I did a 50mile TT today and blow up horribly. I have my ergomo data with power and heartrate. I think it was probably due to going too hard at the start but have wondered if I could have avoided it my better nutrition. Is there anyway of telling?
I did my 1st 50 last year and not knowing what to expect took it easy and ended up getting faster and faster towards the end, which was a much nicer experience! This time I think I undid myself with my own higher expectations 2nd time arround. I was hoping for a sub 2hr time but ended up crawling home in 2:04. My heart rate was pretty constant - first half = 170bpm, 2nd half = 168bpm. My power however dropped considerably with about 15miles to go - I was struggling to hold the watts above 200 (averaged -242, np 248 in the end). I was pretty wobbly at the end. Nutrition wise I had some carb drink with a nuun tablet in it. One of my Team mates had 3 caffine gels at 30min intervals I wondered if I had used this stratagy if I would have been ok. Basically I am trying to work out if I need to lower my power goals for this distance, or maybe just ironout some of the peaks on the climbs a bit more or if I just need to take on more caleries.
The biggest mistakes you can make are at the beginning of a race by going too hard. Could be nutrition, but I’d wager $5 on too much power to begin too little to end
I have just been looking at my power in more detail in ergoracer - I was looking to hold around 260 watts but spent over 36mins above this including about 10mins over 300watts which i think was probably a contributing factor.
The only plus side after riding back to the HQ and downing a gel I ran ok for 45mins once I had run of the intial stiffness -only ran at a steady pace.
The biggest mistakes you can make are at the beginning of a race by going too hard. Could be nutrition, but I’d wager $5 on too much power to begin too little to end
Racing is all about laying it on the line and going for it and if you are not doing this then you are participating, not racing so I see no fault in trying to go as hard as possible for the entire race. As for the blow up, I would say that it was caused by not taking in enough nutrition.
Were you fully topped off nutritionwise before the start? How much cals did you take in during the ride? Your power meter will tell you approx. how much cal you burned during the ride. Do the energy balance.
Racing is all about laying it on the line and going for it and if you are not doing this then you are participating, not racing so I see no fault in trying to go as hard as possible for the entire race. As for the blow up, I would say that it was caused by not taking in enough nutrition.
In my most polite manner, I disagree with you 100%
It has nothing to do with his “total effort” across the race. It has to do with proper pacing so that he can get across the line in the quickest manner possible. One way to guarantee that you will not do this is to ride too hard early in the race.
With regard to the OP, I agree with Brian. It sounds like bad pacing. My experience says that poor nutrition that leads to a “bonk” will be evidenced by a much sharper decline in power combined with a very light headed “I might pass out…give me food now” kind of feeling.
If, instead, you had a more gradual decline in power combined with a feeling of just being exhausted, having buring theighs, and really sucking wind…that’s usually a result of bad pacing.
Sounds like pacing was the problem. If the problem is nutrition related, your HR would have dropped, as there would not have been enough fuel to power the effort. When the engine (you) is fuel starved, the engine cannot run as hard and the HR goes down. When the problem is pacing, you can maintain your HR, but your power drops as you exhaust your primary muscles, lose form, and start recruiting secondary muscles to power the effort.