I did a quick warm up and saw Jim Behrens was out on the course riding in the opposite direction. The TT will start officially next Thursday (May 14).
My strategy for this effort was to push as hard as possible on the second, uphill leg of the course to try to steal some time from my season best 21:03, but more importantly, to increase my average power output for the effort closer to 400W.
I started out with a manageable pace. The tailwind on the outbound leg provided a little boost, I did a few out of the saddle efforts over the slightly steeper rises to boost the speed. I held back a little so I could push harder on the climb toward the turnaround. I took the corner fast, and pushed as hard as I could up the first section of the climb. The power meter was reading between 375 and 400W. That's about as hard as I can go and I could feel my brain starting to melt. On the second false flat section of the climb, I struggled to keep pushing at that pace, but by the climb before the turn I was able to get out of the saddle and sprint over the top.
I rolled through the turn around, then started ramping back up toward 350-400W for the return leg. I wasn't feeling the west wind until I got to the turn, then it was a real struggle on the way back in.
Over the last mile, I thought I had a chance to finally crack 21 minutes, and started pushing as hard as possible using the waltz technique, and shut the power display off. Reviewing the file, I kept it well over 400W and 25 mph in spite of the headwind. Once the finish line was in sight, I tried to accelerate all the way to the finish, but cracked about 50m before the line. I posted a 21:19 time and 353W average!
My calculated power output from the tackle the tower climb was 384W, but that was only 6 minutes. I'd like to post a 400W average for the Leroy course before the end of the season, so I'm on track.
I am starting to think about investing in a new power meter. The ibike works pretty well, but I'm always skeptical of good results!
No comments:
Post a Comment