The 400 Watt Dream

I started riding when I got a bike for Christmas is 2008. After riding without power for two months I began riding with power on February 13th 2009. As I was new to cycling I saw rapid, improvement in my power. For a while I was setting new power records each week. It was nice to set records for the different time periods from 5 seconds all the way to 2 hours, but to me the most important record became the 30 minute average power. I saw it rise from 315 my first test on Feb 16th 2009 up to 368 on May 22nd of 2009. At that point I thought if I could get to 368 in three months then it was only a matter of time before I hit the big 400 for 30 minutes. But I stalled at that level. My power actually dropped for a few months. I matched the 368 again in October. Then on January 7th of 2010 I hit 375. In this past year my overall cycling has continued to improve and I have set new average power records for most of the designated times from 5 seconds to 2 hours but I haven’t improved on my 375 for 30 minutes. It looks like 400 watts for 30 minutes might never happen, and I will be fine if it never does but I really want to hit it. I have adjusted my training a bit and I hope the changes eventually translate to 400 for 30. In the whole scheme of things my power level on the bike doesn’t really matter, when I step back and look at how obsessed I am with my watts I am a little disturbed with myself, but to go down to my basement, get on my bike, have a 30 minute suffer fest, and then plug my power tap into my computer and confirm 400 watts for 30 minutes would be pure joy. The increase from 375 to 400 comes out to an increase of 6.68% ....I hope that it happens.