Trike Fitting After Roughly 4 Million Pedal Stokes

PREPARATION 1.8 TRAINING REPORT (11/11 – 11/17)

HIGHLIGHTS: My coach and I chat every Tuesday afternoon for 30 minutes. This past Tuesday, we were discussing my continuing knee discomfort. Coach suggested I should have an expert fitting to the trike. The initial fitting I received when I bought the trike back on May 20, 2022, was pretty good. But after 788 workouts covering 13,389.33 miles, it was clearly not perfect.

I was fortunate to have one of the top 20 bike fitters in the country available to me locally. Craig Watson has been a full-time bike fitter for the past 23 years. He has fitted a wide range of athletes to a wide range of bikes, including recumbents. I was able to schedule a three-hour fitting session with him yesterday afternoon. He determined that my left shoe cleat needed a tiny adjustment and the crank boom needed to be extended a few millimeters. It will take a week’s worth of workouts to determine how my legs adjust to these changes. But, I’m confident that they will eliminate my lingering knee pain.

How did I determine that I’ve generated roughly four million pedal strokes since May 20, 2022? I use Garmin Connect to track the metrics from every workout or race I’ve ridden over the past 20+ years. It is easy to retrieve the distance, time, and average bike cadence, as well as other metrics, from any single or group of workouts. I converted the elapsed time (928H 36M 35S) of the 788 workouts to minutes. The result was 55,716 minutes. My average cadence was 71 revolutions per minute (rpm). Multiplying the total minutes by 71 rpm resulted in 3,955,836 pedal strokes. Roughly four million pedal strokes.

This week’s training included seven workouts on the trike, plus three strength workouts. All indoor cycling sessions were completed with my recumbent trike on a Kinetic by Kurt Road Machine smart trainer + Rouvy application.

DETAILS:

  • Monday’s Climbing Repeats Intervals (5 x 5/4 minutes) workout was 16.31 miles in 1:11:01. Average speed was 13.8 mph; maximum speed was 16.9 mph. Average power was 74 watts; maximum power was 132 watts. The 45-minute strength routine was a mix of ropes, free weights, and bands.
  • Tuesday’s Recovery-Endurance Blend workout was 9.41 miles in 0:45:02. Average speed was 12.5 mph; maximum speed was 13.7 mph. Average power was 57 watts; maximum power was 72 watts.
  • Wednesday’s Steady State Intervals (4 x 8/4 minutes) workout was 19.86 miles in 1:24:01. Average speed was 14.2 mph; maximum speed was 16.6 mph. Average power was 78 watts; maximum power was 119 watts. The 37-minute strength routine was a mix of strength machines, free weights, and rope exercises.
  • Thursday’s Endurance Miles-Coffee Shop Ride workout was 11.83 miles in 1:00:01. Average speed was 11.8 mph; maximum speed was 12.3 mph. Average power was 50 watts; maximum power was 58 watts.
  • Friday’s Warmup Ride with Steady State & Speed Intervals workout was 7.69 miles in 0:34:02. Average speed was 13.6 mph; maximum speed was 16.8 mph. Average power was 71 watts; maximum power was 140 watts. The 36-minute strength routine was a mix of strength machines and rope exercises.
  • Saturday’s Sweet Spot Tempo Intervals (3 x 12/5 minutes) workout was 16.78 miles in 1:11:02. Average speed was 14.2 mph; maximum speed was 16.3 mph. Average power was 78 watts; maximum power was 113 watts.
  • Sunday’s Endurance-Sweet Spot Ladder Intervals (7 x 6/2 minutes) workout was 20.52 miles in 1:29:02. Average speed was 13.8 mph; maximum speed was 16.1 mph. Average power was 72 watts; maximum power was 114 watts.

BY THE NUMBERS:

  • Total Distance: 102.40 mi
  • Longest Ride: 20.52 mi
  • Total Time for Week: 9:32:11 (h:m:s)
  • Avg Speed: 13.5 mph
  • Max Speed: 16.9 mph
  • Avg Power: 69 watts
  • Max Power: 140 watts
  • Calories: 2,609 C
  • Avg Weight: 176.3
  • Chronic Training Load: 52 (+1)