I did hill repeats on Newport Coast Dr today. Newport Coast Dr is the local hill riders do their repeats. The grade is a little steeper at the bottom (1/8 mile) and then settles in around 6.5% grade. The hill is 1.5 miles with 450 feet of gain. On one of my repeats (last one) I was feeling pretty good so I “punched it”. My goal was to hold 310Watts – 320 Watts (held 314W). I thought I had PR’d (Personal Record) but in fact I was about 5 seconds slower. As many of you know my hard drive on my PC is not working so I have to set all new benchmarks. It turns out that 7:26 to climb the hill is actually 5 seconds slower than my actual PR.
The climb was a solo effort. I believe I am capable of a faster time if I was with a group of riders. I am hopeful that I will best the 7:21 PR in the coming months.
Today’s weight 149.5 lbs or 67.81 kg
314 W divided by 67.81kg = 4.63 w/kg
Here is my new 5 min peak power since I don’t have any historical data anymore.
I just recently had my hard drive crash on my home PC. Ok Mac users I’m leaving it wide open for you to tease me. Anyway, I have lost all my power files for the last 5 years- a travesty I know. So I’m starting with new power data and today on the “Friday Ride” I hit my new 20 minute peak power number.
Normalized Power 277 watts
Today’s Weight 147.5 lbs or 66.90 kg
4.14 w/kg for 20 minutes
I had a good day on the bike. The last half of August and September is about intensity as I peak for Furnace Creek 508. I did Food Park for the first time. There were a few sketchy riders and they ran a few stops signs in the residential area. In my opinion, the right turns on red were questionable as well. I do have concerns about the overall safety of this ride. I am a huge proponent of safety on the bike. When riding alone I stop at EVERY stop sign and every light. I have an internal conflict with the way groups ride in urban areas. On one hand, I don’t want to be unsafe and on the other I don’t want to get dropped or cause a crash if I’m the only one stopping at a traffic control. I guess that’s why most weekends you can find me riding solo in the mountains.
As an Ultra cyclist I don’t ride in packs. Many of my races break up pretty early and the other races are non-drafting. I felt my pack riding skills were fine. In other words I felt comfortable and not the sketchy rider people had to yell at — “hold your line!”. My sixth sense for the flow of the pack was spot-on. I didn’t miss a thing. I ignored many attacks that I sensed wouldn’t amount to much but wasted energy.
What helped the most was marking Jason Bausch the whole ride. His experience helped me make efforts at the right times and conserve at others. Even when attacks went up the road he was steady. I learned a lot from him today.
JB was gracious enough to take a picture with me. I took the picture for my son. My not quite 5 year old son has been watching the Hard Road DVD for about 1 1/2 years. He loves the soundtrack and always remembers the roll call of the teams– Mercury seems to stick out for some reason.
After my shower and my recovery meal it was time to put on my Skins Travel and Recovery tights. I’m planning on doing Como Street tomorrow. A fast recovery and fresh legs will be necessary to keep up with those boys.
TRAINING PEAKS SCREEN SHOT OF MY POWER TAP DOWNLOAD– 534 WATTS FOR ONE MINUTE
149LBS OR 67.59 kg my
7.90 w/kg for one minute a new PR.
After looking at the graph I am quite sure that my 1 min number would actually be higher than 534 depending on the situation. I remember distinctly what happened. There was an attack which I didn’t follow so I surged but backed off. Then I saw JB go and that was the right time to go. As you can see there was
an initial surge to 672 watts
then a pull back down to 240 watts
then another surge up to 885 watts with 10 sec avg at 743 watts
then the last 30 secs (when I should’ve been fading) I still put out a 553 avg.
ALSO HAD A MAX SPRINT OF 1077 WATTS OR 15.93 w/kg and a 5 sec of 995 watts or 14.72 w/kg good for mid cat four on the Power Profile chart.
George's Epic Adventures 