A watt is a watt, or not?
To set the stage for my questions: I'm Oct OS and have been doing all my rides on the trainer most for expediency because I live in HI and we can ride year round here. Daylight is frequently an issue for me too though. So I haven't ridden longer than 19 trainer miles and 1:15 since March and am concerned with the build up for St George so I figured I should start doing the outdoor option as often as I can over the rest of the OS. I'm also a relative power newbie- owned it and 'used it' mostly as an expensive bike computer from June 2008 until mid-Sept when I started a little pre-season prep for OS. My FTP is around 182 with 95-100% 173-182, 80-85% 143-155 and Z5 200+ on the trainer and I can hit those.
1. Why didn't I hit the targets on the road today?
2X14 Z4 150, 146 at 17.3, 18.6 mph
2X3 Z5 168, 156 at 20.9, 20.1 mph
2(3)X15 ABP 138, 130, 119 at 17.8, 18.3, 18.8 mph
On trainer I hit over 200 wts for 19.2+ mph, 183 for 17.5 mph, 153 for 16.7 mph from recent workout. The heart rate ranges from today's outdoor ride match the indoor intervals pretty closely so I don't think I was totally sandbagging it. I rode an out and back on relatively flat roads with relatively little wind for here. I tried to ride 'steady' but that brings me to the next question
2. How do I get enough gears to not spike my watts climbing even little hills? I have a compact crank with a 12-25 rear 10 spd cassette. Even little hills caused power spikes on the little yellow whip hitting as high as 280 at the start but none of them show on the overall graph probably due to sample averaging but even shifting to the 23 and trying to spin easy I was consistently seeing 150-180 wts which will be far above my short hill, long hill range for IM as I understand it. I know I can climb for miles at that intensity or above what I was doing today but have also consistently proven I don't run for beans after doing so and I'm a lousy runner to start with.
This year is humbling as I always use to think of myself as a biker but I guess working 80+ hours per week, putting on 15 pounds(10 back off) and in general not working out last year really killed my conditioning. I knew 2010 was going to be rebuilding year but now I'm wondering whether doing an IM is smart or if I should just do HI(Honu) 70.3. I'm not sure I have enough time to get to IM shape. Thanks for your help fellow ENers.
Lynne
Comments
Lynne -
You have plenty of time to get into shape; the fact that you are stressing over these numbers in Dec shows that you have some emotional/mental concerns about your IM decision....I think those will start to fade as you see your progress (ie. the delta) over the next few months. Give it time!
Re the watts, there are tons, literally tons of reasons why they aren't the same, although I will say it's odd that your outdoor watts were overall lower, esp given your spiking issue. Could be that you aren't keeping the watts up on the descents / flats? Trainers provide that constant resistance, something we have to create on the road by keeping that tension on our pedals/chains all the time.
As for the spikes, that's a function of riding outside for the first time in a while. Learning to meter your power before the road goes crazy to dial in the right (or very close) watts is a learned skill. Yes, having more gears helps, but it's not just about stomping on pedals and shifting around that stomping...it's about staying in the same gear and pushing slightly less hard, or not pushing but pulling your feet back or up, or by hitting an easier gear just a bit before the road goes up.
My guess is you'll do a better job the very next time you ride this route!
P
I will echo a point that Coach P made, keeping your wattage up on downhills (even slight 2%+) can be hard.
Like you, I ride mostly on the trainer but did a ride outdoors yesterday and when the road became less than flat it was really hard to push hard enough to maintain wattage. IMO it's harder to maintain wattage#'s going downhill by far. Going up hill it's easy to push watts. That brings up the other point of gearing. 12-27 (Sram offers 12-28 or 11-28 I think). Spinning a low gear and watching that the numbers do not creep up during the race is a skill that you will learn. I did IM Wis, which has lots of rollers and was passed by many people up hills as I sat up and looked like a tourist. But after mile 85 I rode by them all and smiled knowing that my run was also going to be better than their run because I had the EN system in place.
Vince