I finished playing with the data from my favorite toy, and here’re the numbers and some thoughts. We’re all fairly new at racing with power, so I figured sharing would be helpful.
Remember, this was a completely hilly course; it was either up or down. The only flat spots were transitions and the troughs of the rollers.
Entire Ride:
Average Power: 190 watts
Average Power shown here includes the effect of periods of zero power, ie, coasting. This is a more accurate reflection of work and effort than an average that excludes zeros. Most SRM units report average by eliminating zeros, and some people set their Powertap Pro units to read that way. Don’t – the zeros matter. FWIW, my non-zero average power was 221 watts.
Normalized Power*: 211 watts
*see http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/defined.html for description of Normalized Power. In short, it is intended to be an estimate of what the athlete could have done if the course were flat and windless, and he/she held a constant effort instead of went up and down hills all day. 211 constant watts gets me to about 22 mph on a flat road. On a flatter course, I would aim for normalized power of closer to 220 since the ride would be shorter in duration.
Time: 3:22:09
Distance: 56.26 miles
Intensity Factor*: 88%
*IF is the ratio of this ride’s Normalized Power to my estimated “functional threshold” power, which is what I could hold in a one-hour time trial. I estimate my FT at 240 watts, based on workouts involving long intervals. My goal was to end up with IF = 90%, so I did pretty good with that. Normally, 3:22 would be too long for a 90% effort, but I only “worked” for 2:45 (which I defined as watts over 150); I coasted or soft-pedaled for 37 minutes.
Average Cadence: 81
This average does exclude zeros. My average cadence when at more than 150 watts, and less than 15 mph (ie, climbing) was 78. My average cadence when at more than 150 watts, and over 15 mph (ie, flats or slight descents) was 86. This is something I discovered the past 10 weeks. If I allow my perceived exertion to dictate cadence, while paying attention to power, I pedal faster on the flats.
So, contrary to my big post of a few months ago where I argued in favor of keeping cadence constant on climbs, I have found an advantage in allowing cadence to slow down on the climbs. My impression prior to the race was that I liked to climb about 8 rpm slower than I liked to ride on the flats. The Powertap data confirmed this exactly. I did not turn the cadence display on during the race; I chose cadence on feel alone.
However, I’ll point out that my avg. climbing cadence of 78 was still higher than most people. My gearing was 50/34 in front and 11-27 in back (12-27 cassette with an 11 on bottom). I used the 27 coming out of the lake and on a few small steeper bits. Otherwise, I was in the 19 & 21 most of the time uphill. I used the 50x11 on downhills, mostly soft-pedaling. I spent 47% of my total ride time in cogs 15-21 on the 34 ring. I was in the 24 about 4% of ride time; in the 27 about 10% of total ride time. Of note is the fact that, while I used the 27 on less than 3 miles of the course, those three miles were 10+% of my total ride time! Low gearing is important. Don’t leave home without it. More than one struggling rider looked at me and said, “What do you have back there?”
Peak 30 minutes: 235 watts average; 241 watts Normalized. This is good, since it tells me I can push pretty darned hard for a while and still have plenty of stamina left.
HR: 156 average.
My “just starting to work a bit” HR on the bike is about 148. This is “AeT” for those familiar with Gordo-speak. My HR at functional threshold (40k TT effort) is about 168.
HR ranges:
Under 150 – 19% of ride time
150 – 155: 16%
155 – 160: 30%
160 – 165: 17.5%
165 – 170: 16%
170+: 2%
So, I spent 80% of the ride over AeT, with a third of my time over 160. I think I could have gone harder.
Total Work: 2306 kJ; which translates roughly to about 2500 calories burned on the bike. I consumed 1000 calories of gels and energy drink that I brought, plus three bike bottles of Cytomax. I figure I took in about 1400 calories on the bike. It must have worked, because I didn’t tire on the run.
So, that’s the data for the datageeks. Just ask if there’s anything I left out.
). He is 160-165lbs, I’m 195.