This past weekend I was finally able to take my bike outside for a little run/ride time trial that I perform now and then. It was also the first time I rode outside with a power meter and I have observed a number of things that might be useful.
**Riding out of the saddle is terribly wasteful of energy. **My average watts throughout the ride was in the 280-320 range, but the few times I had to get out of the seat to “power” over a hill the reading jumped up in the 600-700 watt range. I suspect that if you do it often enough it really starts to add up. This did not surprise me since I observed a number of times on steep Tour de France climbs in the Alpes that I could climb all day as long as the gradient was not too steep. (For me about 7 percent with a 38x24) If it was too steep then the clock started ticking until meltdown inevitably occurred. Most of our bikes are way overgeared. If the typical bike comes with 53x38—11-21 or 23 (thank you so much Shimano), then most of us cannot get over hills without jamming and grinding up them. This must hurt your time at the end of a bike leg and then into the run. I would think that it would be nearly debilitating to your run at a hilly IM course like Wisconsin or Lake Placid. So called “compact” cranks answer some of the mail, but a lot of people should be on a triple for hilly courses. **** Higher power outputs (but costly ones) usually occurred at lower RPM. I generally spin at 85-95 rpm, but the huge power numbers came at 70-80 rpm. On other hills that were not as steep I could put out a fairly constant 350-450 watts at 95 rpm and not “spike” into the really high power readings. Soooooo, I would think that on hills we should keep the rpms up (thus requiring the lower gears) to save power needs for later. ****
I know that at races in the past I would maintain my high rpms up the hills, but I see now that that required a lot of power to do and probably hurt me later.
Like I said, these are just my observations/opinions.
Chad