Goal Setting for Training

I gave the example of goals I set for a race yesterday. Here are the goals I set for a training ride completed today as an example of how simple it is to set them and enhance motivation for training. Only problem is it's going to kill me to do a harder 3 hour ride than today's:-(

*3 hours at 157-204 watts on flat
Based on a % of my Max Aerobic Power.

*Build over the ride
Started pretty hard and suffered towards the end. I also kept an eye on my HR and could see that despite my power slowly dropping my HR was increasing as I tried to push it towards the end. 30.2kph is also 2kph faster than previous rides.

*Build on prev best 3hr ride of 154watts
Did this easily, for the first 20min was chugging along nicely at 185watts. After 2 hours I was feeling the pinch which illustrates the need to start easier and build into the ride. Perhaps on my next three hour ride I will start out at 170 watts and over the last 90 min try and bring the power up to 177 watts in the same way a Road Race gets progressively harder.

*Powermeter data from ride
See in notes. Main thing power goes down each hour while HR goes up.

*RPE (rating of perceived exertion) from ride
I knew I was pushing my luck starting so hard but felt pretty good and it was only in the last 10mins that the legs went flat. While it's nice looking at the data when racing you really need to use the Supercomputer (your Brain) to determine when to conserve energy and when to make your move whether it is 100m to go or 100km!

Hamish