Quite Interesting US Track Blog

Nice link. Some interesting stuff there until it got to those God forsaken charts. Do people really measure their body fat and thigh size etc as obsessively as some of these pros? Bollox to all that.

You don't have to be obsessive, but if you have aims you need to be able to know whether you are on the right track. How do you know if you are getting faster as the season approaches? how do you know if you are improving?

Without a way of measuring and recording things, you'll simply never know. Eg. "beating" a fellow commuter is only a measurable achievement if you main goal is to "beat" that fellow commuter.

Doing this doesn't have to be complicated, it can be anything from a HRM, a cycle computer and a few notes with dates, before long you have a training diary. You can look back and say , as an example: "oh, last month on the 16th my max HR was 180bmp when doing intervals of 60s at 50mph max with a 50x16 gear, but this month on the 16th, my max HR was 170bmp when doing the same session" This is a measurable improvement, but what have you measured and is it relevant to you goals for the coming season?

It's all about S.M.A.R.T.E.R goals.