Monitoring power targets on a hilly course
In hilly / uneven races, how are you monitoring your effort to ensure you are on track to your power goal?
Some background: I raced with power for the first time last weekend, in a duathlon with a bike course consisting of two 14-mile laps. Each lap had a 650-foot hill. I went in with wattage targets for each part of the course, but I ended up below my goal NP by 7 watts on the first lap and 3 on the second. Not the worst thing that could have happened, but I was probably 1-2 minutes behind where I would have been at my target watts which would have put me in the top 10.
For pacing during the race I had targets from BestBikeSplit on my computer for each section of the course, but other than the end of a lap it was hard to monitor how I was doing overall as the targets changed pretty frequently and the big hill made overall NP less consistent (by plan NP would be over my target by the top of the hill but it would drop on the steep descent).
For others racing in similar circumstances, how did you check where you were against your goals? I'm thinking for my next race I'll try to get an idea in advance of where my NP for the ride should be at a few key points so that I can monitor and adjust. I want to find a good approach to this as my A race is IMC with a big climb at the end.
Comments
IMO, the way to use power on a course like that is do one of two things. (1) Follow current (3-5 sec smoothing) power, and keep it at a predetemined max, say 85-90% of your FTP. Or (2,what I do), use the Lap NP function on your display, if you have one, and push the interval button to start a new lap at the bottom of the hill. Again, keep that lap NP at predetermined max during th climb.
BTW, on the course, the mistake some folks make is to exceed their FTP at the start of th clmb, which isnthe steepest part. Then they spend the rest of the climb up,to Mud Mtn Dam trying to recover.
Yeah, it was Mt. Rainier. If anything I might have been spinning a little too much on the climb as my overall VI (1.04) was lower than what BestBikeSplit was recommending. Over the steeper part I averaged about 94% for 10 minutes each lap, while the plan from BBS had a target of 99%.
I suppose going too easy on the climbs isn't as big a deal in long course, since you have a long run to make the time back up. In this race the final run was short enough (3.8 mi) that I couldn't quite catch a few of the people who went by on the bike.