Not only did I hit the highest max power today, I also broke my 5-second record. The former is not a big deal; PowerTaps aren’t the best power meter for capturing maximum wattages due to aliasing. But I’ll take the 5-second wattage of 1,250, any day! Ironically, that’s exactly the sprint wattage goal I had set for myself back in November. I guess all the backing off I’ve done recently has a great side effect: a fresh neuromuscular system!

I do have a slight concern with the accuracy of my new PowerTap SL wheel, due the hub problems I’ve been having (I’m working with Saris on it). But the numbers are realistic. Just a few days ago, I was hitting near those wattages during another sprint workout and was suspicious of the hub’s accuracy. So I came home and switched to our PowerTap Standard wheel. When I went back out, I did a couple more sprints and was able to produce similar numbers.

I would still like to finally get my hub issue resolved. It’s disconcerting that once the torque is zero’d, the value will change when the wheel is rotated to a different position. The other thing is that if I zero the torque while stationary, it will then read 2-3 ft/lbs a few seconds later while coasting. Both of those things don’t happen with our PowerTap Standard wheel. To add insult to injury, the XR300 rim I chose (aka, IRD’s Cadence Aero Niobium) is making noise. When I mentioned this to Dave Thomas of Speeddream.com, he was able to reproduce the noise with his own set of XR300’s. He thinks the noise is coming from the nipple/rim interface and offered to insert brass washers in my wheel. But I’m waiting to send him the wheel until I get the hub issue fully resolved. Sometimes I wish I didn’t “upgrade” to the SL and just got an SRM!