I consider myself an endurance athlete, so going ‘all out’ on my bike, for a 15 second sprint, is something I never plan to do in a race.  Sprinting however, was part of my workout today.

I had a project that needed to be worked on this evening, so I got up early to do my workout today.  I haven’t been doing that much lately, so it actually felt quite good, to get my daily workout out of the way.  The workout was an easy effort ride but with ten, 15 second sprints thrown in at the end.  

I don’t do sprints very often, so I was interested to see how much power I could put out this morning.  The answer, at least for my best five seconds, was more power than I have done so before.  I got the coveted, best ‘all-time’ medal in Training Peaks.   It actually happened on my last sprint, when I tried sprinting in a higher gear.  Maybe that’s the key to sprinting with power; who know’s, and to be honest, for long course triathlon racing, it doesn’t matter.

What also doesn’t matter, is the peak power number that I actually achieved this morning.  You will see that I have hidden the actual number on the photo.  This is because I wanted to avoid the possibility of comparison.  In triathlon, the only comparison that matters, is with yourself.  I always advise new triathletes to avoid comparing themselves to anyone else; it doesn’t matter. We are all on our own, individual journey.

While I had some fun sprinting this morning, it really only served to ‘wake up’ my legs.  Tomorrow’s, longer and more sustained effort on the bike, is where the growth will come this week.