Last night I reset my FTP to be 314W. Today’s race was ridden at 98% of my FTP – not bad given my legs were a little sore this morning thanks to yesterday’s race.
Today the LaTrobe City CC held their time trial championships. The race was 4 laps of a 10 k course. A beautiful length and the course was more of less flat. I was not expecting to produce any decent wattage as I would have worn my legs out yesterday, maybe 280W and hopefully a 40kph ride.
|
Segment
|
Av Speed (kph)
|
Av HR (bpm)
|
Av Power (W)
|
|
1
|
171
|
38.5
|
270
|
|
2
|
173
|
39.4
|
282
|
|
3
|
173
|
39.0
|
270
|
|
4
|
182
|
39.4
|
283
|
A very nice pacing with the power varying by a little over 10W and the HR average being pretty good until I upped the effort i the last 5km or so.
How things unfolded
I started with 3 riders ahead of me and may gun riders behind me. Everyone set off at one minute intervals.
Lap 1: I took of at a moderate speed and rode at what I considered to be a “too easy” pace. So much so I was worried those in front would get away from me and I would be passed by every one. Apparently that means I was doing it correctly.
Lap 2: I stepped up the pace immediately after crossing the line and I tried to ride at 300w where possible. In reality, the best I could do was about 280. I passed the out-marker on this lap coming down the only hill on the course.
Lap 3: It felt like I slowed down here, and the data shows that this was the case. Even so, I passed the remaining two riders before I got onto Monash Way. Riding along there up the slight incline was where I developed a mild stitch – backing off on the small descent allowed it to go away. Along the flat back section, I was sitting around 42kph and trying to maintain speed. Thanks to feeling a little tired, I was worried I would die in the ass on lap four and hemorrhage time.
Lap 4: Pretty much as soon as this lap began, my glutes felt lactatety and sore. The power was still there so yay for that. On this lap, I was out of the saddle about 5 times to try and pick up the pace while simultaneously giving my butt cheeks a little rest.
It felt a little bit like a drag along Monas way, but after I got over the hill, I was able to up the output again and was hovering around 43kph along the back section. With about 4-5k to go I figured it was time for an all out effort, so by the time I came across the line, I was riding pretty strongly and had stuff all left.
It was pleasing to not be passed. The other happy fact is I managed to spend all the time (besides the arse relief on lap 4) in TT position feeling quite comfortable and I was cornering much more confidently than I normally do on my TT bike..
Post race, had trouble sitting in car as felt like both glutes knifed.
This week is marked down as a race week. It’s a light week where I concentrate on what I am good at. Despite that, I’ll probably do a hill session early in the week. This Sunday I am riding the Baw Baw Classic for the second time (the last time was 2010). The plan will to not get dropped within the first 5km and to beat my current race time by about 20 minutes. That means I am targeting 4hr 15mins.By no means a winning time, but that’s not why I am doing this crazy ass race.
Stats for the day
CTL: 85
ATL: 103
TSB: -13
Power Stats
Average pwr: 274W
Normalised Power: 284W
Critical power (CP): 273W (97% FTP).
So, should I use today’s wattage or yesterday’s wattage as my FTP? Probably today as the ride was longer.
Intensity Factor: 1.01
TSS: 102.1
TRiMP: 126.7
More detailed stats
