That’s my Quarq DZero power meter.  It’s a really cool tool, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Today’s workout was a 90 minute ride, covering a mixture Zone 1 and Zone 2 efforts.  I ride using power zones, as opposed to using heart rate zones.  Defining your power zones is a topic for another blog, but suffice to say, Zone 1 is a low power range (for active recovery) and Zone 2 is the next highest (for endurance type work).

A 90 minute ride in Zones 1 and 2 should be relatively easy. The key word however is “relatively”.  You see, depending on things like your fatigue level, stress level and fueling, it can often feel very different in terms of effort you need to put out to hit the targeted power zones. 

The concept of Perceived Effort, is used to describe how your body “feels” when you are working out.  You can Google a number of different Perceived Effort scales, but most all go from 1 (very easy effort) all the way up to 10 (all out effort).

When I am feeling good, I would say that a Zone 1 / Zone 2 bike ride , would typically fall in the range of a 3-4, in terms of perceived effort for me.

Tonight was very different however.  My legs were ‘dead’.  My heart rate stayed low, but it took closer to a 5-6 degree of effort from my legs to get the job done.  There is nothing significantly wrong with this.  Some days are just harder than others.

In hindsight, I pushed my legs pretty hard, when they really weren’t up to the task.  Maybe I should have backed off on the target power, or maybe just cut the ride short to an hour.  I have done that in the past, but tonight I pushed through.  I pushed through because I haven’t trained much lately and I didn’t want to quit.

One thing I do know is that my legs are still a little tired.  If they feel that way tomorrow, then it’s time for me to back off a little.  I have to stay patient, as I return from my injuries.”