On my resistance trainer: I compared 1 hour of PC riding to 1 hour of regular crank riding. I aimed for HR of 145, because I can ride for hours at that level of effort without getting fatigued. When I hit 150, I would immediately stop pedalling until my HR hit 145 at which point I’d resume pedalling. My RPM’s varied from 73-85, my speed was 18-18.5mph, with a maximum of 19 mph. I stayed on the hoods the entire time I pedalled, since I can’t stay in my aero position long enough on my PC’s.
I did the PC test first. I went 16.8 miles in one hour. I had to stop probably 15 times to let my HR drop as explained above.
Then, I changed out cranks and repeated the test, I went 18.6 miles on regular cranks. I never had to stop to let my HR drop, plus, my average rpm’s were always 83-85 on regular cranks. Those two things made the difference in mileage.
I was surprised at the results. I thought my hip flexors would have been in better condition by now (it’s been two months and 1 week, minus a little more than a week due to the flu). But, apparently, they are still the limiting factor in my average speed, although I never had to take a break because I felt my hip flexors were getting cooked.
I did a max speed test on both cranks in a 53X14, and got 40.5 mph on PC’s, but only 38mph (up from 34.5mph a couple of weeks ago) on regular cranks (on the same resistance trainer). So, I’m still “getting in my own way” at high rpm’s under load with regular cranks, but, I’m improving.
This test shows me that I should plan to race on regular cranks on March 22nd…especially because I intend to get in my good aero position as much as possible, which is not possible on PC’s, yet.
I plan on doing this test every month or two to see what happens. I also might do the test at a higher heartrate…more like my heartrate during a sprint or Olympic triathlon.
One other thing I noticed; I put regular cranks on two other times in the past couple of months, and both times, my hip flexors and anterior tibialis muscles got very fatigued…I think it was because I was overdoing the pulling phase of the pedal stroke, since I had no feedback (like you get on PC’s) to tell me how much effort I needed to put into raising the leg. This time, I had no such awkward feeling. It just felt smooth and natural. Very nice.
By the way, my PC’s are back on ready for (hopefully) my second long (greater than two hours) ride since I’ve had them. I’m a little behind where I wanted to be in terms of long rides on PC’s…Francois suggested I get up to 4 hours on them by now…just haven’t had good weather for it, and I haven’t made myself sit on a trainer that long.
Anyway, that’s what happened on the test I promised to do, for those that are interested.