My cycling month in review: February 2015

A new month is upon us and, as I always do at the beginning of a new month, this morning I’m going to review some of my cycling highlights, personal records and totals from the previous month.

My 2015 cut is nearing its end and, despite eating under maintenance for more than eight weeks now and dropping more than 20 pounds (so far), my power on the bike seems to be fine. In fact, I set numerous personal records for time in February, and even a couple new power output lifetime bests! Let’s geek out on some data…

Before I get into all the numbers and details, here’s my Cycling Photo of the Month for February 2015 (click to enlarge):

 

Monthly Totals for Distance/Elevation/Time

• Total Distance Ridden, February 2015: 865.9 miles/1,393.53 kilometers (Current PR, set August 2014: 1,274.5 miles/2,051.11 kilometers)
• Total Elevation, February 2015: 32,802 feet/9,998.05 meters (Current PR, set August 2014: 44,490 feet/13,560.55 meters)
• Total Riding Time, February 2015: 42h 33m (Current PR set August 2014: 65h 48m)

 

Other Cycling Personal Records & Achievements

Over the past month I set a total of 51 cycling personal records for time on various Strava segments.

 

For Strava’s February 2015 Monthly Training Series (MTS) I rode more kilometers than 97.506% of Strava MTS cyclists worldwide, placing 2,721 out of a total of 109,080 athletes with 1,394 kilometers ridden from February 1st – February 28th.

 

My Training Calender: February 2015

 

 

VeloViewer Score

I’ve been using the awesome Strava companion site VeloViewer for quite some time now (in fact, that’s where some of the stats and charts in these monthly reports are obtained). If you’re a Strava cyclist who craves even more ways to crunch your ride data, then you owe it to yourself to check out VeloViewer. There’s a lot there, so explore and have some fun.

One of the features of VeloViewer that I really like is its innovative and unique VeloViewer Score.

The VeloViewer Score is a cool way for Strava users to compare themselves against other cyclists: It is the average segment position score from a cyclist’s top 25% (up to a maximum of 100) non-downhill segments. What I like about the VeloViewer Score is that it’s derived based on an algorithm that actually weights the number of other athletes who have also ridden the segments. In other words, VeloViewer understands and takes into account that a KOM with only 20 cyclists on the leaderboard is nowhere near as impressive as a KOM with 1,000 cyclists on the leaderboard.

Because of the way the VeloViewer Score is computed, it’s a unique method for cyclists who live far apart and never ride the same segments to compare their overall performances.

Go create your own VeloViewer account and see how you stack up with your Strava friends across the globe! Note that as of November 2014 VeloViewer is no longer a free service. The cost, however, is only about $16.00 (USD) per year, and I feel its features are well worth what comes to a little over a buck a month.

 

2015 Distance, Elevation and Riding Time

My 2015 distance total (59 days) is 1,810.2 miles (2,913.23 kilometers). Average daily distance is 30.68 miles (49.38 kilometers).

My 2015 elevation total (59 days) is 67,762 feet (20,653.86 meters). Average daily elevation is 1,148.51 feet (350.07 meters).

I’ve spent a total of 90h 27m in the saddle so far in 2015. Average daily riding time is 1h 32m.

My riding streak continues, and I have now ridden my bike every single day for 426 days straight (at least one ride every day from December 31, 2013 forward). My minimum standards for this challenge are as follows:

• The bare minimum for a ride, or rides, to count is 10 miles/16.1 kilometers.
• Multiple rides on the same day that total in excess of 10 miles/16.1 kilometers are acceptable.
• Indoor trainer rides (in excess of 10 miles) count.

Here are comparisons of my distance and elevation for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 YTD. As you can see from the zoomed view (new!), I’m ahead of pace from any previous year on distance, and considerably ahead on elevation (click to enlarge):

 

Here’s a zoomed in view that shows how 2015 YTD distance compares to years past at this point in the calendar:

 

 

Here’s a zoomed in view that shows how 2015 YTD compares to years past at this point in the calendar:

 

Power Output Personal Records

Here’s a look at my current power curve (click to enlarge), followed by a chart with my actual power output personal records at various time intervals.

 

I set a total of 2 new power output personal records in February.

Here’s my complete power output chart (my current power chart can always be found in the “Cycling” section on the main menu, above):

Power Output Personal Records as of February 28, 2015 - Weight: 71.85 kg - FTP: 305

INTERVAL	POWER (WATTS)	WATTS/KG	DATE	IMPROVEMENT THIS MONTH
1 second	1112	15.48	January 18, 2015
5 seconds	1035	14.41	January 18, 2015
10 seconds	983	13.68	January 18, 2015
15 seconds	956	13.31	July 5, 2014	-
20 seconds	936	13.03	July 5, 2014	-
30 seconds	855	11.9	July 5, 2014	-
45 seconds	725	10.09	January 18, 2015
1 minute	610	8.49	January 18, 2015
1.5 minutes	519	7.22	October 18, 2014	-
2 minutes	487	6.78	October 18, 2014	-
3 minutes	431	6	October 18, 2014	-
4 minutes	384	5.34	June 2, 2014	-
5 minutes	369	5.14	June 4, 2014	-
6 minutes	351	4.89	February 14, 2015	+1 watt
7 minutes	345	4.8	September 19, 2014	-
8 minutes	338	4.7	November 19, 2014
9 minutes	340	4.73	November 19, 2014
10 minutes	342	4.76	November 19, 2014
15 minutes	309	4.3	November 12, 2014
20 minutes	306	4.26	August 20, 2014	-
30 minutes	287	3.99	April 21, 2014	-
45 minutes	281	3.91	April 21, 2014	-
1 hour	279	3.88	April 21, 2014	-
1.5 hours	252	3.51	November 12, 2014
2 hours	249	3.47	November 12, 2014
2.5 hours	244	3.4	November 12, 2014
3 hours	221	3.08	December 18, 2014
4 hours	192	2.67	October 26, 2014	-
5 hours	184	2.56	February 7, 2015	+14 watts
6 hours	162	2.25	October 5, 2014	-
7 hours	116	1.61	April 6, 2014	-
8 hours	109	1.52	April 6, 2014	-
9 hours	109	1.52	April 6, 2014	-
10 hours	109	1.52	April 6, 2014	-

Excelsior!