Slowman Epic Ride Report

Triathlon Forum
1

I had a chance to ride yesterday with Slowman, pooks, Mike Plumb, Ves Mandaric and a few others whose screen names I don’t know (and one particularly astonishing young person who needs a screen name).

The details (according to the Powertap computer and CyclingPeaks):

Distance: 106 miles (my third-longest ride ever, the other two being Lake Placid and the Death Ride)

Terrain: Hilly as a mofo. Hot and windy, too. I’m guessing 9,000 feet of climbing…?

My Avg. Power: 148 watts

My Normalized Avg. Power: 186 watts

Intensity Factor: 0.79 (ratio of Normalized Power to est. 40K TT power; smack in the middle of the “endurance-paced ride” zone. Not too hard, not too easy. A Goldilocks ride.)

Variability Index: 1.26 (ratio of Normalized to Average. The highest I have ever recorded, reflecting the terrain)

Highest 20-minutes power: 240 watts (that was a *hard *climb)

Highest 60-minutes power: 213 watts (so was that one, and I got tired)

Highest 1-minute power: 308 watts (and Ves still nipped me at the top of that little hill)

Training Stress Score: 391 (meaning “some residual fatigue may be present even after 2 days”). I’m putting my long run off until tomorrow.

Notes: All of the other guys on the ride (and maybe the girls, too) put out higher power than me. Particular props go to Mike Plumb, pooks and Slowman for some heroic pulls into the headwinds on the way home.

And, a special “What the fu…?” goes to Mike Plumb for jumping to the front of the line 4 miles from home and cranking it up to some ungodly pace for no goddamn reason whatsoever! I bailed after holding 270 watts for about a minute and cruised home. That guy can hammer.

2

Yup, that was a fun ride. Much better than a day at the office. I’m pretty beat though and my shoulders are pretty damn sunburned. Big props to the ladies on the ride. They started out strong and finished stronger. On the climb out of Rincon they dropped Slowman and me like a bag of dirt.

Riding with Ves was certainly a treat. He just shows up and yells at everybody. “Slow down you Damn Guy!” “Thees fcking guy…" “That god-damned thing.” "That fcking guy.” “He’s just a stupeed f*cking guy…” I was laughing my ass off.

3

What do you mean by Average Power as opposed to Normalized Average Power?

What do you think this would translate to in terms of a Lake Placid IM bike split?

4

…for the next ride. I’m always interested in doing stuff like this. rich@cruciblefitness.com

FYI, on May 23rd I’m probably going to fire up Adam’s Crazy Ass Ride: 134 miles with 14,200 feet of climbing.

Route: Monrovia to Hwy 2/Angeles Crest. You will climb 8500+ feet in 57 miles. Descend Hwy 39 to East Fork Rd. EF to Glendora Mtn Road, then left on Glendora Ridge Road to Mt. Baldy Village. At this point you’re at about 95 miles with…about 12k of climbing. We then make a VERY fateful left turn and climb to the Mt. Baldy ski lifts. This 5 mile stretch took me 40-50’ to climb, at 8-20% grade. At the lifts you are at 100 miles and 13-14k of gain. Descend Mt. Baldy to Baseline for a fast paceline back to Monrovia.

There are 3 bail out points along the route for shorter rides.

Jaylew did this with us last year but wasn’t able to join us for the second half.

Thoughts? :slight_smile:

6

I haven’t been up to the intersection since last August. As the road isn’t maintained, you can expect lose rocks and shale. When we descend we stay together, carry spare tubes and a spare tire.

You live in Pasadena, right? TC is having dinner Saturday night at Twin Palms. Feel free to stop by and have a drink or two. Also meeting at the Bowl at 7am Saturday for a ride to Encanto Park in Duarte for a group riding clinic, then about 60+ of additional riding.

Cheers,

7

truely an epic ride with all the right ingredients. Good company, plenty of hills, and 80 - 90 degree tempertures. Believe it or not, that was my first ride over 50 miles since last October. I was having a good day though, a very good day!

8

What do you mean by Average Power as opposed to Normalized Average Power?

What do you think this would translate to in terms of a Lake Placid IM bike split?

The best way to understand Normalized Power is to read this:

http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/defined.html

The concept is that simple mean power can be misleading (as on this ride). With such a wide variety of effort, simple mean does not always reflect the stress we are under. A ride done 50% at easy and downhill effort and 50% at all-out, tongue dragging effort is a lot harder than a ride done at the average of the two. Normalized power is an adjustment to the actual power readings that gives greater weight to the hard parts, and lesser weight to the easy parts. Developed by Andrew Coggan.

In my example, the excercise stress I experienced was “as if” I had done a 6:16 ride on a dead-flat course at 186 watts of steady output. And no, I could not have run a marathon after! Maybe a 10k.

As for what that ride might indicate for Lake Placid…hard to say. It was so relentlessly hilly, and I so relentlessy sucked wheel on the flats, that it was far from a “race simulation” ride. There is no way I could do an IM at 186 watts and still run afterwards – I did the climbs yesterday at my upper limit of 210-220 sustained watts. I would not/could not do IM climbing at that power level. I also did long flat bits at well under 150 watts because I was drafting off the big guns.

But, I’m pretty sure I could average 160 or so in an IM, with something like 150 on the flats and 175 on the climbs. Maybe a little over 6 hours at LP…?

9

Many thanks. So do this mean I should sign up the day after the race?

10

Julian wrote: “It was so relentlessly hilly, and I so relentlessy sucked wheel on the flats”

That is one of the best, funniest and most honest comments I’ve seen around here in a while. Classic!

Remember the scene in “Jaws” where Sheriff Brody first sees the shark? He says, “I think you’re going to need a bigger boat.” Well, Mr. Plumb showed up at the TCSD ride on Tuesday and my first thought was, “I think I’m going to need a faster bike!” I’m always amazed at how that guy can ride! There were no “girls” on this ride to dilute the testosterone, either, so it was a hammer fest.

Wish I could have ditched work for a 6+ hour ride. I was lucky to get in a swim before work and a quick run at lunch. Today, I “missed” my planned morning swim and couldn’t get away for the planned hill repeats this afternoon. Perhaps a ride on the trainer tonight? Nah, I’ve got a little Guinness to finish up!

  • Ken
11

haha, I needed to get in shape for the Wednesday ride, so I showed up for the little hammerfest club ride on Tuesday. You can always tell for sure, if I show up with the tri bike, that bike is not allowed to go easy, I have to unleash it and let it run every once in a while.

In all seriousness, I am trying to get into early season shape since I have a duathlon this weekend in Santa Cruz and then Powerman Alabama next weekend. Sorry to have to unleash all this early season form on you guys.

12

“Sorry to have to unleash all this early season form on you guys.”

Whoa!! Settle down there, big cat! You were noticeably absent from the club race last weekend. (I know, 10k. Yada, yada, yada…) Where was the big hurt then? Besides, some of were saving ourselves for some real hill climbing in Borrego Springs this weekend. BTW Mike, I can’t help but notice that water is conspicuously absent from your schedule. Got a phobia or something??

(Sure, I’ll talk trash. And don’t think you can just fire back with the fact that I can’t run or that I almost passed out 3 different times yesterday…)

13

I’ll have you know that I have already been in the pool twice this year, Del Mar twice and LaJolla Cove three times. Once I get past Powerman, the swim training will begin in earnst. I am even planning a mega swim week at the end of April. Easy to say right now, we’ll see come April though.

14

Many thanks. So do this mean I should sign up the day after the race?

Sign *me *up? Sheesh, no way. I need to bump up one more AG before I go back there. :wink:

I’m gonna do an IM close to home one time and then go back to LP. I think I’m doing Vineman without the swim (ie, relay) this fall. One goal, and one goal only: Run the whole run. However slow I have to ride, I’m gonna do it to see if it is humanly possible for me to run the whole 26.2. That 5-1/2 hour hike I did at LP in 02 was not what I had in mind.

15

Now I am jealous 'cause you guys are outside complaining of sunburn and we’re still stuck here inside in Chicago…!!!

Still waiting to hear from slowman about my clothing order…not to change the subject. Emailed and sent a PM to him twice now for help.

Julian can you also provide average MPH on your long ride the other day? thanks

16

average speed was 17mph, 106 miles in 6:13, with 6421 feet of climbing according to the Polar.