Help on targeted watts on race day ride
Perhaps this is a simple question however looking for some help from the team. How do you make sure you are tracking to your targeted watts on race day?
I have the Garmin 510 and have 3s watt measure at the top of the screen.....looking at it constantly to make sure I am where I need to be. Both for this years half IM in Maryland and last year's IM Wisconsin, based on the numbers I was seeing, I thought I was riding a bit "hard". Both races came out well in the end however when looking at my stats, I was actually below where I was targeting. Perhaps this helped my IMWI run so maybe a "good" thing however I wonder how everyone else paces themselves.
I have tried a 5 mile alert however I have only been able to get it to tell me the miles....not helpful at all. I haven't seen way to have it flash watts every xx miles or minutes so perhaps I am missing a trick.
Any other best practices out there?
Comments
I use Keith's method, except I manually lap it, not set it to auto lap. For instance, there may be a 2 mile long hill in the course, I hit lap at the bottom and then at the top. Or a 5 mile straightaway with no aid station in the middle - again, start @ beginning, end at next terrain change (or aid station). I use short laps when going through aid stations to not confuse things. So I'm not locked into arbitrary times or distances, and I can focus on what I want to do for each *specific* part of the course. It also keeps me alert to where I am on course - I have to be paying attention at all times to both my surroundings and my output.
I use IF (%-age) rather than raw NP, but I have a Joule which shows that for laps. I don;t believe the Garmin family does that, so you need to know exactly what NP you want to be hitting. Also, I keep current (3s) watts in front of me at all times, so I can gauge what I'm doing instantaneously.
I don't look at NP at all during a race as 1) it's very sticky and doesn't move much after a couple hours and 2) there will be times when you are in a lap that has steep hills, undulation, etc and NP will spike as the VI will be higher and that's ok as long as it's for a short period.
The only two power fields I have visible on race day are 3S power and avg lap power.
I personally like seeing speed because it helps me better identify false flats, slight downhills, can give me something to do on flat ground (tweak my position, etc), and I make decisions about in vs out of the aerobars as a function of ground and/or airspeed. For example 8mph up a hill into a headwind = stay in the aerobars.
My race screen has 3s power, 30s power, lap power, and NP (in addition to time, distance, grade, HR, speed). I mostly follow 3s. If I'm on a long hill or flat I'll use 30s and lap power to fine tune my effort. And at a few points in the race I check in on NP vs. my overall target.
I agree with Keith that trying to play "catch up" with Pnorm across a long ride/race is difficult, requiring a harder effort to come up to the IF you're looking for if you're falling short. If 3sec watts are all you can do at the exact moment, then it's all you can do. Look at the overall IF and Pnorm and other stats AFTER the race.
I wish that Garmin would add "Lap IF", which then I'd auto set for 5-10 mile intervals.
Then on a completely different screen maybe you have your NP and IF for the total ride (I do this) and while this is the number that I judge against what I did in my RR's (ie, if my RR's were at 215w and my NP for the ride at 4:00 ride time is 212w Pnorm, that tells me something) but I'm NOT doing anything to drive that total NP for the ride up or down. As many have said, once that NP is made up of several hours of data, you have to absolutely crush yourself or noodle to move that needle.
In summary we are driving small boxes of data around the course and managing the data within that box as best we can. This is a function of "terrain-centric execution," which I talk about in my 4 Keys Talks: riding the terrain in front of your nose without much regard for where or when you are on the course.
And, yeah, so dumb that Garmin doesn't do lap IF
I employ Al's method mentioned below, add a second screen with total NP and IF and use an HR ceiling as an alternative data point when conditions outside are really bad and NP decouples from the HR.........
Great discussion.
SS
Yes, and that's basically what I do. My IM number is ~215w. As long as I see laps that finish with numbers around 215w and my NP for the creeping up towards and finishing at 212-215w (I ride at a cap of ~195-200w for the first ~30'), then I know I'm good. And, equally important, I know what HR to expect at those watts and how it may change across the day, so I can recognized the decoupling that Shaughn mentions above.
Rich, understand your point around the smallest box of data in front of me and will keep that fresh in my mind. I am hoping to be smarter when racing this year and the above comments from everyone will help.
Will let you know how I get on and feel free to throw any other ideas my way in the meantime!