Now that I’ve got the “base miles” out of the way (thanks to the Rapha Festive 500 for most of that) I’ve been spending more time in the Wattage Cottage; my endearing term for the garage where my turbo trainer lives!

This month has seen me slowly build up the volume and intensity of my turbo sessions. Bolted to the turbo is my TT bike with PowerTap training wheel. Power has brought a new element of accuracy and consistency to my training. I can keep track of exactly how hard I am hitting each interval and cut out some of the guess work.

Thanks to Golden Cheetah I’ve also been keeping tabs on the amount of short-term and long-term stress I am inflicting on my body. All my turbo and road rides this year have been recorded using the power meter. The amount of data provided is immense. I’m still working out some of the details, but I love how it shows precisely how hard I’ve been training (and if I need to train more).

I’m already feeling the benefits and seeing the right numbers rise. Hopefully I can keep this up as we head out the other side of winter!