Tim, I don’t know how you survived 100 your first time out on PC’s. I only made it 44 miles in 2:15 minutes…as you might guess, it was planned to be a 2 hour out-and-back ride. And, I’ve been on the trainer for over a month on them. Didn’t you do yours right out of the box?
I was doing OK…averaged over 20mph going out including my warm-up, rpm’s 80-85, coasting down every little hill for the rest. It still amazes me that my speed is faster uphill with PC’s even when I’m tired. Even if I’m getting tired at the end of a flat and a hill is coming up, I just stay in the gear I was in and either stay seated and motor up, or stand up and accelerate over the hill…then, I collapse into a coast for a hip flexor recovery. Where I’m slower is on the downhills (I certainly don’t pedal downhill…I use them for hip flexor/ant.tib. rest).
At one point, with a little tailwind, I was cruising along at 28 mph in top gear, sitting up, HR less than 150. Blasted by three riders like I was on a motorcycle. Every minute or so, I’d take a 15 second break, and go back to cruising. Heck, I was going faster on this section than almost any downhill. In another couple of months…well…I hope this newfound speed translates to sustainable speed…23-24 would be nice!
Still felt good at the turnaround point, then at 1:20 I hit a hip-flexor and anterior tibialis wall. I just had to stop for a while. Downed a gel and rubbed my aching anterior tibialis for a few minutes (you can get arrested in some jurisdictions for doing that in public, you know), then set out again. My rpm’s were OK for a while after every rest stop, but soon dropped to 65-70.
Tim, your 100 mile first time out ride is just freakin’ incredible. Saaaaa-lute! I certainly didn’t have another 56 in me today.
Francois, I’m aiming for 3 hours next weekend. If I can do that, I’ll try for 4 the following weekend, as you suggested. But, I’ve a sprint tri coming up March 22nd, I need to figure out what to do with all this to do well then.