would be small thinking.  Small thinking is what makes a great idea fizzle and die.  Small thinking takes opportunity and handicaps it.  Small thinking is fueled by fear and a lack of confidence.  Small thinking is expert at discovering all the reasons why something won’t work, and is blind to all the reasons something will work.  Small thinking is short term, negative, and impotent to taking a new idea to its ultimate destiny.  I say DEATH to small thinking!

This is Erika Smith.  She understands that if you can measure something, you can improve it.  She  built a device to prove it.  Doesn’t she look wonderfully geeky?

I have to confess, I did not go to the 2009 Heart Zones™ Master Trainer conference to partake in the blatant doping and mad consumption of performance enhancers that went on there. I just went to secure my Master Trainer certification and make sure I’m well equipped to train others how to teach the Heart Zones™ system for training indoor cycling. WOW, was I in for a surprise.