Old 07-11-07, 09:20 PM
  #3  
redtires
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Erie, Co
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Bikes: Fezzari Empire; State 6061 Allroad gravel; Scott Spark; Specialized Status 140

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I would check around places like performance, nahsbar, cambria and for sure do a google search. I must ask though, after only riding for six weeks (I'm assuming that you are new to the sport...yes? no?) what is leading you to believe that you are at a plateau in your condition? I don't think that you should be experiencing a "plateau" after only six weeks. But maybe it's because of the type of riding your doing. It's only my opinion, but perhaps your just needing some adjustments in diet, sleep and fluid intake, plus your body could be asking for a easy day of spinning for recovery, which is very important. FWIW and IMHO, while being able to monitor your heart rate is a good thing, I don't know if I would worry so much about actually monitoring your cadence per se. After a while, and after your pedal stroke improves and becomes more efficient, you will learn if your cadence is adequate. The only reason why I say that is that everyone is a bit different. I like to have a seperate HR monitor however, because your resting HR and your waking HR are important to know as a gauge to how you are recovering after a ride and overnight. Although, these can be easily taken by pulse as well. Now, when it comes to wattage, there are a few systems that will measure how many watts your are producing, however they are expensive and usually consist of replacing either your cranks or rear hub. Wattage can be used as a training aid by tracking, over a period of time, how many watts you produce at a maximum effort for a given distance/terrain. The more fit you are, the more watts you can produce for a longer period of time without blowing up. Dang, that's a lot of info, I didn't mean for it to be so long, but hopefully that gives you some good info for your research.
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