Sunday, October 14, 2007

Fast Early Birds Ride

Another cool morning, this time out in Manorville for the Early Birds. North route, for a change. It was a fast ride but I was hanging comfortably for 95% of the ride. Got dropped on the hill on Rt. 51 and just could not jump back on to the wheel. Then, the wind was a factor and I watched the group slowly pull away, even when I was doing 27-28 on the flats.

A hard ride, but it felt good and I really didn't "blow up", just couldn't hold the wheel when the attack went. Well, there is always next week!

5 comments:

PyZahl said...

Hey, do you have any idea how much power they in front put or can put in there bikes at max... I have no clue, I felt really good, but hit somehow a wall and could not prevent being gapped almost at the top and going into the wind :-(
Not even close to my HR max at that point at all... I guess need to hit the gym even more this winter.
-PyZ

PyZahl said...

I just checked it out in detail, HR=175 at the point of trouble...:

Open this and go to time=2:36:17

I can do a HR absolute max of 191bpm, as I know just recently from the last weekend Cross race. And maintain an average of 183 for an hour or so... must be missing strength so :-(


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nickm said...

Thanks for checking out my blog! I read yours regularly.
Like you said, I think it is a matter of strength to turn the pedals into a strong wind uphill. We have done enough rides together so I know you are a strong climber! I don't know about watts (power) for the guys at the front but I know many of them are strong racers and are very good at putting in a burst of high power. For me, I think it is a matter of power-to-weight ratio. ;-}

PyZahl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PyZahl said...

Yeaahhh, some number of 5.8W/kg or more like Lance (or as recommended for the "Le Tour") would do it :-)

You can estimate this without a power meter on a good (slow moving, so aerodynamics and wind is no issue) long climb of about one mile yourself:

Try to ride at a constant effort you can maintain for a longer while climbing, then all you need to know is the time, the total elevation gain and your total weight (you and bike).

your Watts/kg is then simply:

( total weight [kg] * 9.81 [N/kg] ) * elevation gain [m] / time [s] / your weight [kg]

I tried that once a while ago and came out around 3.6:

81kg * 9.81N/kg * 59.3m / 195s / 66kg = 3.66

... was after the We nite hill ride early in the season, so I was not "fresh"...

:-)