Wattbike user to ride the ABSA Cape Epic

Early in 2010 I had an email from Malcolm Thornton, a keen Wattbike user, who had requested the Wattbike logo to put onto his cycling jersey for the ABSA Cape Epic. Further email conversation with Malcolm revealed an interesting story. Here it is in his words:

 

I rather foolishly allowed my wife to enter me in the ABSA Cape Epic, an 8 day, stage mountainbike ride in south africa in March 2010. I am a keen amateur cyclist, but the longest off road race I have ever done
is the Brecon Beast 100km.

I did a lot of outdoor training throughout the summer of 2009. My biggest concern was maintaining that over the English winter.
I bought a Wattbike in October 2009. I had my anaerobic threshold tested at bath university and then devised my own interval training programmes around this.

I alternate training sessions with 1 minute, 3 minute or 21 minute intervals. I am managing about 8-10 hours a week on the bike. Far more than I would have, had I had to leave the house each time to go cycling (young children, icy roads etc).

Since october I have increased my 5 minute average power output from 280 to 420W and my one hour average power output from 240 to 312W. I am delighted with my improvement using a targeted training approach.

I have also finally worked out that the reason I hate climbing hills is that at 95kg, my power to weight ratio needs a little more on the power side of the equation. I have 7 weeks training to go, and intend to spend most of that on the wattbike.

Malcolm Thornton