20141222

Ride diary

I was rather disappointed with my ride Sunday.  I planned to do a 35-mile course, and go, more or less, all out.  I felt like I did a pretty good job of it.  I had my average heart rate up over 160, quite a bit higher than I've managed recently.  My power numbers looked pretty good for most of the ride (when I was riding, at least), and I had some really good short stretches of power.

The best stretch was a half minute or so, where I hit 450W, and then kept pushing harder (I saw 600+ for a little bit after that).

But I was considerably disappointed at most of the data for the ride as a whole.  Starting off, it was my second-fastest time for that course, and was more than an entire mph below my highest.  I still can't fathom that.  I suspect cadence works into it somehow, but I'm not sure exactly how.

I don't have power or cadence data for the record run, unfortunately.  It was a day where I got a mile from the house and had to turn around because I'd forgotten something, but I can't remember what.  Maybe it was my hat (not the helmet, the hat under the helmet).

In any event, I wish I knew how I managed to do so well that day.

This day, I felt like I was in good shape to do well, and I did ok, but I'm very disappointed with how much off of my best I was.  I did manage 300ft more ascent this weekend, and I have no idea how that would be possible.  The only difference in the courses, I think, is that loop-back in the previous run.  That certainly wouldn't decrease ascent.  But 300' could easily make that much of a speed difference.

In any event, my power numbers weren't that great this weekend.  That power spurt I remembered from the foot of Lorcom Ln wasn't the 450-600W power over the hill I'd thought.  I managed only in the high-400s in 20s sustained power.  That's not bad, but it was also off from my best (which is a shade over 500W).

My longer-term numbers were even further off from my best numbers, with the full-ride weighted avg power about 220W, with my record (admittedly, over a slightly shorter ride) being just shy of 240W.  Both are well short of where I want to be, though; I'd like to get to around 300W, sustained.  And yes, I know that's going to take a while, if it's even possible.

One other bit of good news.  I managed over half an hour of zone 4+ on the whole ride.  That might be the most I've yet managed (I wish I had real power data for all of my rides), and my max heart rate was definitely the highest I've managed (only by a few, though).

Moving on to this morning, I had a hard time getting out of bed; I really wanted to sleep in.  But I pushed out, and got going.  Remembering Saturday, I dressed considerably more warmly, and even ditched my biking jackets.  I went with my North Face shell and fleece liner, put my booties on over my boots, and wore an extra pair of pants.

With all of that, even with it being a recovery day, I was quite comfortable.  Maybe a hair warmer than perfect, but pretty close to ideal.

I also did a good job of keeping my heart rate down to about where I wanted it.  Still not perfect, but pretty close (I maxed at 132bpm, instead of the 140 that I've hit the last couple times).

I did get one bit of good news today, though.  It seems that, in keeping with that video, I need to keep my heart rate only down to 130-ish, instead of the 110-115 I've tried to maintain the last several times, on my recovery rides.  That means I should be able to do a lot more miles, since it increases speed from 12-ish mph to 14-15mph.  That's a big difference.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes tomorrow.  It's going to be relatively warm (right about 40F, supposedly), but probably rainy.  I'm going to try to take it fairly easy, and cut loose again on Wednesday.  Hopefully with better results.

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