RR1 Cedar point
Breakfast
Banana - 90 cals?
Whole wheat bread x2 - 220 cals
Power bar x1- 250 cals
Gatorade - 150cals
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/352901659
The started at 9am. I was tired this whole week and I wanted to sleep in a little bit. I went to bed at 11pm (had to put the baby to sleep) and I was up at 4:30am and every hour until 7:45am.
It was 69F and windy very windy heading north. I rode the first couple of kilometers in low wattage. My IF was showing around .55 my quad was slightly sore and my saddle was definitely sore. It felt like I havent ridden in a couple of weeks. I thought it would go away but maybe 80% of the ride it was there being sore (my saddle). It would take me away from being aero most of the time. I rode maybe 75% on my aero bar today. First hour, I slowly bump my IF up I wanted to hit a .60 the first 45mins of the ride but it didnt happen I cant remember what the exact number was but Im pretty sure it was under .60 The second hour it finaly hit .60 I think but at that point it felt like it was ABP ride! I took the hills easy, dropped my cadence to as low as 35 maybe? and the reading was within 183 (goal wattage). There were a couple of spikes, some I had to pass a mountain biker while a car was behind me so I had to step on the gas, on some I had to chase a light. What Im finding hard to do is once I get to the top of the hill, after holding my power down going up, its hard to "produce" power going down the hill. Some downhill I just stop pedaling and tuck in aero cause I was afraid I might tip over from going to fast. Also, in the flat section of the ride it was also hard to "produce" wattage. My watts would be sitting at 140-150ish and I feel like I had to work a little bit extra to make it to 170w. Last week I rode 3 hrs all out and tried to keep up with the group and my IF hit 1.001 I think Peter suggested that I bumped my wattage to 10w more. My FTP test was 242w and I used 252w for 4.5hrs today then I had to changed my FTP back to 242 to get my current wattage of .647. Before I changed the number IF was .62 something. My NP the whole ride was 157. I couldnt get it up to .70 (I wanted to ride that today). It felt like I always had to work harder to get up there but really my NP or my IF werent going anywhere. Mid ride my right hip was starting to get sore while Im in aero position and couple hrs later my left hip was starting to get sore. I felt my nutrition was good. I started to drink 2bottles of gatorade per hr but realized that the temp was low so I lowered it to 1.5bottes/hr the first hr. At the end I drank 10 bottles of gatorade, 150 cals each equals to 1500calories. Every 30minutes I eat a gel powerbar (I forgot how much calories it has.....) but I ate 5 gels. Every 30minutes (after the gel) I eat half a power bar it has 125calories and at the end I ate 3 full bars total of 750calories. The whole ride my total calories 2250 calories + powerbar gels. My ride lasted 150k (some part I forgot to start my garmin) or 6hrs.
Can somebody help my why my IF wouldnt go higher?
Off the bike, my legs felt fresh. I ran with a gatorade bottle zipping it 2 gulp every 1 mile. First mile I had to work hard to "slow down" my easy pace is 10:00 + 30 secs and I was hitting 9:40 easy. So I really had to slow down. It felt like a crawl but I knew its gonna feel like real work soon. I was in good spirits not bonking or any pain/sore. The only problem tho was that I had to pee and poo! I was running in a residential area and this is far away from home. First mile split was 10:26. That was the only discomfort thing the first mile. The second mile I got a call that my wife needed to be pick up so I had to cut the run short. The second mile my legs were starting to come back and running was slowly feeling like "work". but the pace was bouncing around 10:50-10:20. I walked some part to get a drink and practiced my 20 steps. The splits for mile 2 was 10:46. At mile 3 the bladder and the bum was really bothering me. I needed to go really bad. I tried to keep my pace down still and keep my head in the game. Walked my 20 steps while drinking my gatorade. My hamstring was starting to get "hot" and the effort was slowly getting hard. what I didnt notice was I was running at 9:40 again. I had to hold it back down again and the split for mile 3 was 10:36. Overall the run was good but I could feel it starting to get harder. I wish I ran the whole 1hr butI only ran 30 something minutes.
Im sure I missed a couple of critical things. Please feel free to ask away. I just got home an hour ago and I want to go to bed but I wanna write this since its still fresh in my head. Im open to constructive criticism and advice!
Thanks Team
Comments
I don't have all the issues but there are a couple you need to give some thought to.
First, you can't have a 3 hour ride at an IF of 1.001 — by definition, a 60 min TT should give you an IF of 1.0 — have you entered the correct FTP in your Garmin?
Second, your VI for the whole ride was 1.1 which is way too high — you spent 43 mins making less than 20 watts — that is going to push down your NP by a lot (and a lot more than your AP), which in turn pushes up your VI. If you had pedalled those 43 mins @ your AP for the rest of the ride your NP would have been around 170 watts (probably near to where you need to be).
You mentioned that on (some?) downhills you would stop pushing and get aero — at what speed do you do that? I start to light pedal at 32 mph and tuck in at 34 mph.
Cheers
Peter
Hi Peter,
Sorry for the late reply. Its a long weekend here in Canada and Ive been away from the computer.
From my last post, I saw my IF pass 1.00 for only a couple of minutes. Maybe 10minutes max or even less. That ride did end with an IF of .93 Sorry I forgot to state that above.
How did you find that 43mins of no pedaling? I had to stop a couple of times because my saddle area was sore at the same time I was uncomfortable. Also, at some point of that ride my legs started to feel tired and didnt/couldnt push the watts I desired. I also had a talk with some of my triathlete friends and they suggest that I should change my cassette. Right now Im riding a 11-28 read and compact front. I have a 12-23 (maybe 11-23 not sure) I should use that next time? Or anyone got a suggestion of which cassette to use in a 1400ft elevation bike ride? I dont have speed on my Garmin 1st screen. I have the time, 3s watts, IF, NP, cadence and HR. So I didnt really flip around the screen while I was descending. I managed to pedal on some downhills but on some I was more afraid of falling off the bike or crash. Im sure on some downhill I hit 35mph and some I didnt. So during the race, do you continously have to pedal and produce the desired watts? Wont it be better if you coast on some to save the legs?
Ive calculated many times, I think my VI is only 1.02
Thanks Peter!
I'm not sure where your numbers are coming from but I loaded your Garmin file into WKO+ and got duration: 5:48, with Pnorm 149, VI 1.1, Pav 136, and distance of 145.6 km (IM bike is 180 km about).
From WKO+ I looked to see your power distribution which shows 43 mins at less than 20 watts.
I use a Joule 2 that has 3 sec power, heart rate, speed, cadence, Lap time, Lap Pnorm, and Lap Pav — so I use the speed to tell me when to back off and get aero when going down hill. Also, I try and keep lap Pnorm and Lap Pav as close as I can for each 30 min interval (I use 30 mins because I eat every 30 mins).
Why do you need IF and NP?
Also, do you use lap intervals? If you don't, you will have noticed that after about 3 hours, it's almost impossible to get NP to change, no matter how many watts you are pushing.
The numbers are from my garminconnect page. They are on the left side of the chart.
This is what is exactly written in there (copy and paste). Those were the numbers I remember on my garmin screen as well.
I do use lap interval but the only thing that pops up is the time and the custom distance I set it. You are correct after a couple of hrs of pushing my NP didnt go up and thats why the ride felt like ABP! I should change my display to lap NP and lap Pave then.
Thanks again Peter
I press lap and sit on the number I want for 27 mins, then sit up, stretch, eat, and get ready to press lap again, and then repeat.
So I am practicing being able to get my lap NP on my target watts for 27 min, as well as trying to keep lap AvP as close as I can to lap NP.
As a result I often have HIM bike splits with a VI of 1.02.
So put lap NP, Lap AvP, and speed on your display and practice riding steady.
You are ignoring the zeros (as in either your Garmin 800 or the Garmin Connect site).
Using WKO+ gives the actual numbers, so my analysis is correct and that your 43 mins of less than 20 watts is the reason your NP is lower than it felt, and your VI is way too high.
The good news is that you won't have to worry about traffic lights and stop signs in the race.
That said, you do still need to practice riding steady.
Good luck!
Peter,
I think this is the key to my mistakes I need to put the lap NP and lap AvP.
Ive been looking at NP and IF the whole weekend and try to change that from minute to minute which was a little difficult.
So I think most of my "steady ride" have been a "pushing ride" to keep the NP and AvP.
Thanks Peter.
Thanks for your help Peter!
Cheers
Peter
Peter i would love for you to review it! Thank you for offering!
U mean ABP right? Always be pushing?
After warm up, press the lap button, and then watch both the 3 sec average and lap NP to hit your target NP for that lap (I use 30 mins because I eat something every 30 mins), I sit up after 28 mins and eat, stretch, etc and get ready for the next interval, and press lap after 30 mins and repeat until your warm down.
I target an IF of 0.82 for an IM APB ride and 0.85 for an HIM APB ride.
Post the link to your garmin file and I will have a look at it for you.
Peter
I wont beable submit a file tomorrow as i am really busy tomorrow with family stuff. I may have to miss my ABP ride tomorrow.
Next week ill be free so ill be sending you one. Thanks peter!
A point to note on the Joule 2, it will report blank data (not 0) when coasting. The end result is showing far less time coasting then in reality. I was slapped in the face when i switched from the Joule 2 to the Garmin 500. My WKO+ graphs suddenly had up to 15% of my wide at 0-20W.
If you look at the raw data in WKO+ you will see what I am saying (plus it has been mentioned here and on ST).
Good work here helping Jayson!!
The only time zero power etc is not included in averages is when the rear hub is stationary.
Cheers
Peter
As I think back it is a Quarq/Joule 2 issue...
Thanks for your patience!!
I think I am finally getting it! 80-85% ABP is hard esp now that I set my garmin tocount zeros.
I added the ave lap power beside NP lap and now I know why I have to keep pedaling!
Unfortunately my garmin died at one point but most of the ride has been recorded.
I did laps in this 4k loop where theres no car and just focus on what you told me to do 82%. Pave and NP lap were hard to match but I was slowly getting used to it. Maybe 1:30 into the ride my hips were preventing me from going into aero. Maybe I need a new bike fit? Is it too late now that I am 3 weeks out?
Heres the file. Some laps I managed to hit 82% some it was hard to maintain.
Thanks for doing this.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/360532815
There were still some factors that causing me to drift
- my hips
-turning around when I was doing my loops in one street.
-approaching a stop/lights.
First, it is great that you are now set up to practice riding steady.
And you have improved relative to your RR1.
Now you see how to rack up the TSS on your APB rides, as well as getting your VI lower.
I looked at 30 min intervals from 30 mins on (assuming a 30 min wu). The first 3 (from 30 min to 2:00 inclusive) you averaged NP of 188 and Ap of 177 for each segment — so you were consistent, which is good. The VI is still too high at 1.06/1.07 but is moving in the right direction (ie lower).
From 2 hour to 2:30, your Np was 183 and your Ap was 174 — both lower than the others, but is to be expected as you haven't done these rides at this constant level of higher intensity. But you will pick up more fitness as you go forward.
It may be the case that you need a new bike fit, but I wouldn't change that now this close to your race (I got Todd at http://www.ttbikefit.com/ to do mine in the OS, and can't speak highly enough of the process, and EN gets a discount. You just video yourself on a trainer, the details are on the website).
Happy to have a look at more rides if you wanted (including RR and races)?
Cheers
Peter
ps I have been a data analyst for 40 years, so I just love this stuff!
Thank you peter!
All i can tell you is i was more tired in that ride than any other long rides this year.
Yes the first 30mins was a warm up. There were a couple of hills there where i really held it down while my speed dropped to 8kph.
Can we conclude what IF i should be riding on race day? RR 2 is this weekend and would love for u to check it out! Thanks!
Thank u peter
All ican tell u is that i was reAlly tired after the ride than any other ride ive done this year.
U can see on some hills i really tried to stay within limit and dropped my speed to 8kph.
Can we conclude what IF i should be riding on race ? I have RR2 this weekend and would love for u to see it!
Thanks!
Thank u peter
All ican tell u is that i was reAlly tired after the ride than any other ride ive done this year.
U can see on some hills i really tried to stay within limit and dropped my speed to 8kph.
Can we conclude what IF i should be riding on race ? I have RR2 this weekend and would love for u to see it!
Thanks!
The more detailed answer is I would target an IF of 0.68 for the first 60 to 90 mins, while focusing on getting a little ahead of your nutrition.
Then I would dial in an IF of 0.7.
Do you plan on taking any caffeine?
I start adding caffeine around hour 4, which not only helps me to concentrate/focus but also seems to lower my perceived effort at constant watts.
Cheers
Peter
Perfect!
I was actually thinking of doing .65 for 60mins and .69 for the rest of the way but Ill do my RR2 with the numbers u gave me and see if I can tolerate it.
I wasnt planning on adding caffeine in my diet but I could take the caffeine tablets. I rarely have any caffeine intake in my diet thatll wake me up for sure.
thanks peter!