THE CRUCIBLE: IMSG #1 Edition
Many thanks to Simon for playing along. This is in two distinct parts:
Crucible_SimonM_IMSG_1: http://screencast.com/t/OTA1OWJiYz
Crucible_SimonM_IMSG_2: http://screencast.com/t/ZjcxMGRmYjct
Basically, you had a very fit ride (you are strong!) but it would be an epic race day disaster. I only had my race file on hand, so used that (n=1) as comparison, but I think you can be a lot smarter in RR #2 (which is why we do two of them!).
Thanks for sharing...everyone else I hope to see your files after #2!
Patrick
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Comments
Wow that was great. Very informative.
I always learn and relearn alot with these crucibles.
WKO 3.0 does look great. That quadrant thingy is also intriguing...
This should be mandatory viewing for everyone in the haus! Seriously!!
I think power file analysis stuff is a fantastic way to learn about racing with a power meter. Everyone should submit their files if asked!
SImon sent me his WKO file a couple of says ago and I offered my two cents on it also. Hope he doesn't mind if post my comments here
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Simon,
'll throw out some random thoughts:
First, for pacing, general guidance is to start slow for the first
hour or so, settle into race pace, and then if you have anything left
over, push hard in the last our or so. You can
see that you start out harder and then start to fade in loop 3 and 4
dropping from 207 watts in loop 1 to 184 watts in loop 4. The idea is
to let your heart rate settle in after the swim and then start getting
food into your system. No mention of nutrition in your e-mail, but
look to be getting in 200/300 or so calories per hour on the bike.
You should have a goal watts of 176
watts, based upon an FT of 252 (which is 70% of the number). Your
numbers where much higher. Not sure how trashed your legs were, but I
suspect your FT is probably a little low. Riding 6+ hours at an IF of
0.785 is incredibly hard to do. Have you tested lately? I'd guess
you were much closer to 270 or so, giving you goal watts around 189,
but that's just a guess.
Your VI looks pretty high, but it's very consistent through all the
loops. I would think you should be much closer to 1.10 rather than
the 1.17 you were averaging, but it could be a few things affecting
the numbers. See spinning, down below.
"Burning Matches". I did a search on segments greater than your FT of
252 that lasted over 15 seconds in length. These spikes can really
destroy your legs. You had only 4, which is excellent. They were
around 30-40 seconds. These usually occur as you power up hills and
are often running out of gears and have to push hard, just to keep
from falling off the bike. The funny thing about yours were that you
had very high cadence on all these; no hill grinding, more like spin
ups. On all of these, I would have slowed cadence to keep watts down,
or switched to a harder gear. With very little spiking of watts, I
would conclude that your bike gearing is quite good. You don't need
any more gears on your rear cassette. As an example of your spinning,
look at your WKO chart. I've highlighted the peak 5 second power (486
watts) and your still spinning at 80 rpm.
Spinning fast downhill. I've got WKO 3.0, not sure if you have this
version, but I did a scatter graph of speed versus cadence. You have a
lot of instances of high speed / high cadence. This results typically
in low power, badly skewing your VI number, and, in my opinion,
wasting energy. After you hit 30+ mph, I'd put your pedals at
9:00/3:00 position, tuck your head low to be really aero and stop
pedaling. Coast until you drop under this speed again. I've included
a link to the EN hill climbing blog.
The Total time. Don't stress about the total time. My guess is that
you will be a lot faster than 6:45 in IM SG, but get that out of your
mind and really focus on the watts and make sure you are aiming for
goal watts on flats, and long hill watts as you climb. Zero watts
over 30 mph. Stressing about time will cause you to push too hard.
If you are going 6:45, there will be a lot of 8 hour
folks. I have no idea how long it will take me.
Overall I think it was a pretty good rehearsal. I'd try to keep power
numbers within your power racing zones gears of 168 to 194. You can
see on the WKO graph, there are lots of power numbers outside the
horizontal dotted lines I've added. I'd re look at your FT numbers.
If you think it may be higher than 252, plug the new number into the
zone calculator. On your next RR, I'd pick a flatter course, go no
longer than 5.5 hours. With a flatter course, it may be easier to
practice holding the right race watts.
tom
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