Headed for hills

I decided to bike for ascent, rather than for distance, this morning.  And my legs were feeling good, so I shot right out to tie my PR for the segment closest to my house, then headed downhill a ways to get onto Military Road.

And I started with the same route I did once last week, going up and down Military (which is all hills).  I was close to finishing my third trip up when a biking group (a racing team, I'm guessing) passed me on the penultimate ascent.  I stayed with them for a couple of miles (setting the pace for the line for at least a mile of that, on a slight incline), then broke off to go up Williamsburg Dr.

I took that to the point where I could easily head home or do a hilly lap going away from home, and decided that I'd do the hilly lap, figuring that'd get me finished with 2k feet of total ascent (and get me home in time to get the kids ready for school).

That worked out about the way I planned, except that I finished 26 ft short of 2000.  I was a bit irritated about that.  But I was happy to beat my record on that hilly lap (though only by eleven seconds, which was not as good as it felt), and felt like I especially crushed the last hill on that lap (though no PR on it, which shocks me).  I did beat my record on the whole uphill leg of that loop, but again, by less than I expected (only four seconds, on a four minute climb).

Still, it's good to see that I'm making progress, in terms of sustained power and climbing ability.

I also had a nice (sort of) teaser, yesterday.  I weighed myself right after the ride (before eating), and got 154 and change, which is my target weight.  It was a little suspicious, though, as I'd been 160.0 the day before (weighed after riding, but also after eating and showering).  And today showed it'd been a bit of a mirage, as my post-breakfast weight was again 158 this morning.

Still, it's again progress.  And not quite as cruel a teaser as Strava's power estimates telling me that I was pushing 300W on my hybrid almost from the start (as average, not peak).

The other interesting thing about this morning's ride was the power distribution.  To whit, my average power was 150W, which is a bit low for me (I think because there are some long downhills, one of which requires a near-stop at the end).  But my weighted average (per cyclemeter) was 205.  Still a bit low, but incredibly high, given that average.  I had a lot more 400-500W chunks than is normally the case.

[went away for a bit, came back] Just looking at the segment data from Strava, and the power data is pretty suspect.  Supposedly, I tied that PR on that first segment while pushing 54W.  Not a chance in the world that that's correct.  I'm pretty sure I was pushing 3-400 on that stretch (most of it, at least; I might have let up a bit at the very end).  And there's some other suspicious drop-outs.  Another segment, .3 miles w/84ft ascent, I did in a hair over a minute on 25W of power.  Again, not a freakin' chance.  Again, probably over 400W.

I have to conclude that Stages is not very reliable via Bluetooth.  They tell me that it's better under ANT+ (and I'm glad to have the choice).  I hadn't been using that, as ANT+ is not as good for me (further battery burn of my RFLKT+, as we as being a bit dodgy using both systems), but maybe I need to do so.  They told me Bluetooth would improve under iOS 8.1 (and it did), but there's obviously some issues remaining.

Oh, and one thing that baffles me a bit.  I've gone out twice, this morning (in my car, that is), and seen quite a few bikers.  I don't understand why almost all of them have been wearing jackets and/or knee warmers.  I had a light jersey, my lightest shorts (the supremely comfortable Santini's), and my lightest gloves (worn for the kevlar palm alone) and I was completely comfortable.  And it was a good five degrees cooler when I was riding.  Weird.